I have been looking for ways to reasonably measure the thickness of lines drawn by nibs. I wrote a simple Postscript macro to draw lines of some standard widths and printed it out.

Using a loupe and this set of "calibration" lines, I can now approximately measure the thickness of lines drawn by some of my pens. This is just an fun experiment, you are welcome to improvise.

Of course, thickness varies with the choice of ink, paper (both for writing and printing), etc., but with a decent quality paper, I expect some consistent results.

I am attaching the PDF document that I generated.

What do you all think ?

Desirider.

Updated PDF file with more lines.

Hi Desirider,

Would it upset you too much if you found out such a thing had already been done?

Binder had one, and there was another one from pentrace vintage. Both are attached (I hope)

And the other one.

I did download yours too!

Ah! Lot more comprehensive!!

Thanks Kendall.

Desirider.

It is a phenomenal idea though

As I posted elsewhere, I recently bought a Peak 22x loupe and I had to find a good use for it

Desirider.

Alternatively, I use a 20x loupe and a pair of calipers that are always in my desk drawer.

In my opinion, one can't have too many line-width guides...it joined Mr. B's in my reference notebook last week. Thanks.