I have been hearing the praises of Parker pens for a long time now, but until recently I had only experienced their ballpoint pens. I have to admit that I have been less than impressed by them, the ballpoints that I have purchased seemed cheaply made and wrote no better than the average Bic, but at a much higher price. Still, I believed that with as many supporters as Parker has that they had to have some good pens out there. I had read some pretty bad reviews of the Sonnett and was about to write the whole company off (no pun intended) until I came across the Parker Lattitude Fountain Pen. The Lattitude has a great design and the price tag on the stainless steel model seemed fair enough to give the pen a try.

The Lattitude in stainless steel with chrome accents is a no nonsense design which appeals to my simple taste in pens. I prefer something that makes the pen look sleek and business like without being boring, the Lattitude has managed to do that quite well. The overall design is bright without being flashy and sturdy looking without being too industrial.

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The weight of the pen is quite light in spite of it's steel construction and some what hefty appearance, in fact it's light weight borders on feeling flimsy. This was my big complaint about Parker's ballpoints. They seemed sturdy until you took one in hand at which point they felt cheap and flimsy. The Lattitude almost feels plastic, but with the cap weight, especially posted, adding to the heft it manages to skirt this feel without actually falling off the quality train. Fans of lightweight pens will be happy wih this one.

The cap is well designed and has a very functional clip which is flexable enough to fit most pockets, but sturdy enough to cause no worries. The cap posts well and adds to the balance of the pen while writing. When put away the cap snaps down with a satisfying click and stays in place with no signs of give or movement.

The Lattitude uses either Parker cartridges or the supplied converter. The converter is a plunger style converter with a little ball bearing inside to insure continued excellent ink flow. While the sound of the ball bearing can occasionally be distracting I was highly impressed with this style of converter and even ended up ordering three more converters for a few of my other pens. The sliding plunger is a nice change from the usually boring twist style piston converters.

The nib on the Lattitude is an unusual rounded leaf tip looking design with a smooth undeside to disguise the comb feed. The nib writes smoothly and puts out a nice sized medium line without either being too wet or too dry. I enjoy writing with this pen and have had zero issues with either ink flow or scratchiness. Even after sitting for a few days this pen starts right up.

Over all the Parker Lattitude is an excellent pen with a unique and inovative design. It was nice to see some small, but noticable departures from the usual fountain pen design in this pen. After having used the Lattitude I have completely changed my take on the Parker company, while I am still hesitant to buy a Parker I have to admit that a company that could make a pen like the Lattitude has got to have some other really great pens out there. I highly recomend the Parker Lattitude.

I love my Lattitude. Thanks for the pictures and review.

The only things I take issue with, that you didn't mention, is the terribly small converter capacity and the cheap look of the nib (in my opinion). The pen is empty in one day of average note-taking for me, so I use my other pens that last at least 3 days. I don't think any other converters fit this pen, so I'm stuck with the low capacity.

Thanks for the review. Nice description and representation of the Latitude.

I also have one of these pens, and although it's not inked up right now, I do like the way it writes, as well as the the way it looks. I noticed the low capacity of the slide converters, and found that I can fill it to the brim if I fill the converter directly from the bottle, as opposed to pulling the ink through the nib. Also, I think that the twist-style Parker converter actually has slightly more capacity than the slide one, but not by a huge amount. The low capacity doesn't bother me too much though, because I like changing my ink colors pretty frequently, and I'm somewhat neurotic about making my pen(s) du jour have enough ink in them to get me through the day.

I've had a Latitude for a few months, and I thought I'd put in my two cents.

After a rather short time not being used (a minute uncapped, a couple capped), I have had trouble getting the ink to start flowing again. After a few days, I usually end up dipping the nib to start the ink flowing again. Once the ink starts flowing, it flows more wet than I like. My medium nib has a rather broad feel, and because of the wetness, it runs out of ink quickly, as JSorrell mentioned. I don't write much and can usually get a week out of a short international cartridge with other pens, but even the large Parker carts run out on me after just a day or two. I personally prefer a long, thin, heavy-ish pen, and I've been much happier with my $20 Diplomat Courier (www.mydiplomatpen.com).

hi jabberwock, thanx for the review and pics!
i always thought of getting this one but i finally decided to get the lower end sonnet from isellpens (No Aff.) i do like parker, specially vintage, but i'm happy with my sonnet and my frontier (which is the smoothest steel nib i own). one of this days i'll get the lattitud... i already have the BP!!
thanx again for the review!

PS. i like the stainless steel model way more than the matte finish ones!!!!!!!

Thanks for the great review of the Parker Latitude. I picked up a Parker Latitude Rollerball at Office Depot on sale last November for about 20.00 and really enjoyed writing with it. I liked it so much that I went ahead and purchased a Parker Latitude fountain pen off ebay and have been hooked on fountain pens ever since.

Essentially, the Parker Latitude was the pen that got me involved in the Fountain Pen world. The pen puts down a nice wet line and writes beautifully. I have found that the nib is also somewhat pressure sensitive and will put down a thicker/thinner line depending how hard you press down on the paper. I agree with those that feel the ink capacity is a little low, but this to me is well worth dealing with, considering how much enjoyment I get writing with this pen. Additionally, the low ink capacity gives me an opportunity to refill with different inks frequently before work the next day. The Latitude doesn't seem to be too picky with the type of paper you use either. Again, thanks for the great review and for providing much needed attention to a pen I don't see mentioned very often.