Preferred Nib Size For Personal Diary Writing

[Stowford]

I have always used an italic for personal diary writing. I used to use a Lamy 1.1, but recently changed to my Parson's Essential medium italic. It is just slightly broader, but extremely smooth and I like the look of the page after I write. What is your preferred nib size for personal diary writing?

[Frank C]

I keep a journal with notes on all my pens as I fill them with ink. Therefore, I use every size nib imaginable.

[Hector67]

Fine or medium

[BillZ]

I try to use all of my pens when journaling. Most of them are EF F or M. I don't have a special pen for journaling.

[Paddler]

I usually use a medium round-pointed dip pen and India ink. If I write a story related to the particular journal's topic, I use a medium cursive italic Platignum with a colored bulletproof ink.

 

For instance, I keep a journal of all of the musical events I participate in. Each of those gets its own description in India ink. If I write a story on a related topic (having an instrument repaired, say), it goes in with the cursive italic pen and Upper Ganges Blue. The book's curse gets Fox Red.

[Elana]

I like to pack the pages of my diary with my small and loopy handwriting, so I use a Pilot Prera medium nib (it runs quite fine).

[tinta]

I generally use stubs & occasionally cursive italics (in the 0.8 mm. to 1.1 mm. width range) for my daily writing tasks. A round-nose 0.6 mm. cursive italic goes with me on trips.

[Oldtimer]

Italic nibs. So beautiful and controlled. I rather love my 1.1mm TWBI mini. Practical, short, reliable.

Edited May 11, 2015 by Oldtimer

[HDoug]

I use a .5mm cursive italic for the text, but have taken to writing the date with a 1.1 mm italic on a Lamy Safari. The original italic nib wasn't quite crisp enough so I sharpened it and it's quite nice now. I have the pen loaded with De Atramentis Document Red so the date stands out in case I'm trying to find a particular date.

 

Doug

[PortiaDaCosta]

I've been using a mix of ink colours and nibs for journaling, mainly mediums, but in the last few days I've discovered italic nibs, and now I'm in love! My handwriting is very bad after years of mostly wordprocessing, but an italic nib seems to help me write more neatly, somehow.

 

I've been using a Pilot Plumix [Woodland Green] and a Pilot Pluminix [Noodlers Eel Cactus Fruit], both medium italic, and just this morning I received a Lamy Joy with a 1.1 italic, which is really smooth and a pleasure to write with, especially with PR Electric DC Blue.

 

I've ordered replacement italic and stub nibs for a variety of my pens, to indulge this brand new passion!

[sandy101]

I use medium nibs. The broad is too thick and the fine not as comfortable. Also I like shading and sheen and a fine line doesn't apply enough ink to fully appreciate the properties of those inks.

[pajaro]

Extra fine or a broad italic.

[delano]

It depends on the pen (nib): on my Platinum I'll use a medium; on the Lamy, a fine. They seem to me about the same. Occasionally I'll use a super flexible nib on my 1920s Wahl Eversharp.

[PAKMAN]

Went from x-fine to fine and now mostly fine to medium for my journal.

[Manalto]

The book's curse gets Fox Red.

 

I'm intrigued; what's a "book's curse"?

[Dronak]

I generally buy fountain pens with medium nibs, so I typically use a medium nib for all my writing. Part of my choice is because a medium nib seems like a relatively safe choice -- if it runs a little fine or a little broad, it usually won't be much of an issue. I think my handwriting is on the smaller side, so I tend to avoid broader nibs, and I like my fountain pens' lines to have a bit of width to them, so I don't usually get finer nibs.

[ac12]

I thought I made a post...or I'm just getting old and forgetful.

 

Note that I have Asian (Japanese and Chinese), old US (Parker, Sheaffer and Esterbrook), and current Western (Lamy, Pelikan, TWSBI). As a result a F nib for one brand does not put down the same ink line as a F nib from another brand.

 

I tend to prefer old US Parker F nibs. However, in my journal, I use anything and everything that I have, XF-F-M-B-1.1.

Because I only have one 1.1 nib inked up, the round tips get used more simply because of the the numbers. I also rotate pens, and will use whatever nib is on the pen.

In my wide ruled journal notebooks, I tend to write with F and M nibs, partly because I have mostly F and M nibs, but mostly because the M nib looks good in the wide ruled spacing.

On the narrower college ruled paper, it would probably be the narrower XF and F nibs. Again driven by the line spacing and how the ink line looks in that spacing.

 

The wide ruled paper can handle the B and 1.1 nibs, but I have to space things out more. I am not comfortable with a B nib, so it rarely gets used. The 1.1 is different, because of its CI nature. It give me line variation without the work of a flex nib. But since I have more round tip pens, this pen does not get used as much.

 

Color has an effect on the nib size. I use red ink in my XF/F nib pen, otherwise with a wider nib, it would be too intense on my eyes.

I don't use lighter colors in XF nib, blues look washed out and faded. Better are black and DARK colors.

 

Finally, I will sometimes pull out my flex nibs. Some times it will be a fountain pen, other times it will be a dip pen. I find it much easier to do flex writing with a dip pen in an oblique holder.

 

How's that for a complicated answer, that says essentially, anything and everything.

[Manalto]

Medium

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I don't actually exclude any of my nibs, but for a long session of writing in my journal, prefer some sort of fine.

[JimCouch]

While I will use any of my pens for journal writing (I have everything from XF to a stubbed broad) I prefer medium. My medium nibbed pens just flow across the page and lay down the ink so well while still keeping a nice moderate sized line.