Ask Lemmy

smooth ballpoint

I bet they're a "rollerball" pen rather than a ballpoint. Those move a lot more-readily than ballpoints, kinda glide.

kagis

Yeah.

https://www.amazon.com/R-2-0-7-Roller-Ball-Pens/dp/B004B7RLWS

They're rollerball pens.

Lots of different pen manufacturers make those. Sometimes you'll see gel rollerball pens sold as "gel pens". If you want an even smoother movement and can live with thicker lines, you can get a broader tip -- those have even less resistance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollerball_pen

Roller ball pens or roll pens are pens which use ball point writing mechanisms with water-based liquid or gelled ink, as opposed to the oil-based viscous inks found in ballpoint pens. These less viscous inks, which tend to saturate more deeply and more widely into paper than other types of ink, give roller ball pens their distinctive writing qualities. The writing point is a tiny ball, usually 0.5 or 0.7 mm in diameter, that transfers the ink from the reservoir onto the paper as the pen moves.

In comparison to ballpoint pens,

• Rollerball pens have a unique ink flow system for an even, high-performance writing experience.

• Less pressure needs to be applied to the pen to have it write cleanly. This permits holding the pen with less stress on the hand, saving energy and improving comfort. This can also translate to quicker writing speeds. This is especially true of liquid ink pens.

• Their inks usually have a greater range of colors due to the wider choice of suitable water-soluble dyes and/or to the use of pigments.

• They tend to write more clearly than ballpoint pens do.

There are a number of disadvantages inherent to roller ball pens:

• Roller ball pens with liquid-ink are more likely to "bleed" through the paper. Liquid ink is more readily absorbed into the paper due to its lower viscosity. This viscosity also causes problems when leaving the tip on the paper. The bleed-through effect is greatly increased as the ink is continually absorbed into the paper, creating a blotch. This does not affect gel-ink roller ball pens as much. This is one way through which the thickness of gel-ink gives it an advantage, in that it isn't as prone to being absorbed. Though the bleed-through effect of a gel-ink roller ball is greater than that of a ballpoint, it is usually not too significant.

• Roller ball pens generally run out of ink more quickly than ballpoints because roller balls use a greater amount of ink while writing. This is especially true of liquid-ink roller balls, due to gel ink having a low absorption rate as a result of its thickness. Neither lasts as long as a ballpoint.

• Uncapped roller ball pens are more likely to leak ink when, for example, placed into a shirt pocket, but most pens include caps or other mechanisms to prevent this from happening.

• A roller ball tip is more likely to clog and jam when writing over correction fluid that has not yet completely dried. This often renders the ink cartridge useless.

The WP article doesn't mention it, but rollerballs also don't work well with carbon paper, as you don't need to push hard enough to create an impression from the carbon paper the way you do with a ballpoint. But as long as that isn't an issue for your application...shrug