The principle of writing with a broad or flat edged pen is simple. You can think of it as dragging a line of a consistent length and angle along a path. The direction the line is moving along the path determines the thickness of the stroke. It is the relationship between thick and thin strokes that give letterforms their beauty and character.

Before Pilot Parallel pens, there have been basically three types of broad edged pen; metal nibbed pens that you apply ink to by dipping into a jar or with a brush, synthetic markers, and a fountain pens. The Pilot Parallel pen takes an innovative approach to flat pen design that combines the best aspects of all three of the above.

Metal nibbed pens give you wonderful and consistently sharp thins. But they have to constantly be dipped or brushed with ink to refill them—interrupting your writing. You also cannot write with too much speed because the flow of ink usually can’t keep up with quicker movements across the paper. Synthetic markers are great for quick jobs. You don’t have to fill them and they can write fast. However the felt nib wears down and they dry up with time and must be disposed of. Fountain pens don’t have to be filled but again, the ink usually doesn’t flow fast enough for quicker movements causing gaps in swiftly made strokes.

the Pilot Parallel Pen solves these issues by using an ink cartridge and sandwiching the ink flowing down through the nib between two parallel metal plates.

The result is a pen with liquid ink that lays down rich, solid strokes with sharp thins that has no problem making a fast, gestural flourish—all this in a continuous flow without the interruption of having to dip.

Ink cartridges are available in 11 colors plus black. If you hold the nibs of two pens filled with different colors together for a short time, you can create cool color gradations as you write.

Another useful feature of the pens is that you can rock them back onto their corner and use the corner to write in a thin mono-line. I frequently use this technique to add thin serifs to letters, to end a stroke in a thin flourish, or just to letter in a mono-line style.

There is only one negative aspect of the Parallel Pen design that I can think of and it’s small in relation to all the other advantages. Because of the pen’s parallel plate design, the nib could not be split like a traditional metal broad-nib pen. A nib that is split flexes when pressure is applied which, when controlled, produces more attractive strokes with subtle variations in thickness.

When I taught a introduction to lettering and type design at The University of Kansas, I required the students to use Parallel pens for our first font, a broad-edge based type design. I knew the pen’s ease of use would make it easier for the students to focus on the letterforms rather than what the pen is doing. But it’s not just for beginners. Professional lettering artists at Hallmark Cards love Parallel Pens and use them regularly. These two instances illustrate the pen’s versatility
and show that they are a fantastic tool for everyone from beginner to pro.

Pilot Parallel Pens at JetPens.com