Finally, if the Bic Cristal interests you from a design or historical perspective, both Philip Hensher's The Missing Inkand James Ward's The Perfection of the Paper Clipdiscuss the history and development of the Bic ballpoint pen in some detail (as well as diving deep into other aspects of stationery minutiae). I highly recommend both books. As I mentioned, the 1.0mm medium point will probably give you the smoothest writing experience, and is generally my recommended starting point. For editing and annotation (or if you just write really small), the “Xtra Precision” needle-tip pens are fantastic. If you write large, there's even an "Xtra Bold" 1.6mm version, though I've not tried them. However, hope springs eternal, and I keep buying and trying these types of pens. I want to like them, but somehow they never seemed quite right. Until now. From Gel Pens to Highlighters, we’ve got all the writing essentials for your desktop in our Writingrange, all available today on next day delivery from Staples.

For a few years now, pen manufacturers have been making broader pen points than 1.0 mm, which for a long time used to be the most standard nib size (I am guessing) commonly available. Of these larger sizes that started appearing in the stores, 1.4 mm and 1.6 mm seem to be the most common. (I don't recall ever seeing a 1.2 mm nib. Do they exist? Would they be that much different from 1.0 to be able to tell any difference at all? Inquiring minds, etc. etc.) I would look at these pens and think, "Who in the world would want to write with that chunky thing?" And then I would buy them. And try them. And generally not care for them, so the answer to my question would be, "Not me, obviously." I like bics but all of these 1.6mm I bought(over 30) leak likr a sive.They were going to my sisters grade 3 class but had to toss the lot.two thumbs down