Glossary
Japanese vs Western sizing
Japanese nibs run about one size finer.
The two sizing traditions disagree by roughly one step: a Japanese F (Pilot, Sailor, Platinum) lays a line close to a Western EF (Lamy, Pelikan, TWSBI). The gap traces to kanji — dense character sets reward finer lines.
It is the most financially useful fact in the hobby: order a Japanese M when you want a Western F’s line and you will buy the right pen the first time.
Related terms
