The signature tool
Nib & ink finder
Fountain pens aren’t bought by spec — they’re matched to a hand. Answer eight quick questions and the desk hands back a nib profile, an ink pairing matched to your paper, and the pens that carry it.
Your result · re-scored instantly as you refine
Your nib profile
Japanese Fine
Western EF · Japanese F · round · ≈ 0.4 mm
The finest reliable everyday line in production. Small writing stays legible, cheap paper stays clean, and less ink down means faster dry times.
- small handwriting
- office paper
- annotation
- fast writers
Matched inks
A disciplined blue-black
Diamine (80 ml)
Professional on the page, forgiving on copy paper, cheap enough to refill without ceremony. The working ink.
Noodler’s Bulletproof Black
Noodler’s
Permanent where it counts — checks, addresses, contract margins — in a bottle sized for daily writers.
Pens carrying this nib
Pilot Metropolitan
cartridge/converter (included)
Brass body, sub-$25 price, a nib that embarrasses pens at four times the money. The office-safe starter.
Platinum Preppy
cartridge (eyedropper-hackable)
The $7 proof that a good nib doesn’t need a good suit. Sealed cap survives months of neglect.
Pilot Kakuno
cartridge/converter
Featherweight hexagon with a smiley nib that sets your angle right. Built for young and light hands.
This result lives at the URL above — copy it to share or revisit.
Worked examples
Three common writers, run through the finder and explained end to end.
Nib sizing, answered
What nib size should a beginner get?
A Western fine or a Japanese medium — both lay roughly a 0.5–0.6 mm line: smooth enough to enjoy, restrained enough to behave on ordinary paper and small handwriting. The finder tunes this to your specific hand, paper, and speed.
Why does a Japanese Fine write like a Western Extra-Fine?
The two sizing traditions differ by about one step because kanji rewards finer lines. A Pilot F writes close to a Lamy EF. The finder always reports both so you order the right line the first time.
Does the finder account for cheap office paper?
Yes — paper is a question, and it changes both the nib and the ink. Tell it you write on copy paper and it steers toward finer nibs and better-behaved, faster-drying inks that won’t feather, and away from wet broad nibs and heavy sheeners.
Can I share or revisit my result?
Every result encodes into the page URL. Copy the link to share it or come back to it later — the same answers always reproduce the same nib, ink, and pen recommendations.