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'Rollerball' can refer to pens with liquid or gel ink, normally dispensed by a smooth ball.
Unlike a ballpoint pen, which uses paste ink, a liquid ink rollerball doesn't require any pressure to get the ink to flow. As soon as the tip touches the paper, ink can flow. Pressing harder will normally give a broader line. The ball itself is smooth - coupled with the lack of pressure needed, this makes the whole writing experience smooth and easy.
Rollerballs are often seen as a cross between a fountain pen and a ballpoint - the smoothness and ink type of a fountain pen, with the convenience of a ballpoint.
If it all sounds a bit too perfect, there are a couple of small disadvantages. Rollerballs don't always work on shiny surfaces like birthday cards; and liquid ink can be relatively slow to dry, leading to the risk of smudging. This can be more of a problem for left-handed people, if your hand rubs over your writing.
The Uni-ball Vision Elite is a great all-round pen, with a good range of colours, and refillable in black, blue and red. Pilot V-System rollerball pens are hugely popular - including the iconic V5 needle-point roller. There are a huge number of high quality refillable luxury rollerballs from lots of manufacturers, and Lamy even have a couple of retractable rollerballs: the Tipo and the Swift. For a distinctly different writing feel, try OHTO ceramic-tip roller refills. As fitted to most OHTO rollerballs, the ceramic ball gives extra bite to the writing feel.
Gel-ink rollerballs have a fairly similar feel to liquid-ink rollerballs, but do normally require a little pressure to get the ink flowing. They tend to give a more consistent line width, dry a little quicker, and can hold pigment, or even particles for metallic or sparkling effects.
Are gel pens also rollerball pens?
Yes, sort of. The term ‘rollerball’ is often applied to both, and a gel pen is a rollerball pen with gel ink in it. But we tend to keep them separate, so ‘rollerball’ usually means a rollerball pen with liquid ink.
If you want to be specific about it, ‘liquid-ink rollerball’ is a good term to specify.
What sort of ink is in a rollerball pen?
Liquid ink, usually very similar to fountain pen ink. There are some rollerballs that can be refilled with fountain pen ink.
What’s the difference between a rollerball pen and a ballpoint pen?
They look very similar, but there are some important differences. Even the ball itself is quite different. Ballpoints have a rough ball, that pulls the thick paste ink around to transfer it to the paper. Rollerball balls are smooth, and just allow the liquid ink to flow around them when they touch the paper. The result is a much smoother feel than a ballpoint, but they sometimes won’t write on surfaces a ballpoint will, sometimes making a mess on birthday cards. The balls can be shiny metal, but some also use ceramic balls.
How does a rollerball pen compare to a fountain pen?
They’re surprisingly similar in a few ways. The ink is very similar, and they both have a very smooth feeling on the paper. In general, a fountain pen can be smoother, and with bottled ink, can give far more choices of ink, and be cheaper to use. But a rollerball brings a lot of the convenience that made ballpoint pens so popular, while retaining some nice features from fountain pens.
Do rollerball pens use standard refills?
This is a surprisingly tricky one. A huge number of rollerballs use a refill type often known as ‘Euro format’. 111mm long, 6mm wide. But they’re not as interchangeable as you might hope. Some refills have holes in the top (especially gel versions), which won’t work in some pens; and tiny variations in width and length can make some pens fussy about what refills they’ll use. So, usually yes, but using different refills can be a little more troublesome than with most other types of refill.