All About Pens

Cuneiform writing was the first form of writing, followed by brush-writing. Thin-tipped brushes dipped in ink made from natural dyes replaced the use of wax or clay tablets, allowing for clearer writing on papyrus—a cloth made from reeds. The word "papyrus" eventually led to the modern term "paper." Some East Asian countries still use brush pens for writing characters in languages like Chinese and Japanese.

The first writing instruments were stylii—specially shaped sticks used to press wedge-shaped characters into soft wax or clay tablets. Developed by the Sumerians thousands of years ago, these stylii and the resulting wedges formed 
the first writing system, known as 'cuneiform.' By 
organizing the wedges by size, distance, and design, 
the Sumerians created the first alphabet and writing system.

With trade and travel, writing gradually spread around Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. The Sumerians who invented writing, lived in the Mediterranean, so the nearest countries, such as Egypt and Italy and Germany and Greece, were the first places to pick up on this new invention of 'writing.



The Egyptians created a form of picture-writing known as hieroglyphs, again, using brush pens. While very pretty, hieroglyphs took a long time to write, and they could bedifficult to read. It was evident 
that a clearer form of writing was required, and with it, 
better tools.

With trade and travel, writing gradually spread around Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. The Sumerians who invented writing, lived in the Mediterranean, so the nearest countries, such as Egypt and Italy and Germany and Greece, were the first places to pick up on this new invention of 'writing'.



The Egyptians created a form of picture-writing known as hieroglyphs, again, using brush pens. While very pretty, hieroglyphs took a long time to write, and they could be difficult to read. It was evident that a clearer form of writing was required, and with it, better tools.

The Quill

By the medieval period, the quill had replaced the reed pen as the main writing instrument. Made from large bird feathers (typically goose), quills were stronger and stiffer, allowing for better writing and various styles depending on how the tip was cut. This era also saw a shift from 
papyrus to vellum, and later to paper, as writing surfaces.
 The quill remained dominant for centuries and was used to write important documents like the Bible and the American Declaration of Independence. Though it required frequent sharpening with a small knife—hence the term "pen-knife"—it was indispensable. The quill’s flexible tip enabled expressive scripts like Gothic, roundhand, Copperplate, and Spencerian, shaping 
the evolution of handwriting.

The Steel Pen

In the 18th and 19th centuries, a little something called the Industrial Revolution swept through Europe. With the power of wind, water, fire 
and steam, machines began to be manufactured which could produce 
all kinds of things. All these new inventions naturally created a lot 
of paperwork. Mankind needed a better kind of writing instrument 
to put all the wages and salaries and information down on paper. 
Then one day, an intelligent man thought to himself that if pen-points were made of something tougher, stronger and which would last longer, he could make a fortune. What if pen-points, instead of being the easily-worn-out tips of feathers, were actually made of something tough and durable...like...metal? Using steam-powered presses, special moulds and sheets of metal, the first mass-production of metal pens were created, at the end of the 18th century.
The invention of a simple, cheap, durable pen-point which could be made in its thousands revolutionized the writing world. Now, if you wanted to write, all you had to do was go down to the shop and buy a box of pens and a pen-holder.
The metal pen caused all kinds of changes in the world. For the first 
time, cheap, reliable pens were available in their thousands to the 
masses, which greatly boosted literacy rates and helped to improve education. While the metal pen allowed for quicker and more 
comfortable writing, one crucial problem still remained.