Writing implement
These are means of producing writing: most can be used for other functions, such as painting, drawing and [[technical drawing. Almost anything that makes a permanent mark can be used as a writing instrument, for example crayons and pastels (including oil pastels in stick form.
Brushes are used for creating various forms of writing, notably Oriental scripts.
Writing can also be carved into rock faces and monuments: the equipment used cannot be described as a writing aid.
The Babylonians and others using cuneiform used a stylus to make marks in clay tablets. The Romans also used styli with wax tablets. In a development of old means of recording devices, the hand held computer and certain other computer input devices can use a stylus to enter information onto a screen.
Reed pens were used with various inks, with one end being turned into a nib or similar means of carrying ink.
Later quills were used: suitable bird feathers, usually from the wing, often from geese and ravens: left and right handed people willuse feathers from opposite sides of the bird. These are still in use in various contexts, chiefly by calligraphers, and sometimes in banks.
Pencils were developed during the sixteenth century and exist in various forms. Those in common use involve a wooden casing surrounding a lead (now a mixture of graphite and clay for black, and including various pigments for coloured pencils).
Slate pencils and china pencils are used on the so named materials.
Dip pens consist of a nib - the pen proper - and a pen-holder. They can be used with most types of ink. A variety of nibs for different purposes can be placed in the pen holder: for example for copper plate writing, mapping pens and nibs for drawing music staves, with five points. Automatic pens are a category of dip pen, in which the nib is in two parts and can hold a larger quantity of ink.
The main problem with dip pens is the limited amount of ink that can be carried at any one time, and the tendency to drip ink on the page, causing blots. This led to the development of fountain pens were developed in the 19th century. These consist of the nib unit, the ink holder or reservoir (now often in the form of cartridges) and the nib unit with cover. Only certain types of ink can be used in a fountain pen, to avoid clogging up the nib unit mechanism.
A twentieth century innovation was that of Laszlo Biro, a Hungarian who invented the biro.
Felt tip pens consist of a barrel with a reservoir of ink, and a fibrous material as nib.
Metal pens were developed in the late 18th century.
Fountain pens date from the beginning of th 18th century, but were developed more extensively in the 19th century, with Bramah being a significant figure.
Implements associated with writing, not being pens, include rubbers for pen and pencil: and rulers and related drawing instruments. Pounce pots were a precursor of [blotting paper]], being a dispenser for powdery material for drying the ink.