PENPEG
Pens, ink & the writing life — fountain pens, gel and rollerball, nibs and inks, journaling and desk gear, and the tools to find your perfect writer.
From choosing your first fountain pen and matching an ink to the right paper to dialing in nib size, line width, and journaling routines, PenPeg pairs free hands-on writing tools with practical guides and a richly illustrated museum of writing instruments. Write better, with confidence.
Pen & Writing Tools & Calculators
Free tools for pen and paper lovers — ink cost per page calculator, writing time calculator, ink bottle life calculator, fountain-pen nib size guide, paper weight & gsm guide, and pencil grade guide.
Ink Cost Per Page Calculator
Work out what your ink really costs per page — from a cartridge price and pages per cartridge, or a bottle's volume and how much ink a page uses — plus cost per 1,000 pages
Writing Time Calculator
Estimate how long a piece takes to write by hand or by typing from a word count and your speed, how many pages it fills, and how many words you can write in the time you have
Ink Bottle Life Calculator
See how long a bottle of fountain-pen ink lasts — how many pen refills, how many pages, and how many days and years that is at your own writing pace
Fountain Pen Nib Size Guide
A curated reference of nib sizes from Extra Fine to Double Broad plus stub italics, with typical line widths in millimetres, what each is good for, and how Japanese nibs run a size finer
Paper Weight & GSM Guide
Convert paper weights between gsm and US pounds across bond, text, and cover, and look up common stocks with their use-cases and how well they take fountain-pen ink
Pencil Grade Guide
The full graphite scale from 9H to 9B — hardness and darkness, how the HB letters map to US numbers (a #2 pencil is HB), and what each grade is best for, from drafting to sketching
Nib & Paper Compatibility Chart
Every nib size cross-referenced against five common paper stocks for bleed and feather risk, computed from the same nib-width and paper-friendliness data as the two guides above
Museum of Writing Instruments
Wander an immersive museum of writing instruments — the fountain pens, dip pens and nibs, inks and inkwells, quills and reed pens, the pencil and the ballpoint, and the calligraphy and scripts they set down, each in its own gallery, so you can get to know the stories behind how we put words on the page: where each tool came from, what makes it matter, and the role it still plays in writing today.
Tour the museum →From the Journal
Fresh guides on fountain, gel and rollerball pens, choosing nibs and inks, pairing paper and notebooks, calligraphy and hand-lettering, and journaling routines, plus practical tips on pen care, ink swatching, and building a writing kit you love.
How Much Does It Cost to Journal Every Day for a Year? Ink, Paper, and Time Add Up
Combine ink cost, how far a bottle actually goes, notebook pages, and daily writing time, and a year of daily journaling comes out cheaper — and faster — than expected.
Ink Drying Time: Why Some Fountain Pen Inks Smear for Minutes and Others Set in Seconds
Two inks that look identical in the bottle can dry at wildly different speeds on the same paper. What's actually driving fountain-pen ink dry time.
Building a Starter Fountain Pen Kit: One Pen, One Ink, One Notebook That Actually Work Together
The most common first-fountain-pen mistake isn't buying a bad pen — it's picking pen, ink, and paper independently instead of as one matched system.
Vintage vs. Modern Fountain Pens: What You Actually Gain and Give Up Buying Old
A flexible vintage nib and a bulletproof modern one are solving different problems. What buying a decades-old fountain pen actually trades away, honestly.
Cleaning a Fountain Pen: How Often, and What Actually Happens If You Don't
Skipping fountain pen cleaning doesn't just risk a dry pen — dried ink genuinely clogs the feed and some inks can permanently stain internal parts.
Writing Left-Handed With a Fountain Pen: Nib Angle, Smearing, and What Actually Helps
Fountain pens aren't off-limits for left-handed writers, but the physics of writing left-to-right with fresh wet ink does need a few deliberate adjustments.
Keep Learning
Practical know-how on pens, nibs, and ink, plain-language explainers on nib sizes, line width, and paper weight, and seasoned tips for first-time and lifelong writers alike — everything you need to dig deeper and find your perfect writer.
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