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by robocat 152 days ago
That icon is pretty terrible. Fountain pens were obsolete 50 years ago and ink in bottles is even more outdated. What's with the shiny spherical bottle? It feels like a hipster icon design to me.

Of course picking a meaningful icon is trés difficult.

If we are given the name and then we learn the icon, then perhaps it doesn't matter too much what the icon is?
2 comments
sevensor 152 days ago
> Fountain pens were obsolete 50 years ago and ink in bottles is even more outdated

My friend, you have no idea what you’re missing out on. Even cheap fountain pens can be very good these days, and we are living in a golden age of bottled inks.

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robocat 152 days ago
> My friend, you have no idea what you’re missing out on

Being left handed has its advantages, however smearing wet ink over the page as you write doesn't endear one to nibbed pens.

And leaked ink truely sucks (although I would guess modern technology is better at avoiding that).

Is a fountain pen good for illustration? The very very small amount of writing I do these days is usually mixed words with images/symbols/lines.

To me out in the colonies, fountain pen culture appears to be more about either signaling pretentiousness (what is Montblanc) or designer hipsterism.

I wonder how many practical engineers use a fountain pen?

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sevensor 151 days ago
> I wonder how many practical engineers use a fountain pen?

Not a lot, but more than zero. I take copious meeting notes and I do a lot of my serious thinking on paper. I find fountain pens vastly more comfortable for writing multiple pages of text, compared to ballpoints.

Left handed users do have to adjust their writing technique, and it’s understandable that many do not find it worth the effort.

I have never held a Montblanc. I believe they run to the hundreds if not thousands of dollars. An extremely niche form of wealth signaling. I’m not sure who they’re even for? Fancy New York bankers maybe? Extremely devoted pen hobbyists? I’d be afraid to carry one around.

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strobe 152 days ago
and still in 2026 is wide market of those pens with price ranges ~$2000-$3 and ink chooses where some bottles costs ~$50 for 30-60ml.
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