The gel rollerball is similar in design to the ballpoint pen. The main difference: while ballpoint pen refills are filled with a writing paste, the gel rollerball writes with a water-based and significantly less viscous ink. Accordingly, it glides faster and more smoothly over the page and leaves a clean typeface, which is very much in keeping with Asian writing habits. (It is therefore not surprising that the gel rollerball is of Japanese origin.) The gel rollerball offered here with a push mechanism comes in a hexagonal, color-coated casing with a black 0.5 mm refill and fits comfortably in the hand. Replacement refills with a 0.5 mm tip can of course also be found in our range (under item number 212206) or with a 0.7 mm tip (item number 205733).

In China and Japan, the market share of fine-lead pens is far greater than elsewhere. The reason for this is that in other cultures, pens with line widths of 0.5 mm or even 0.35 mm are used primarily for drawings and precise construction plans. The characters commonly used in the Far East, however, turn even simple writing into filigree work, because they can consist of several individual strokes and must be put down precisely on paper even in small print in order to remain legible. Fine-lead pencils are therefore everyday products. The leading manufacturers offer small masterpieces which, despite their impressive mechanical sophistication, are surprisingly inexpensive as standard products manufactured millions of times over.