Left Handed People - Recommend me a good pen!

[Tonka777]

Howdy Hexites.

I'm a lefty. I'm off to Uni shortly, and would like to find some decent, but not too expensive, pens for lefties.

If you're not left handed, you probably won't be aware that that while right handed folks pull the pen when writing, lefties have to push it. This means that gel ink can get smudged as your hand moves from left to write, and the tips of pens can get blocked up with paper as the pen is pushed down.

I see there are fast drying gel pens, but buying one just to see how quickly it dries seems like an expensive way of testing them. If anyone has a 'rapid dry' gel pen of any kind, i'd be most grateful if you could do a smudge test for me. My hand is rubbing over what i have just written almost instantly.

Cheers all.

[Smudger]

Learn a right to left language. Problem sorted.

[jim]

If you go into Rymans, you can test all of their gel pens before purchase. There are little pads next to the boxes that contain all of the pens.

I would imagine that other stationery shops have similar facilities, but the range of single pens are usually quite good. If you want something that absorbs really quickly, maybe try a fine-liner rather than a gel-pen. But I would test a few and see how it goes.

[Tonka777]

I live on the Isle of Wight, where real world and useful shops are a bit of a rarity!

I'll see what i can find though, thanks for the suggestion!

[jim]

Ah, that could be interesting. Mind you, you could always wait until you get to uni to have a look round.

Another thought is that Stabilo did do some handwriting pens specially designed for lefties, but I've never actually tried them.

[MrJim]

These are supposed to be quite good, although I've not tried them myself:

http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/...udge-pens.html

[Tonka777]

Just googled the Stabilo Lefty pen, it looks very odd! I'll try and find one in a shop to try it. It could work well, or it could just be an odd looking thing that would be more suited in an Ann Summers shop....

[opel80uk]

My wife swears by this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Maped-Visio-.../dp/B00ASN62DI

She does say it took a bit of getting used to, but now doesn’t use anything else.

[Tonka777]

My wife swears by this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Maped-Visio-.../dp/B00ASN62DI

She does say it took a bit of getting used to, but now doesn’t use anything else.

That looks like it could be worth a punt at that price. Cheers.

[KeyboardDemon]

I'm a lefty and don't have many issues with ink smudging, though I do get it with gel pens when I do, I've seen some leftys curling their hand round the page so the write from above the line instead of below it, but I guess if you're not doing that now it might be hard to learn this as an alternative way to write and take notes.

[jim]

That is the trick, if you can do it. I tend to write with the paper at 70 degrees or so, meaning my hand goes upwards, over previous lines.

The best thing is if you can write down the page, i.e. with your hand coming down over the empty lines below, but I've not seen many that do it.

And not much use as a quick fix, either!

[Tonka777]

I have experimented with different writing positions, but always seem to come back to the one that smudges the most!

I'll keep trying different things though, as another annoyance with writing is the hand ache i get after a few minutes. Maybe a combination of an ergonomic pen, and angling the paper will help.

Thanks for the suggestions folks.

[TheAnimus]

Get a tablet PC with a digitiser pen. OneNote is the single most amazing thing for lecture note taking. For me it was the ability to touch type then write an equation, the indexing system... I would have no doubt failed my degree without it.

[Tonka777]

Not a bad idea that, thanks. I'll see if funds can stretch that far, i have a feeling, they won't, but fingers crossed.

[Gerrard]

I'm a lefty and don't have many issues with ink smudging, though I do get it with gel pens when I do, I've seen some leftys curling their hand round the page so the write from above the line instead of below it, but I guess if you're not doing that now it might be hard to learn this as an alternative way to write and take notes.

That's how I write as a lefty. Not only does it reduce the chances of smudging, it allowed me to slope my writing to the more traditional right when I was at school. Also stopped people copying me!

However, white boards still cause me problems.

[TheAnimus]

Not a bad idea that, thanks. I'll see if funds can stretch that far, i have a feeling, they won't, but fingers crossed.

The government paid for mine, on month 30 of 36. LOL.

Luckily I'd already been able to get myself one thanks to my summer job before uni.