Preferred technical writing tool?

[Fsck]

Kind of curious what people use, not sure if people are as picky as me when it comes to writing tools.
Two categories, [1] pencils (designs, math, etc) and [2] pens (lab notebooks, where an unerasable solution is required or where pencil lead transfer would be annoying)

I'm kind of a huge fan of the Pentel Graphgear 1000 mechanical pencil with 0.5mm lead. Discovered it in high school and it's like my holy grail of pencils.
Pens: the KarasKustoms bolt is my current favorite here or if I need disposable pens: Uni-ball Signo 207 also in 0.5mm.

[Balaur]

On the pencil side, I've bought in my youth with my own pocket money (huge investment at that time) a Rotring Tikka 0.5mm that I'm still using today. Very nice tool full of German mechanical goodness.

Otherwise, I'm a huge fan of fountain pens. My favorites are a Sailor Professional Gear - super quality, very fine trace, strong black ink, incites to a careful and deliberate writing and a vintage Pelikan M400 pen with a custom nib (yes, I'm a pen snob, I know it) - generous trace, smooth gliding, very good for day to day stuff. The Sailor is perfect for fine annotations, schematic notes, etc. The Pelikan has a nice plum ink and it's quite elegant.

(Don't get me started on ink/paper combinations).

However, I must admit that I'm not manually writing too much these days. I largely prefer some computerized (PC, tablet) method together with Palm notes/OneNote/Evernote apps. I absolutely like the fact that I can quickly update/modify/transform the information, save it, having it synchronized on several devices, etc. Even for home, I prefer storing stuff in OneNote (and previously Palm notes - just recently, I've consulted the pinout of a home automation device that I've made back in 2001). My old notebooks are really crusty and they should be somewhere in storage.

[steve30]

I like using my Lamy fountain pen, but for technical stuff, where there are small diagrams and small writing, even my extra fine nib is a bit too thick. I tend to like the fairly cheap Uni-Pin technical pens from Mitsubishi Pencil co. They are quite nice. I do find the nibs wear out long before the ink runs out though.

I don't use pencils much these days. I used to use them, but that was back when I did writing with ball point pens, which I never really liked. Since discovering fountain pens and fine liners, which come in many thicknesses and colours, I hardly use pencils.

[KJDS]

I've been using a keyboard for so long I've almost forgotten how to write.

[free_electron]

TUL pens (gel) on graphing paper. There is a brand here that makes graphing paper with subdivisions in different grids. You can get paper with 1/2 inch 1/4 inch 1/5 inch 1/8 inch 1/10 inch ruling.

But i use that only for quick sketches to explain something to someone. Everything else is done directly in CAD.

Microsoft Word
Microsoft Excel
Altium Designer
Adobe Illustrator
Rhino 3D

[jpb]

I use a Waterman Exception fountain pen, it is very nice but the quality of line depends on the paper. I've discovered some cheap hardbacked notebooks, made in China, that have a very nice finish to the paper that takes the ink well. Otherwise just plain A4 paper is good, if I'm not going to keep it long term.

I still find that pen and notebook are best for portability, and for diagrams, equations, sketches etc. Though I work with computers (I'm a computer scientist) I still find them a rather clumsy tool for getting random ideas down quickly.

Of course if you're laying out circuits, or typing a lot of text then computer tools work much better. For the nicest output quality (of text/maths) LaTeX is great but it is still time consuming to generate diagrams.

[c4757p]

KiCad for quick diagrams and XCircuit for nice ones. LaTeX for math (XCircuit generates EPS so these can be embedded).

Oh, you mean outside the computer? Nearest pen/pencil I can spot - there's usually one lying around, and it's usually a piece of crap.

[AlfBaz]

Sorry for the hijack

LaTeX for math

What's your OS? Having trouble finding something easy to install and use in windows

[jpb]

Sorry for the hijack

LaTeX for math

What's your OS? Having trouble finding something easy to install and use in windows

I use Windows 7 64bit at home (OS X/Linux at work). I Use WinEdt on my home machine
http://www.winedt.com/
I use it with MiKTeX. I wrote my PhD dissertation using it. The main problems I had were not with the editor but with things like diagrams where
different versions of LaTeX like eps or pdf but none of them seem to like both!

[c4757p]

Sorry for the hijack

LaTeX for math

What's your OS? Having trouble finding something easy to install and use in windows

Debian. I remember from my days as a math major that everyone used MiKTeX on Windows, so it must be pretty good. I only keep Windows around for those little tools that I can't get to work under Debian (Zeroplus logic analyzer software, etc.)

[jpb]

Sorry for the hijack

LaTeX for math

What's your OS? Having trouble finding something easy to install and use in windows

Debian. I remember from my days as a math major that everyone used MiKTeX on Windows, so it must be pretty good. I only keep Windows around for those little tools that I can't get to work under Debian (Zeroplus logic analyzer software, etc.)

Sorry c4757p, I sort of hijacked your answer to Alfbaz's original hijack! 
MiKTeX is good but it is like a compiler so an editor is really needed on top of it and that is where I find WinEdt good as it is geared at being a front end for LaTeX.
It is not WYSIWYG of course but on my machine at least it can produce the final output very rapidly so I can check what the layout is looking like almost interactively.

[c4757p]

MiKTeX is good but it is like a compiler so an editor is really needed on top of it

vim.

Oh yeah, there's my other technical writing tool! 

To add a bit of relevance to the trollish "I use a computer herp derp" answer, I do have a Graph Gear 500 drafting pencil, 0.5mm. I don't usually use it at home, though I do take it to school. If I actually take the time to select something decent to write with, it's very nice.

[Alana]

If its pen and paper its usually what's around but back at school i loved classic ink based pen in which i sharpened tip so that lines were about 0.1mm.
But nowadays its winword, notepad and mspaint running on my lappy.

[steve30]

With regards to LaTeX, in Windows I like LED as an editor.

But I tend to use Debian these days. In my old Debian installation, I think I Latexilla or something. Can't quite remember as I've not used it for a long time.

[marshallh]

Adobe Indesign

[NiHaoMike]

I just use a mechanical pencil for drawing schematics and stuff. For text, I use an Android tablet with a keyboard attachment or a PC. (Now if they made an affordable drawing tablet that offers the same resolution as paper, I'll probably be going digital all the way!)

[Smokey]

Pentel P207 mechanical pencil.  Downside is the crappy eraser, but that's easily fixed by a big old eraser wedge (or don't make mistakes!).



Just watch out, people tend to talk off with pencils/pens without really thinking about it.  That's why you need to condition your coworkers just not to touch your prized writing implements in the first place.  Like training dogs, it's all about being stern and consistent.....   NO!!  Bad engineer!!  Drop it!!!! 

[marshallh]

Pentel P207 mechanical pencil.  Downside is the crappy eraser, but that's easily fixed by a big old eraser wedge (or don't make mistakes!).



Just watch out, people tend to talk off with pencils/pens without really thinking about it.  That's why you need to condition your coworkers just not to touch your prized writing implements in the first place.  Like training dogs, it's all about being stern and consistent.....   NO!!  Bad engineer!!  Drop it!!!! 

I grew up using those. 0.5mm lead started me off writing small.

[AlfBaz]

Out in the "field" it's not uncommon to find a sturdy twig and a nice patch of dirt 

[free_electron]

Out in the "field" it's not uncommon to find a sturdy twig and a nice patch of dirt 

Dirt ? I prefer drawing directly in a pile of unrefined silicon, shaded by a palmtree.  something sippy in a long , tall glass, with a little umbrella in it by my side. And if i make a mistake, the oncoming tide will wash it right away. ( just watch out for little hermit crabs, the tend to wander across the drawing board making connections that shouldn't be there....)

On a more serious note : why does everybody like pencil ? I hate those things. They make a scratchy noise... And the mechanical ones are so fine it's hard to read.
I prefer a good gel pen.  Besides for documentation purposes you don't want anything that can be erased or altered !  Keeping a lab notebook is very important. Never rip out pages or make anything, even if wrong, illegible. It can be very important when applying for, or defending , patents !

[steve30]

I also have a Brother AX-425 daisy wheel typewriter which I also use sometimes for typing stuff on.

It has the most creaky plastic ever, but the keyboard on it is rather nice.

[cthree]

I prefer a 0.9mm mechanical pencil with HB or 2B leads and a wire bound pad of graph paper, 4 squares/inch, for quick scribbles, calculations, sketches and brain farts. I keep the notebooks for a while, they are roughly in chronological order but unfortunately not indexed.

The pencil barrel is up to the writer. Pentel, PaperMate, Staedtler, whatever fits your hand best. I find 1.2mm leads to be too blunt, 0.5mm too sharp. 0.9mm seems a nice balance for me. My preference is a Staedtler Mars Micro 775 series with 0.9mm barrel. Pretty basic.

http://www.staedtler.com/en/products/pencils-accessories/mechanical-pencils/mars-micro-775-mechanical-pencil/

If I write something I want to show others or keep I use Sublime Text 2 and Markdown.

[Hercules]

Hello, just registered on this very interesting forum 

Sorry for the bump, but this topic got me... I'm a big fan of all german products, so including mechanical pencils too and have around 10 Rotring and Staedtler pencils, usually 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9. Is there any solution for this?



After few months of use, all pens look like this. I was wondering is there any "trick" so this metal parts couldn't lose this clear and shiny lack and keep it so they look like new?

[Muttley Snickers]

First and foremost welcome to the forum.   

I'm no pencil expert but would have thought that a two part clear epoxy resin such as used on fishing rod wraps and guides would do the trick, you would need to polish the offending parts first then set up a drying jig using a low rpm motor to rotate the pencil whilst the epoxy cures, there may also be other clear coatings available but I am versed in rod building so would stick to what I know.

[GreyWoolfe]

For pencils, I have a Staedtler Mars 780 Technical pencil and a Berol Turquoise 10C drafting pencil, both with 2mm leads that I keep very sharp tips on.  For pens, I use a Pilot Precise V5RT .5mm black.  If I have to mark something in color, I steal, I mean borrow the granddaughter's colored pencils.  She still doesn't know her blue, green and red pencils are missing.