Tools and Equipment

Dip Pen

Also Known As Nib Pen Not necessarily dipped in practice; many illustrators use the term for any pen built around an interchangeable metal nib.

Citation Formats

General Reference

Home, Crafts and Hobbies Atlas. "Dip Pen." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-home.interactiveatlas.org/tools/dip-pen.

APA Style

Home, Crafts and Hobbies Atlas. (n.d.). Dip Pen. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-home.interactiveatlas.org/tools/dip-pen

BibTeX

@misc{home,craftsandhobbiesatlas-dip-pen,
  author = {Home, Crafts and Hobbies Atlas},
  title = {Dip Pen},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-home.interactiveatlas.org/tools/dip-pen},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

A metal nib with a slit down its center, set into a holder and dipped in ink for each fresh line, the nib itself doing the work a fountain pen's reservoir later took over. Calligraphers still choose dip pens for the range of line width one nib can produce, and for the ease of swapping nibs mid piece.

Facts

Introduced When (Circa)

Metal dip pens have existed since antiquity; pens with mass-produced replaceable nibs emerged in the early nineteenth century 1

Origin

A copper nib found at Pompeii is dated to AD 79; metal pens are also documented at Vindolanda and through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, well before the mass-produced steel nib of the nineteenth century. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections