is a privately-held Japanese

manufacturing company Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a range ...

of stationery products. The name is a combination of the English words ''pen'' and ''tell'' (as in, telling a story). Pentel is also the inventor of

non-permanent marker A marker pen, fine liner, marking pen, felt-tip pen, felt pen, flow marker, sign pen (in South Korea), vivid (in New Zealand), texta (in Australia), sketch pen (in South Asia) or koki (in South Africa), is a pen which has its own ink source ...

technology. Most Pentel products are manufactured in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, Taiwan, Korea, Mexico, and France. The company is regarded as the inventor of the fibre-tipped (felt-tip) pen in 1963. Nowadays, Pentel produces a wide range of products that include writing implements, art materials and office goods.

History

The company was founded in 1946 as "Japan Stationery Limited" in Tokyo by Yokio Horie, with the purpose of manufacturing crayons and

pastel A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...

s. The first products for sale were released in 1951, followed by pencils in 1960. In 1963 Pentel launched the "Sign Pen", a fibre-type pen that was used by then President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson, who bought a dozen of them to sign photographs, apart from being adopted as the official writing instrument of NASA and going into space with a Gemini mission in 1966.History of the Pentel Sign Pen
on Pen Cult website Demand for a Sign Pen was so extraordinary that the Tokyo factories could not supply all requests. The Sign Pen was one of Pentel's most successful products with more than two billion units sold. In 1971 the company changed its name to "Pentel Co. Ltd." and one year later, the green

rollerball pen Roller ball pens or roll pens are pens which use ball point writing mechanisms with water-based liquid or gelled ink, as opposed to the oil-based viscous inks found in ballpoint pens. These less viscous inks, which tend to saturate more deeply ...

with water-based ink, was launched. Horie remained as President of the company until his death in 2010.History of pen and writing instruments
About Inventors site. Retrieved March 11, 2007. In the 2010s, Pentel launched the "Pocket Brush", a

fudepen A , also known as a brush pen, is a cartridge-based writing implement used in East Asian calligraphy; it is, in essence, an ink brush analogue to a fountain pen. Overview The Japanese manufacturing company Kuretake was the first to launch a br ...

that used replaceable waterproofReview: Pentel Pocket Brush Pen
by Teoh Yi Chie, December 28, 2014 ink cartridges, like fountain pens (and unlike conventional brush pens, which are more like marker pens.)Pentel Pocket Brush Pen: A Comprehensive Guide
June 4, 2019 on Jet Pens Brush pens (designed and recommended for

calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

) have also gained popularity among comic book artists, who choose them to ink their works instead of dip pens or traditional

brushes A brush is a common tool with bristles, wire or other filaments. It generally consists of a handle or block to which filaments are affixed in either a parallel or perpendicular orientation, depending on the way the brush is to be gripped durin ...

. One of those artists using Pentel was Neal Adams.Larry Hama interview in Comic Book Resources
June 3, 2009

Products

Stationery

Product lines include ''Sharp Kerry'', ''Sharp P200 series'', ''Graph 1000'', ''Graphgear'' (''500, 800 and 1000''), ''Graphlet'', ''Sharplet'', ''Smash'', ''Stein'', ''Orenz'', ''OrenzNero'' (mechanical pencils or "sharps"); ''Ain'' and ''Hi-Polymer'' (mechanical pencil leads); ''Energel'' (gel ink pens); ''Vicuna'' (hybrid ink ballpoint pen); ''Pentel Pen'' (permanent marker), and ''Sign Pen'' (fine tip marker). Range of products manufactured by Pentel includes:Pentel catalog
on Pentel of America, Ltd. (archived), Sep 21, 2010 Pentel_RSVP_pens

Other products

Pentel produces and sells electronic devices and production equipment in addition to stationery. * Electronic equipment – Touch panel, digitizer (liquid crystal pen tablet), touch switch, electronic pen (airpen) * Production equipment – for industrial robots, industrial automatic assembly machines, precision dies for injection molding, precision hand presses * OEM supply (OEM Division) – Cosmetic parts, stationery, office supplies, medical equipment

References

External links

*
Pentel global
{{Portal bar, Companies Manufacturing companies established in 1946 Manufacturing companies based in Tokyo Japanese stationery Japanese brands Art materials brands Pen manufacturers Office supply companies of Japan Midori-kai Japanese companies established in 1946