BIC Cristal Original Smudge Free Ballpoint Pens, Ideal for School, Black, Medium Point (1.0mm), Pack of 50

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While it’s not as common today as it once was (or at least that’s how it seems in the typical American office), it’s an iconic pen that still holds an important place in the history of writing instruments. The Cristal's design has become a target for counterfeiters, especially from the Far East and in particular from China. In 1944, near the end of the Second World War, entrepreneur Marcel Bich bought a factory in Clichy, a suburb north of Paris, [2] and with business partner Edouard Buffard founded Société PPA (later Société Bic) in 1945.

Both the Pompidou Centre in Paris and The Museum of Modern Art in New York have the pen on permanent display. The only exception is the BIC Cristal UP, a pen marketed by Bic that supposedly creates more vivid lines when used. Its hexagonal form and design mimics a standard pencil and it is sold in six types of point and 18 colours around the world. Since 1991 the pen's streamlined polypropylene cap has had a small hole to reduce the risk of suffocation if the cap is inhaled. The inventor of the Bic Cristal, _ Bich created an ink of a perfect _viscosity (or thickness) for his ballpoint pen.The design hasn’t changed much in the nearly 70 years this pen has been in existence, and the history of the Bic Cristal makes for fascinating reading.

The pens come in four different colours: black, blue, green and red - black is the most popular Bic colour in the UK. It has become the archetypal ballpoint pen and is considered ubiquitous, [1] to the extent that the Museum of Modern Art has made it a permanent part of its collection.

Though ballpoint ink is never going to be as dark as gel, liquid rollerball, or most other types of ink, Bic's formulation is among the best. The most popular is the Bic Cristal Grip, though it’s not a pen you’d run into very often, at least today in the US. Polypropylene is used instead of polystyrene because it absorbs impact better, reducing the chance of the pen cracking or splitting if it is dropped onto the cap.

In 1953 advertising executive Pierre Guichenné advised Bich to shorten his family name to Bic as an easy-to-remember, globally adaptable trade name for the pen, which fit in with product branding trends of the post-war era. Response Strategies of Haco Industries Kenya Limited to the Challenges of Counterfeit Products in East Africa" (PDF). We've been using man pens all these years," and comedian Bridget Christie titling her 2013 Edinburgh festival show A Bic For Her.Sure, you'll probably lose the pen, give it away, or the plastic barrel may crack long before you use up the ink, but like the most basic woodcase pencils, sometimes you just want to get some work done with a reliable tool that presents the least amount of distraction. The Universal Typeface Project Averages the World's Handwriting to Produce an Incredibly Average Font". Of all the pure ballpoints out there on the market, however, I consider Bic Cristal and the Schmidt Easyflow 9000 to be the best options, because you don’t usually see any of these issues.

These pens have a white barrel and, depending on what color the ink reservoir contains, a small area of the pen barrel and cap with the corresponding ink color. Reimagining everyday essentials for more than 75 years, BIC's vision has always been to offer high-quality, inventive, and reliable products that stand the test of time.The streamlined caps of Bic pens are made from polypropylene (a kind of plastic), and are the same colour as the ink of the pen. medium point will probably give you the smoothest writing experience, and is generally my recommended starting point. In 2014 Bic released a new writing instrument based on the Cristal, a modified pen with a rubber tip opposite the ballpoint. Its hexagonal shape resembles the typical wooden pencil and grants strength and three grip points giving high writing stability.