Supplies

Pens
Ballpoint
Ballpoint pens are the easiest way to get started. They are cheap, available, and provide enough friction for arm movement writing. Rollerballs and gel pens are more slippery on the page, which makes them harder to control.
- Bic Round Stic Ballpoint Pens – These inexpensive Bic pens will give you the best performance per dollar.
- Cross Calais Refillable Ballpoint Pen – If you want to write with something nice, check out these this refillable ballpoint pen from Cross.
Dip Pen & Ink
The Palmer Method was created in a time when the dominant writing instrument was the steel dip pen and unsurprisingly, the dip pen is the best instrument to use when writing Palmer Method style.
When you are ready to make the jump to a dip pen, you’ll need a straight pen holder, a nib, and flowing ink.
- Dip Pen Holder– A simple, wooden straight holder that will work with any nib.
- Zebra G Nibs – A 10 pack of Zebra G nibs, works great for Palmer.
- Higgins Eternal Black Ink – A free flowing, permanent ink that is easy on nibs and makes a dark, black line.
Fountain Pen
I’ve always found it more difficult to write Palmer Method with a fountain pen than a ballpoint or dip pen, but I’ve heard the opposite from others over the years. If you want to write with a fountain pen, you probably already have one and by all means go for it. It can be done, no doubt and you might as well start practicing with your fountain pens now.
If you don’t have a fountain pen and want to give it a try, the Asvine Fountain Extra Fine fountain pen is a great one to start with. Don’t forget to order some Hongdian ink cartridges to go with it.
Paper
There are a few things to consider when choosing paper:
Paper Format & Size
Notebooks are not ideal for Palmer Method writing as they elevate the writing surface from the desk and make it more difficult to execute arm movement writing. Loose leaf paper of an adequate size (greater than B5, A4, or 8.5×11″) will serve you well.
Paper Quality
Cheap copy paper or notebook paper is great for a ballpoint pen, but might bleed through or feather with a dip pen or fountain pen.
Paper Texture
The ideal paper for Palmer Method writing is smooth, but not slippery. You do not want overly textured paper (e.g. laid or handmade) nor you do not want overly slick or glossy paper.
Lines
It is nice to have horizontal lines pre-printed on the page. You can work with just about any size of line space. Depending on the line height, you might write within a single line space or within two or three line spaces.
The best thing you can do is get blank paper and line it yourself with a mechanical pencil, t-square, and lettering guide. This allows you to place lines down at whatever height you want and you can place multiple lines to create a complete writing grid.
Paper Recommendation
Rhodia paper pads are tried and true. They work really well with ballpoint pens, dip pens, and most fountain pen inks. The only drawback is they don’t come in loose sheets, but all their pads have perforated edges for clean tearing.
If you want cost effective, loose sheets of paper that work well with almost any kind of pen or ink, get the Hammermill 32 lb premium copy paper. It is a high quality printer paper that works pretty well with ballpoint, dip, and fountain pens. Of course, the paper has no lines so you’ll either need to print on lines on it or line yourself.
If you want loose sheets of lined paper, Campus Kokuyo paper is high quality, has great texture, and a variety of line options. The only drawback is they are hole-punched, but I trim that away if I need the writing to look fancy. When purchasing, make sure you are buying the right size paper with the lines you want (horizontal or grid).
Other Tools
- Wescott Transparent Ruler – Transparent rulers are great for checking alignment of forms. Can also be used to line a blank sheet of paper.
- Protractor – For measuring and drawing slant lines.
- Ames Lettering Guide – Excellent tool for putting perfect guidelines down on a blank page. Here’s a video on how to use it.
- T-Square – You’ll need this if you want to use the Ames Lettering Guide.
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