I still have a few somewhere. They are probably clogged though. I don’t use them anymore. I always preferred my Altender Ruling pen in those old days of ruled lines. I do still use a brush and flat pen on occasion though. Then again, I am an old fart B-)

ChrisL

I’m not old enough to have had to use them, but I like to use them. I have a cheap Koh-I-Noor set, among other brushes and pens, which I use occasionally. I still use my Pantone markers too.

I have a lot of these, several generations (Rotring Variant & Rapidoliner) and also other brands (like Castell TG and Staedtler). Also the predecessor with loose nibs: Pelikan (later Rotring) Graphos — the A and O-series nibs were my favorites. Very hard to find nowadays.

(I used to moonlight lettering comics…)

Our Graphic Design 101 course was rapidographs and paper only. We thought it was goofy, but soon learned the benefits of it.

Alas, I haven’t used one since then.

I used them all the time in the 70s and 80s - have not used one since - they are still made:
http://www.dickblick.com/zz210/03/

I still have a set somewhere (Koh-i-noor) but they’re probably all clogged up. I do have a friend who makes lovely drawings with them tho. You can’t beat them for line quality but I’m sure glad those days are behind me.

I’ve got a set of Staedtlers somewhere as well: miss the old days of doing perspective renderings with them, sort of. ;-)

(Along with Pantone markers, coloured pencils, French curves, and a McPhilben Lighting and Electrical Symbol Template — all stuffed away in the drawer of the cabinet right behind my work chair.)

once in a while I get ther urge to rinse out my old Koh-i-noor pens, but these days everyone around me has switched to Pigma Microns and Copic Markers.

ChrisL

ROFL! I even found my Ames Lettering Guide — now, if I could only remember how to use it.... ;-)

Everyone I know uses Micron pens for fine lines because maintaining Rapidographs is more trouble than they’re worth. I haven’t used one since the last time I took a drafting class, which was eleven years ago.

Interestingly there’s a local art charity that auctions the work of some autistic artists every year, and some of them are do hatching with Rapidographs that look like black-and-white photos. It’s very impressive work.

The year I took first year intro to graphic design was the last year the students had the assignment to draw a “ghetto blaster” on a chromecoated C1S paper. Wow I’m really showing my age now. :^)

T-squares, triangles, proportion wheels (which I never used anyway) stickers (to mark up the mechs), non-repro blue pens and pencils, brayers, burnishers, cement thinner.

sigh I’ve got two full boxes of red editing pencils, as good as new. ;-)

(And I found a video online about how to use my Ames: yet another project to add to my “spare time” list....)

At my old studio we still had radiographs, our Illustrator sketched everything in blues too. Mircon and Staedtlers and brush pens were the pens of choice though.

I thought lots of people still used Pantone markers and pencils? My wife just bought me a few of their pencils for Christmas.

I use Pantone Markers every now and then.

Wow Chris, an old ruling pen. That predates the rapidograph!

Nice stuff Dez!

I use my crew of Rapidos all the time, here are just a couple...

The one that used to be white plastic is from my set which is about 15-20 years old and the sleek black beauty comes from a set which is about 35-40 years old.

There’s way more you can do with old skool stuff!!

__________
Hiro

Patty,
The ruling pen line is 10 time cleaner than any Rapidograph can do. It takes some time to get used to but it sure is easier to clean :-)

Tiff,
There was no such invention as a Ghetto Blaster when I was in design school. You had to plug in your old Victrolla and play 45s and 78s one song at a time. It sure was cool when Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock” came out!

ChrisL

Aw, c’mon Chris, you’re just posing: when you were in design school, everything in the Top 40 was Gregorian chants.... ;-)

cool I had a yellow one because I had to take a design class... but I use to put it in my paint box... and if you didn’t keep it clean it clogged up all the time.

Mine got very little use since I turned into a Photography/Fine Art major.

Wonder if I have it still?

Vince, I sometimes used a Rapidigraph to opaque out a zit in a negative :-)

ChrisL

I can remember going to the store to buy a jewelry cleaner - Folks thought that was pretty swanky, and I must have had a nice collection of jewelry — little did they know it was for our ritual cleaning of the rapidographs...

Hey Chris - what - no 33rpm playing Bolero?

My 33rpms played Tosca with Maria Callas :-)

ChrisL

I bought a cheap ultrasonic denture cleaner - worked just as well for cleaning and half the price.

I thought lots of people still used Pantone markers and pencils? My wife just bought me a few of their pencils for Christmas.

For most Illustrators the combined costs of a cheap mac Mac, Wacom tablet, and Photoshop are less than what they would spend on markers, paper, and shipping costs in a year or two. And working digitally lets them accept a lot more commissions.

Markers still seem to be huge in fashion design, tho.

And storyboard artists.

Sometimes there’s just no substitute for drawing on paper.

I still have some Rotrings somewhere, but they haven’t been touched for at least 10 years. Used to be a daily tool once upon a time (same time with a drawing table, a see-through millimeter grid and hot wax, spray glue or rubber cement).

I have plans to use them for free drawing one of these days.

“I have plans to use them for free drawing one of these days”

LOL! I have had that same plan for many years but I never seem to get around to it :-)

ChrisL

I was at my local art supply store today and noticed a pile of Rapidograph stuff locked up in a case. I asked him if the still sell; he said that it’s pretty rare for people to buy them.

I’d love to pick up some Rotring fountain pens for calligraphy practice once I get better, but for now my work is not good enough to justify the expense.

I worked for quite a few years making architectural drawings, so I have additional experience with technical pens beyond the uses we all remember in making mechanicals and such. As the resident pen-fetishist in every architectural office where I worked, I was often consulted about how to get this-or-that 00 or 000 pen working again, even when they were parked in the humidified carousels that Koh-i-Noor sold. Far more often, the draftspeople had left their pens out overnight or over the weekend and they’d seized up solid as a fossil. Pretty hard to get that tiny wire to move freely ever again once that has happened.

Well folks, here’s the answer and it is SO simple: at the end of the day — every single day without exception — just take the pens apart and dribble the ink back into the bottle from the reservoir. Do a quick but attentive rinse of the moving parts in the pen “nib,” dab dry with a tissue, and put the pen back together. This way the pen gets stored dry and you never have to worry: next time you need to make some lines in a hurry, just gas it up and it’ll behave like a brand-new pen. Not that important to do with anything fatter than a “0” (.35mm) but for the skinnier sizes you will always save time and aggravation by doing this.

Right here in the studio I still have (and occasionally use) sets of these from Koh-i-Noor Rapidograph, Rotring, and Staedtler, in addition to my Brause and H&B dip pens. I gave away my Graphos set to an enthusiastic student many years ago.

I also have kept the Rotring compass and Ulano swivel knife setup that I used to cut all the original letters for a type that Michael Neugebauer designed for a local Salzburg architect back in 1977 (it later became Litera http://www.linotype.com/89893/litera-family.html) but I have never used it since for making letters. As a few other old codgers will remember, it is a very tedious process to cut letters completely by hand on Rubylith!

As a few other old codgers will remember, it is a very tedious process to cut letters completely by hand on Rubylith!

I’m so lucky that I missed those days.

Yeah, but you learned a lot doing it. ;-)

(Not that my arthritis will let me do it anymore, but....)

…Ulano swivel knife setup that I used to cut all the original letters… it is a very tedious process to cut letters completely by hand on Rubylith!

Or Greenfilm or Amber for screen printing stencils.

I never did get on with swivel knives, always developed a mind of their own when I used one (although the guy on the Ulano stand at trade shows who did Mickey Mouses [mice?] was very good).

My weapon of choice was a length of 3-4mm stainless steel rod, ground and sharpened. Held vertically and rotated in the fingers as required, you could get most of the way round a circle without changing grip or dislocating your elbow/wrist.

I still use a couple (not as sharp as they need to be for cutting) to weed plotter-cut self-adhesive vinyl and Ruby every day.

I’ve got a Faber Castell brand tech pen floating around in one of my drawers somewhere, as well as a bunch of Pigma Microns. I haven’t used it since I bought my pen tablet. Maybe I’m just too young, but for me “inking” a uniform line is just so much easier on the computer, although I still break out the pens, brushes, and ink if I need to do something a little more creative.

- Lex

Anyone still have a Rapidograph Tattoo?

I can remember trying to draw lines for a mechanical that had to be out the door - yesterday.... my pen was clogged and of course, I shook it up and hit it onto my right index finger — but ooops, the cap wasn’t on it, and to this day I have a little circular tattoo. I remembering going up to Ballantine Books right after and being told I had paid my dues :)

Meanwhile - mili, I was cleaning up my office last month (first time in 4 years...) and I came across a set of French Curves. Remember how we use to cherish them and not let anyone touch them for fear they didn’t know how to use an exactoblade with them?

And I’m not familiar with Greenfilm, but I had my days with Rubylith — all over negatives for draw downs (remember those) and of course, fixing typositor fonts when I couldn’t find the proper marking pen for it and needed it NOW...

There was a young lady who worked for me many years ago who, some years later, contacted me laughing almost to hysterics over the phone. She had been to a yard sale and found a very familiar looking lightbox. It had a customised rolling T-square and was well worn. She noticed the numerous bits of rubylith stuck about its edges and knew imediatly that it was my old light box from the mid-70s when we had worked together. I guess the mess I left that thing in was just as good as a DNA trail :-)

ChrisL

I love using my rotring. Sometimes i just feel like making doodles in THIN lines. I bought mine for my typo 1 course last semester. Used ut only for correction. But now we’re working with softwares. I didn’t realise how long it had been since i used my rotring until i was correcting some text for my typo submission. A tiny voice at the back of my head said “ctrl +”....sigh..

shreyas

I don’t use them to create lettering anymore but I still use rapidiographs intensely for illustration purposes. In fact I use the .13 and the .18 the finest points to draw with. I absolutely love them even though they are difficult to maintain for beginners. I even use the Koh-I-Noor ink to create ink washes. Unfortunately I didn’t get to hand letter when I was working in comics. We were using Illustrator by then.

// Ron Domingue

www.rondomingue.com

Heron, you just triggered up some memories! A ruler or a French Curve was a very personal thing. Nothing I hated more than some idiot using the drawing side of my ruler for cutting - and of course caught it a bit and so ended up ruining a perfectly smooth surface for good.

Oh, I don’t have a Rapidograph tattoo, but the tip of my left index finger has slightly thinner skin on the thumb side thanks to a over enthusiastic use of a Stanley knife and a slipping metal ruler while cutting thick cardboard.

”...the tip of my left index finger has slightly thinner skin on the thumb side thanks to a over enthusiastic use of a Stanley knife...”

One of my students, many years ago, managed to stab herself in the thigh while trying to cut matboard and smoke a cigarette at the same time. Only later did the Surgeon General determine that smoking was bad for your health! (He made no mention of Stanley knives though :-)

ChrisL

Chris, you do have stories to tell! First the lightbox and now this smoking stabber! LOL!!

Thankfully smoking indoors at school was not permitted in my time, otherwise the nearby hospital would have been very busy.

This particular young lady was a whole story in herself. Luckily, she found a nice young man with plenty of money because, god knows, she never would have been able to hold a job :-)

ChrisL

Here’s an article about old Rotring rapidographs that you might find interesting:
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=30724

Zippy!

ChrisL

My set!

Anyone still have a Rapidograph Tattoo?

I do. On my left hand. I had come back to keep drawing and I stabed my self picking up the pen. You may be able to tell from this that I am not left handed.

In art college (Limerick 1976–1981 the most wonderful place in the world) I was standing behind a door in the graphics department holding a scalpel when someone pushed open the door with venom causing me to stab myself in the thigh. But so sharp was the blade that it didn’t even bleed.
As regards Rotrings I have old Rotring Variants and Micronorms which I love and use and a Rotring 600 fountain pen which is a thing of beauty. Certainly beats drawing in Adobe Illustrator with that dead computer line (although I use both)
Has anyone any experience using Graphos pens?

Is Rapidograph — something like a Reißfeder?

_____________________________________________
Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
www.ivangdesign.com

I’ve three sets. Staedtler & Koh-I-noor. One unused, one unusable, one probably recoverable, and a number of assorted loose pens. I ruined another set by drawing on drafting mylar. I learned afterwards that there are special tips for that.

James, ...And working digitally lets them accept a lot more commissions.

Just cause I draw a thing on paper doesn’t mean I have to schlep the original over to the client. Scanning counts as working digitally on that score.

-=®=-

I used Staedtler Mars matic pens, rulers and paper the first two semesters on school bak in year 2000.

Héctor

Man, that’s funny.

I used to use Rapidographs all the time when I was a comic-drawing teen artist. I loved the variety monolines they would give. Now they’re languishing somewhere in my office. Perhaps one day I’ll pull them out and show my daughter how to use them, but I’m teaching myself how to use an Intuos tablet now, so I’ve got other more digital fish to fry.