Some day in the not to distant future, choosing a pen weighting will be easy: play with different weightings, form an opinion, pick the one you like. Today it's not so easy because virtually all pens are back weighted. The few exceptions are usually torpedo shaped weight forward novelty designs. So until the variety of weighting options increases, we'll have to try to describe the unusual by stretching the vocabulary of the usual.

Can a pen have a personality? Well no. Not as such. Not this year anyway (not even in Japan). Yet there is something sympathetic in the interaction between mind and hand and pen. Call it projection or even self hypnosis–it doesn't really matter. What matters is the net result: that different pen weightings really do seem to appeal to different aspects of a user's personality.

Front heavy pens leap to page as if the pen itself is driven to write, to produce, to get things done.

They are often preferred by engineers, scientists, designers and people who print their letters. They are ideal for signing contracts and making commitments.

Weight forward pens put most of their mass literally at your fingertips. There is none of the counterbalance effect of weight back designs so there is little rotational momentum. This gives them a tool-like, almost laser-like immediacy and a precision.

Center weighted pens are deliciously ambiguous. They suit the creative ebb and flow of inspirations that are almost immediately rewritten,

No other pen balance embodies the dual personalities of creator and judge. It's a razor-sharp edge few can effectively walk—neither over-filled with oneself nor one's self-doubt.

Correcting and editing requires a reserved, cool-headed detachment reinforced by the feel of a rear weighted pen.

For proofing, correcting, considering options, nuances, layers of meaning—for exercising power and judgement. Overall the heaviest weight option that's best used with a light hand. Often preferred by writers with cursive lettering.

Weight back pens present the fingers with a counterbalanced forebody to manuever. So the pen is outright hefty when moving the hand but the tip has a surprisingly light and flowing touch. With BOMApens there is yet another dimension because the weight back models are the heaviest and have very high rotational inertia. Cursive script writers will immediately notice the amped-up feeling of flow and pen rotation.

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