New from Lamy- The Z59 Lamy Cursive Nib

Lamy engineers have developed a fountain pen nib specially designed to meet the
requirements of hanzi, kanji, kana, heiti, mingti, Sanskrit, Hangul and even the Arabic
scripts. The Lamy Cursive Nib is made from the highest quality stainless steel. These
“running script” nibs are laser cut, hand shaped and write tested to ensure they meet
Lamy’s strict quality and performance standards.

Why cursive writing styles need a nib that is perfectly aligned to them:

Cursive (also known as script or joined-up writing) is any style of penmanship in which
some characters are written joined together in a flowing manner, in contrast to “print
script”, using block letters, in which the letters of a word are unconnected. It varies in
functionality and modern-day usage across languages and regions. The origins of the
cursive method are associated with practical advantages of writing speed and infrequent
pen-lifting to accommodate the limitations of quills and steel nib dipping pens.

There are three subclasses of cursive writing:

1. Ligature – writing the letters of words with lines connecting the letters so that the writer
does not have to lift the pen or pencil from the paper between letters.

2. Looped – in looped cursive penmanship, some ascenders and descenders have loops that
provide for joins.

3. Italic – cursive italic penmanship features nonlooped joins or no joins.

Most modern day fountain pen nibs are shaped to accommodate cursive ligature, looped,
as well as italic forms. However, they are not ideally suited for “running script”, the type of
cursive used in Chinese writing. The running aspect of this script has more to do with the
formation and connectedness of strokes within an individual character than with
connections between characters, as in Western connected cursive.

Hanzi (Chinese) and kanji (Japanese) are the Chinese characters that both languages make
use of in their writing systems. Chinese is written entirely in hanzi, while Japanese makes
heavy use of Chinese characters.
When it comes to nibs, there are a number of choices and with good reason. Every person’s
handwriting is different! Lamy offers the perfect nib for every style of writing and every
preference. Discover how to find the right one for you in the Lamy Nib Guide.

In principle, you can combine your favorite Lamy Fountain pen with any Lamy nib to create
your perfect writing instrument. The LAMY 2000 is an exception to this rule as it has its own
special nib. Please ask your trusted Lamy retailer to swap your nib for you, particularly in the
case of specialist nibs.