Monthly Archives: November 2013

Well, I received my genuine Livescribe 3 refills from Livescribe and have compared them to the sample run of Generic Refills for Livescribe 3 that I had ordered and received this weekend.

Livescribe made an error in the technical specifications that they published for the Livescribe 3 refills… mistakes will happen 😦   They specify that the length of the Livescribe 3 refills is 67 mm (this is the industry standard for D1 refills) but they list the diameter as 2.5 mm (the industry standard is 2.3 mm).  Using this information I requested samples from my manufacturer for refills with the smooth-writing German inks that you all like in 67 x 2.5 mm ball point pen refills.

Turns out that the actual refills from Livescribe for the LS3 are closer to the industry-standard D1 refills because they are 67 mm long x 2.35 mm diameter!

I’ll be getting my Livescribe 3 pen sometime next week but I think that the 2.5 mm diameter refills are going to be too fat.  I’ve read some comments that the Livescribe 3 refills rattle a little bit so I’m going to wait to pass judgement until I can actually try to put these refills into my new Livescribe 3 pen.  I’ll keep you all posted!

I’ve received samples from my manufacturer of Generic Refills with Swiss tips (0.5 mm) and Japanese gel ink! The Japanese are known for their fine tip gel ink refills which are excellent for drawing complicated Chinese characters. Honestly, I generally prefer ball point pen ink, especially our smooth-writing premium German ink! but these gel ink refills are nice writers. I can see switching out my ball point refill for gel ink if I’m making a sketch or a diagram. These might not be your best choice as your regular refill since they have a limited amount of ink. Most gel ink refills are really fat so that they can hold enough ink. It takes more gel ink to write a page of text than ball point pen ink… I think that is why a lot of people like the gel ink, it can really saturate the paper and makes the line pop with a lot of contrast. Also, the writing experience is different with gel ink which I believe is water-based. Think of ball point pen ink as packing more dye per drop than gel ink; but gel ink can use different dyes because its water-based.

I’ll keep you posted on my evaluation of these Gel-ink Generic Refills.

I’ve had one enquiry about sourcing Generic Refills for the new Livescribe 3 pen. I still have not received my order of Livescribe 3 refills from Livescribe, so I don’t know how well or how poorly they write. If any of you out there have any experiences to share, I’d love to post your thoughts here!

Let me know if you prefer blue or black, medium or fine tip, or any other colors like red or green…

Within the next few weeks, I should receive the Generic Refills I’ve requested (from my manufacturer) for the new Livescribe 3. I’ll keep you posted!