Editing Rollerball pen (section)

== Disadvantages ==
[[File:Rollerball-macro.jpg|thumb|Close-up shot of a rollerball pen tip]]
There are a number of disadvantages inherent to roller ball pens:

* Water-based roller ball ink is more likely to smudge than a ballpoint pen's oil-based ink because water-based ink dries more slowly than its counterpart. Also if one writes in a notebook, closing it before the ink dries can stain the opposite page.  This can also prove a problem for left-handed writers or users of right-to-left scripts. Gel ink dries much more rapidly than liquid-ink, making it much more, but not completely, resistant to smudging.
* Roller ball pens with liquid-ink are more likely to "bleed" through the paper. Liquid ink is more readily absorbed into the paper due to its lower [[viscosity]]. This viscosity also causes problems when leaving the tip on the paper (to pause for a thought for example). The bleed-through effect is greatly increased as the ink is continually absorbed into the paper, creating a blotch. This does not affect gel-ink roller ball pens as much. This is one way through which the thickness of gel-ink gives it an advantage, in that it isn't as prone to being absorbed. Though the bleed-through effect of a gel-ink roller ball is greater than that of a ballpoint, it is usually not too significant.
* Roller ball pens generally run out of ink more quickly than ballpoints because roller balls use a greater amount of ink while writing. This is especially true of liquid-ink roller balls, due to gel ink having a low absorption rate as a result of its thickness. Neither lasts as long as a ballpoint.
* Uncapped roller ball pens are more likely to leak ink when, for example, placed into a shirt pocket, but most pens include caps or other mechanisms to prevent this from happening.
* A roller ball tip is more likely to clog and jam when writing over [[correction fluid]] that has not yet completely dried. This often renders the ink cartridge useless.