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Oh wow. Did not know that there was an ISO standard for pen refills: https://unsharpen.com/pen-refill-guide/ https://unsharpen.com/pen-refill-guide/
by throw_away 5y ago
Oh wow. Did not know that there was an ISO standard for pen refills: https://unsharpen.com/pen-refill-guide/ https://unsharpen.com/pen-refill-guide/
- gumby 5y agoBut not fountain pen cartridges (the “international format” seems not to be an ISO standard). However there are ISO standards for the inks themselves, which can be the contents of these cartridges. Unsurprisingly there are also national ink standards. For example certain contracts like marriage licenses in Germany are only legal if signed with one of two DIN standard inks that are certified to last at least a century.
- mschuster91 5y ago> For example certain contracts like marriage licenses in Germany are only legal if signed with one of two DIN standard inks that are certified to last at least a century. German here. WTF? (Not that I don't believe it, but I couldn't find sources for that one)
- richlogan 5y agoThis is Iron Gall Ink I think - we have registrar ink here in the UK too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_gall_ink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_gall_ink
- wl 5y agoIron gall ink is a poor choice for documents that should last a long time. It's an acidic ink, which damages paper. The iron rusts over time. The ink blooms. These things are manageable if the documents in question are stored in a cool, dry place. But why bother when there are better inks today?
- mhd 5y agoI don't know about any special rules for marriage licenses, but for inks there's DIN/ISO 12757-2. Search for "Dokumentenechtheit". It's not that exotic, though. It gets a bit weird for printers. Laser and dot-matrix printers generally are okay, but you need a certified ink jet. Problem is that by the time they're certified, they might not be available. And then you only get the certification on proper paper, with the default inks, so don't cheap out on your old HP... As this is a ISO norm, too, I don't think this is something peculiar to Germany, after all, document storage isn't just a teutonic issue.
- gumby 5y agoI imagine there must be other countries with similar rules, just as the opposite is true. For example in the US, in general whatever two parties freely agree to is litigatable, even if scribbled with a pencil on the back of a shopping bag. The units or language used are not constrained. In California, and probably other states, a verbal contract is binding (though proving what was said can be tough).
- mhd 5y agoThis is about archival, not contract law. You can seal contracts with handshakes in Germany, too. But for certain types of records, you need to ensure longevity, and there are norms for that regarding paper, ink or even digital storage. I would assume the NARA has some thoughts about that, but on the local/state level things will probably be a lot more mixed than in most European nations. Both for different attitudes towards independence (I regret ever mentioning the advantages of a federal ID in Ohio), and experience (outside of universities, Europe is littered with more old documents).
- banana_giraffe 5y agoI'm reminded of checks. They use (used? not sure if it's still a thing) MICR, or Magnetic Ink Character Recognition for the code at the bottom of the check. Back in the days before any bespoke product was a search away, tracking done printer ink and toner to print checks for a small business was a surprising chore. Heck, just finding the fonts was itself a bit hard.
- gumby 5y agoThe last wedding I attended had it on a list of notices in the Rathaus.