Hard pens are relative to soft pens. Refers to a pen made of hard material. The biggest difference between soft and hard pens is mainly based on the softness and hardness of the pen tip. According to this definition, hard pens should include pens, chalks, ballpoint pens, engraving pens, pencils, dip pens, stylus pens, wooden pens, bamboo pens, quill pens, woolen pens, plastic pens, art pens, etc. Hard-pen regular script refers to Dharma script written with a pen made of hard material and using regular script writing techniques. Hard-tipped calligraphy in the narrow sense specifically refers to calligraphy that uses a pen as the main tool to write Chinese characters. It is the most popular, extensive, convenient, vital and contemporary form of calligraphy expression in modern times. There is another problem to explain here. That is, does ancient lettering belong to hard-pen calligraphy? According to the definition, it does not belong to it, because there was no hard-pen calligraphy at that time. Even if there is. They are also carved from hard objects such as knives. We classify this kind of female engraving into "engraving", an important category of calligraphy. This is more appropriate: at the same time, it is also written on the actual object with a brush and then carved with a knife or other hard object. This kind of calligraphy uses the writing techniques and principles of the brush to carve words and should belong to the category of brush calligraphy.
The following is an appreciation of the hard-pen calligraphy works of a primary and secondary school teacher
