this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2025
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What I want is a darkest

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[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 27 points 4 days ago (2 children)

More Bs means it's softer, so more graphite will get onto your paper when you draw a line, which makes it darker.

More Hs means it's harder, so less graphite. The advantage is that it doesn't get used up as quickly and you can draw finer lines, although the latter is kind of a given either way, since you're using a mechanical pencil.

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Ding ding, this is the exact right answer.

For technical drawings, you generally want to use 6H and up for lines you're probably going to erase, 2H for real drafting, and 2B and up is for shading and thicker work. We'd occasionally do "structural" lines in 4B.

I doubt you can find a mechanical pencil with 4B and over though.

[–] marduk 2 points 4 days ago

Thanks for the real world examples!

[–] url@feddit.fr 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Thanks. I got a lot of HB refills and when I use them I can't even see the marks

[–] Libb@piefed.social 4 points 4 days ago

Then you know you need darker. I use HB, 2B or 4B depending if I write (2B, HB) or sketch (4B, sometimes 2B)