Nib Atlas
Help
Nib Atlas is a map of physical fountain pen shops, and a private record of the ones you have been to. Here is how to use it.
Finding shops
Map opens on the map. Search for a city or a place to move to it, then pan and zoom as you like — moving the map never reloads the results underneath you. When you have moved far enough that the results no longer match what you are looking at, Search this area appears; tapping it fetches shops for where you are now.
Results sit in a sheet below the map on a phone, which you can drag up to see more of, and beside the map on a wider screen. Tapping a shop in either opens its page.
Filters are behind the filter button, and the button shows how many are active so a forgotten filter cannot quietly hide half the map.
Shop pages
A shop page is there to answer one question: is this worth the trip? It leads with what the shop is and what you can do there, then how to get to it and what to know before you go.
Where something is not confirmed, it is left out rather than guessed at. A shop showing no opening hours has none published that we could check — that is a blank you can plan around, not an oversight.
Save is the bookmark beside the shop’s name. Saved shops gather into a list you reach from the map, which is what most people use to plan a day of visits.
Stamps and your Passport
When you are at a shop, Collect Stamp keeps the visit as an ink impression for that shop, with the place and the date. Impressions gather in your Passport, which you can browse as a list or a book, grouped by country and locality.
In the connected catalogue, sign in, choose Check my location, then confirm I am at this shop after the check passes. A stamp only appears after the server confirms it. Your precise position is discarded.
Standalone demonstrations offer preview impressions instead. Their collection dialog explains that no location check runs and that the impression stays on the device; it is not a verified visit.
Questions
Do I need an account?
Browsing does not require an account. Account-backed saves and verified stamps do, so your private collection is available across devices. In a standalone demo without sign-in configured, saves and preview impressions need no account and remain in this browser. See Privacy.
Where does Nib Atlas cover?
The current coverage, counted from the catalogue itself, is on About Nib Atlas. It is curated rather than exhaustive and grows a shop at a time, so it does not claim to list every fountain pen shop anywhere.
Why does this listing have so little on it?
Because nothing more could be confirmed from a source we can point to. Every listing names where its details came from and when they were last checked. If you know better, the listing’s own page has a way to tell us.
Something on a listing is wrong.
Open that shop’s page and use Report incorrect information at the foot of it. It carries the listing with it, so you never have to say which shop you mean.
A shop is missing.
Suggest a pen shop. The shop’s name and country are the parts we need; the city is welcome but optional, and everything else helps.
Is there a review or rating on here anywhere?
No, and there will not be. Nib Atlas has no star ratings, no review prose, no ranked feed, and no public profiles. It is about the places and whether one is worth the trip.
What does Nib Atlas know about me?
Less than you would expect, and Privacy says exactly what. The short version: location is used only when you ask, account saves and verified stamps are held privately with your account, and standalone demo records stay in this browser.
Trouble collecting a stamp?
Keep the shop page visible while checking location. If permission was denied, enable this site in your browser location settings. For an unclear reading, try once more near an entrance or window. If it still fails, contact us with the shop name and the message shown. Do not send your coordinates. Support can review the issue; contacting us does not automatically issue a stamp.
If the result was interrupted, open Passport or start a fresh check. An existing stamp is returned with its original date, without another ceremony. If asked to pause, try again later.
If your question is not here, write to us at hello@nibatlas.com.