A
marker pen,
fineliner,
marking pen,
felt-tip marker,
felt-tip pen,
flow,
marker or
texta (in
Australia) or
sketch pen (in
India), is a
pen which has its own
ink-source, and a tip made of porous, pressed fibers such as
felt. A permanent marker consists of a container (glass, aluminum or plastic) and a core of an absorbent material. This filling serves as a carrier for the ink. The upper part of the marker contains the nib that was made in earlier time of a hard felt material, and a cap to prevent the marker from drying out. Until the early 1990s the most common solvents that were used for the ink were
toluene and
xylene. These two substances are both harmful and characterized by a very strong smell. Today, the ink is usually made on the basis of alcohols (e.g.
1-propanol,
1-butanol,
diacetone alcohol and
cresols).