H means hard and B means black. An H pencil makes a light, crisp line; a B pencil makes a dark, soft one. The bigger the number in front, the further it goes that way, so a 6H is much harder than a 2H and a 6B is much darker than a 2B. HB is the one in the middle, and the one you write with.
The whole scale
Twenty grades, from hardest and lightest on the left to softest and darkest on the right:
The greys are a guide to the order, not a measurement. How dark a real pencil looks depends on the maker, the paper and how hard you press.
In words: 9H, 8H, 7H, 6H, 5H, 4H, 3H, 2H, H, F, HB, B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 5B, 6B, 7B, 8B, 9B.
What the letters mean
- H is for hard. Hard pencils leave less graphite on the paper, so the line is lighter and thinner, and the point lasts longer.
- B is for black. Soft pencils leave more graphite, so the line is darker and wider. They smudge more and need sharpening more often.
- HB is hard and black: the middle of the scale.
- F sits between HB and H. It’s usually said to mean fine, because it sharpens to a fine point that lasts. Some makers call it firm.
There’s no 1H or 1B: a plain H or B is the first step, and 2H or 2B is the second.
Which pencil for which job
| Grades | The line | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| 9H to 5H | Very faint, very thin, hardly smudges. Can dent soft paper. | Fine technical drawing, and guidelines you want to disappear under ink or paint. |
| 4H to 2H | Light and crisp. | Drafting, plans, construction lines, drawing under watercolour. |
| H and F | A little lighter than HB; holds its point well. | Small neat handwriting, technical sketches, and left-handers tired of smudges. |
| HB | Mid grey; the all-rounder. | Everyday writing, schoolwork, notes, maths. |
| B and 2B | Darker and smoother, with a slightly softer feel. | Dark writing, sketching, and answer sheets that are read by a machine. |
| 3B to 6B | Rich and dark; blends and smudges easily. | Sketching, shading, life drawing. |
| 7B to 9B | Close to black; wears down fast. | The deepest shadows and big, loose drawings. |
If you’re buying pencils to draw with, you don’t need all twenty. Five cover nearly everything: 2H, HB, 2B, 4B and 6B.
Two things that catch people out. A hard pencil pressed firmly dents the paper, and the groove stays after you rub the line out, so draw lightly with the H grades. And soft pencil smudges under your hand: work from the top of the page down, or rest your hand on a spare sheet.
What makes one harder than another
A pencil core is graphite mixed with clay, baked in a kiln. More clay gives a harder core and a lighter line. More graphite gives a softer core and a darker line. That’s the whole difference between a 6H and a 6B.
The recipe dates from the 1790s. Joseph Hardtmuth in Austria and Nicolas-Jacques Conté in France each worked out that powdered graphite could be mixed with clay and fired, and that changing the mix changed the hardness. Before that, pencils were sticks cut from solid graphite, most famously from a deposit found at Borrowdale in the north of England in the 1500s.
There has never been lead in a “lead” pencil. The people who first dug up graphite thought it was a kind of lead, and the name stuck.
One maker’s 2B isn’t another’s
The letters are a custom, not a measured standard. Nothing fixes exactly how dark a 2B has to be, so each maker’s scale is consistent with itself but not with anyone else’s. Two 2B pencils from different brands can be noticeably different. If the exact tone matters, stay with one brand for the whole drawing.
Makers don’t all stop at the same place, either:
| Range | Grades | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| Derwent Graphic | 20 | 9H | 9B |
| Mitsubishi Hi-uni | 22 | 10H | 10B |
| Staedtler Mars Lumograph | 24 | 10H | 12B |
The American numbers
Pencils sold in the United States are graded by number. The usual match is:
| US number | #1 | #2 | #2½ | #3 | #4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letter grade | B | HB | F | H | 2H |
So the famous “number 2 pencil” of American exams is an ordinary HB. Here the higher number is the harder pencil. As with the letters, not every maker follows the table exactly.
Mechanical pencils and others
- Mechanical pencil leads use the same letters. HB is the usual one, with 2B, B, H and 2H easy to find. They also come in widths: 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm for writing, 0.3 mm for fine work and 0.9 mm for a bolder line.
- Coloured pencils aren’t graded this way. Their cores are pigment with wax or oil, not graphite.
- Carpenter’s pencils are flat so they don’t roll away, and are usually sold as soft, medium or hard.
- Paint and coatings borrow the scale. In the pencil hardness test (ISO 15184), a coating is rated by the hardest pencil that won’t scratch it.
Common questions
What does HB stand for on a pencil?
Is 2B darker than HB?
What is the order of pencil grades?
Is a #2 pencil the same as an HB?
What does the F on a pencil mean?
Is there lead in a pencil?
Sources
Checked 11/11/2026. We don’t sell pencils or earn anything from the makers named here.
- Grade ranges: Staedtler’s own product page for the Mars Lumograph 100, and retailers’ listings of the full Derwent Graphic and Mitsubishi Hi-uni sets.
- Wikipedia, Pencil, for the history (Hardtmuth, Conté and Borrowdale) and the American number table. en.wikipedia.org
- The pencil test for coatings is ISO 15184, Paints and varnishes: determination of film hardness by pencil test.