Posts filed under Highlighter

Morris Round Tip Scented Retractable Highlighter Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

Highlighters--an essential study and organizational tool. So much of our work depends on them, but they're not versatile. They have one job. The Morris Round Tip Scented Retractable Highlighter set didn't quite get the job done, for me.

The charm of these highlighters is in their unusual features. The tip is a wee bulb--a sphere that assures a uniform line no matter which angle you use. It does indeed stay uniform, though it's a very narrow line. To highlight larger fonts, you'd have to use several passes to cover the text. It should work great for highlighting in books, but is less effective on handwritten notes.

Another unique feature is the scent. Scented highlighters! Just like the charming markers of childhood. The included scents are orange, strawberry, blueberry, grape, banana, and melon. They are quite subtle--you have to be pretty intently huffing your highlighters to enjoy them--and some have a more chemical than fruity scent. Not always pleasant. But definitely something different.

The tips are retractable and can be extended by pushing down the large top button. They retract by pushing the button again, or by pinching the alligator clip. The overall design is cute and bubbly and feels very sturdy. They have a lovely mix of bright and pastel body colors. The clips indicate the ink color.

The colors are standard highlighter fare--neon green, yellow, blue, violet, pink, and orange. They are bold enough to be easily seen.

My main complaint comes with the actual function of the highlighters--highlighting things. The round tip makes it difficult to guide a straight line. When I use these, I end up with a very narrow wavy stripe, rather than the nice uniform ribbon of a chisel-tip highlighter. I also had serious smudging issues, even after allowing generous drying time. The only medium that didn't smear was ballpoint pen. Pencil, rollerball, gel pen, fountain pen, marker--all had significant smudging that not only obscured the text, but transferred mess to the tip of the highlighter and caused it to leave a dingy trail until the messy part was rubbed clean. It also did okay on printed text--but it showed through quite a lot on printer paper.

Overall, these are cute and fun and quirky, but don't meet my needs. If all of your highlighting is done in fine-print text books with sturdy paper, these would be just peachy. They're not great for pretty much anything else. At $2.80 apiece or $14 for the set, I'd say they're overpriced. Still, it is fun to be surprised by something new and different in what is usually a fairly mundane study aid, and these definitely have the fun factor.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on March 1, 2018 by Sarah Read and filed under Morris, Highlighter, Pen Reviews.

Zebra Justfit Double-Sided Highlighter Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

It's that time of year again. Magic is in the air, the scent is on the breeze: school supplies. So I thought I'd focus on a study tool this week. Namely, this lovely set of Zebra Justfit Double-Sided Highlighters.

This is a nice, practical set to have. The pink, orange, yellow, green, and blue colors make for a good variety for color coding notes. There are also other colors available in open stock, if you need or prefer. The chisel tip (4 mm) at one end and bullet tip (1.2 mm) at the other make it easy to highlight different kinds of texts and add notes as you go. The chisel end has a very narrow profile that makes the felt quite flexible. It's almost like a brush the way it flexes as you move. It's what makes this highlighter unique, and I think it's a nice feature. It allows you to hold the pen at different angles or write over curved surfaces and still get crisp, even lines. I worry that it will wear out, though. I recall, in my school days, running through my highlighters quite quickly, so maybe the tip will outlast the ink supply. These are not refillable, so it doesn't need to last forever.

The highlighters have a white plastic body with the center band and both caps indicating the color. The clip is fairly sturdy and has enough of a gap that you can use it as a bookmark (the highlighter's hidden second purpose in life). The caps snap shut very securely. The bodies are a good diameter, so they'll be comfortable for those long study sessions where it seems like every word of your textbook is important.

The ink is pigmented, water-based, and water-resistant. I didn't do a coffee spill test, though. It performed very well over different kinds of writing: pencil, ballpoint, rollerball, gel pen, and fountain pen. It did well over inkjet and laser printed text. It did seem to cause the liquid inks to fuzz a bit, but they weren't smeared. It worked well in books and textbooks and magazines, and was fast-drying even on coated papers. I did see some issues with bleed- and show-through on thin paper and cheap copy paper. Bleed-through with highlighters is the actual worst, because then you waste time trying to remember what was important about the text that only appears highlighted but is actually just behind the text that you really highlighted. So for lightweight or cheap papers, maybe stick to a pencil highlighter.

The colors themselves are standard and bright. They aren't as eye-searingly neon as some highlighters I've tried, but they're enough to attract attention. I find the lower saturation highlighters to be easier to study with, since there isn't as much eye strain.

This set of five sells for $6.75. More than what you'd pay for a big box store set, maybe, but not by much--and cheaper than a number of high-quality brands. I think these are perfectly practical tools. They may not scream "exciting stationery" but highlighters are the secret heroes of the school supply world, and this is a very solid set. They teach us how to remind ourselves about what's important so we can let the rest go. Life skills in addition to study skills! I think it's safe to say we could all use some of these.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on August 31, 2017 by Sarah Read and filed under Zebra, Highlighter, Pen Reviews.

Staedtler Textsurfer Gel Highlighter Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

Where were these when I was in school?

The Textsurfer gel highlighters from Staedtler come in packs of five (yellow, orange, pink, green, blue), or three (pink, orange, yellow), or as individual units. The bodies are plastic, cylindrical, with a snap cap and sturdy clips. The bottom portion is a wide, textured twist mechanism that raises or lowers the gel stick.

The gel is super smooth, like a soft crayon. It glides over the paper like warm butter. It is semi-transparent and almost seems to glow, as if it possesses some neon school supply magic. It even smells good. It's formulated to perform well on thin paper without bleeding through--so it's excellent for use in novels, planners, bibles, or textbooks. They would have been perfect for my Complete Works of Shakespeare with onionskin paper.

The gel works well over a variety of inks and is inkjet safe. The only ink type that smudged under the application was gel pen ink. Even fountain pen and rollerball ink stayed put.

On the down side, the wide rounded tips wear unevenly--so they do not produce a precise line, and the line width can vary quite a bit. They also leave a waxy residue on the paper that adds weight to the page and feels slightly sticky to the touch for a little while. But the lines do go down dry, so there isn't the slow dry time that standard highlighters have, even on coated textbook paper.

Because the gel is so soft, it wears down very quickly. Even coloring a small area leaves a noticeable flat edge on the tip. If your textbook pages look anything like mine did--with nearly everything highlighted but the pronouns and adverbs--you're going to go through these pretty fast. The gel stick is a good length, so I do think they are useful and fairly priced--but I would have needed quite a stockpile of these to complete my coursework. Like Smaug on a hoard of highlighters.

I'll use these for the occasional research project, for marking knit and crochet patterns, and for highlighting interesting quotes in the books I read. All the while homesick for my student days. I think these would be a great gift for any scholar, and I personally prefer them to the standard highlighter marker.

I remember the days of smudged highlighter lines, lines that bled through the page, or wet lines that transferred to the facing page, making it look like I'd marked something I hadn't. Exam weeks might mean the sides of my hands were permanently stained in a neon rainbow. I tried colored pencil highlighters, but they required too much pressure on the page and were rough on thin paper. These smooth gel sticks are a fantastic solution to these common student ailments that went unchecked for decades. I'll file these under "brilliant solutions you didn't know you needed for problems you hadn't thought too much about".

Sometimes it's the little things.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Posted on November 24, 2016 by Sarah Read and filed under Staedtler, Highlighter, Pen Reviews.