If you want to decorate your bullet journal in the easiest fuss free (and cheapest) way then highlighters are the way to go – here are my favorites for each type:
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1. Fat Tip
Most people probably call these chisel tip but I call them fat tip. Basically, it’s the highlighters you can get from just about anywhere. My favorite are the Stabilo Boss as the chisel tip is 0.5mm which is the same height as the spacing between dots in most notebooks.
I also recommend:
- Stabilo Boss
- Faber Castell
- Stabilo Swing Cool
- Sharpie Clearview (they only come in 4 colors though)
- Staedtler Textsurfer
Trying various highlighter widths:
If you don’t want to splurge for the more well-known brands I’ve found cheaper knocks for most of them. As you can see in the picture below, the colors are almost identical!
2. Dual tip
Great for borders, underlining and simple decorating. You don’t have to buy dual tip highlighters – using the point end of a normal highlighter works fine too.
I Recommend:
- Tombow Kei Coat
- Daiso Twin Tip
- Zebra Just Fit
- Uni Propus Window
- Zebra Mildliner (expensive though so I’d only get if you really want their colors)
- Any of these 4 similar & cheaper alternatives to the Zebra Mildliners
Read more: Favorite dual tip highlighters for planning (roundup)
3. No bleed through or ghosting
Use gel highlighters. They remind me of a cross between a highlighter pencil and zooms (twistable crayons).
I’ve tried a couple of different gel highlighter brands – there wasn’t much difference between them so I’d just get whatever is readily available.
They’re supposed to be really good for highlighting your Bible with no bleed through on the other side.
These are the Thornton’s wax highlighters that I got from Amazon. THere was no bleed through when I tried them out.
Daily planning bullet journal style (using a Plum Paper grid dot notebook)
If you’re wondering if there’s any traditional highlighters (e.g. chisel tip) that aren’t prone to ghosting… well not really. The paper of most bullet journals tends to be really thin so just about every highlighter will have some ghosting:
Read more: Leuchtturm1917 Bullet Journal Notebook A5
4. Thin
Perfect for borders, underlining and drawing circles around things e.g. mind maps or numbers
Recommended thin tip highlighters
- Kikki K fluorescent Pen
- Daiso Twin tip
- Any twin tip listed on the dual tip recommended list earlier in this post
If you don’t want to buy a thin tip highlighter, just angle the chisel tip so that you’re using the pointed tip not the chisel end. That’s what I did for the ‘blog posts’ text on this spread:
Bullet journaling in my custom Agendio dot grid notebook
Here’s a spread I did with the Daiso pen like highlighters
Read more: Pens & Highlighters Smear Testing: Which ones don’t smear
5. Erasable
Erasable highlighters are good – but only if you’re using a ballpoint pen. They tend to smear when you erase (especially the Frixion highlighters) if you use them with ink pens like gel pens. They’re more expensive and if, like me, you already use erasable pens for bullet journaling, then I don’t think it’s worthwhile getting them. If you erase the highlighter it’ll take the erasable pen ink with it. Since I almost always use erasable pens using both isn’t a great combination.
The other alternative are highlighters that have 2 ends – 1 for the ink and the other for the erasable part. They’re less common but are better if you do a lot of highlighting (quicker than frixion / erasing by heat).
Recommended:
- Frixion erasable (brights not the pastel, they are far too pastel especially against the yellow paper of most bullet journals)
- Foray erasable
- Ooly erasable
Related: Favorite erasable highlighters for planning
I don’t recommend the Crayola erasable – the colors are really dark.
Read more: Favorite erasable highlighters for planning
6. Pastel
I normally avoid pastel highlighters however they’re one of the best options for bullet journaling: less prone to bleed through and you can write over the top of the highlighter to use them for headings.
I Recommend:
- Stabilo Boss Pastel (the tip is 0.5mm high – perfect for bullet journals)
- Uni Propus Window 2 way
- Daiso Fluroescent Pen
- CHOSCH Highlighter (not the green though, really gross color, see image below)
- Iconic 2 way marker
- Stabilo Swing cool pastel
Read more: Best highlighters for planning
7. Decorating
Highlighter stamps are ideal for list making but do tend to be really ink and prone to bleed through.
Glitter highlighters are another option for easy decorating. I have one of the Zebra Kirarich Glitter Highlighter but need to get the whole pack!
More bullet journal tips
- 7 Reasons why I don’t use stitched notebooks for bullet journaling
- How to choose the right bullet journal notebook for you (10 things to check)
- 20 Bullet Journal Weekly Spread Ideas (One Page Layouts)
Planner spreads
- Bullet journaling with planner stickers in the Happy Notes Book
- Bullet journaling on black paper with white & gold pens
- Quick 1 page rainbow spread in the Happy Notes
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