Best planner supplies if you have small handwriting
If you have small handwriting then in today’s post I have (what I think) compiled a list of the best stationery for your planner or bullet journal.
Disclaimer: This list contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking one of these links I’ll receive a small commission in exchange for referring you.
Dot markers
Dot markers are very useful for quickly making checklists among other uses. The Zig Dot markers come to mind because you can do 3 distinct size dots. Some dot marker brands can be quite inky but the Zig can do tiny dots if you apply light pressure, so you can match the size of your handwriting.
Read more: Weekly spread using Martha Stewart Discbound Inserts and Zig Dot markers as highlighters
Mini sticky notes
Post it Note 3M are well known and popular for a reason. Of all the sticky notes I’ve used, they actually stay sticky and come in so many pretty colors to choose from. You could use them for meal planning, tabs in your bullet journal, appointments that are subject to change, recurring cleaning tasks etc.
Related post: Quick and easy weekly meal planning using sticky notes
Dot grid notebooks with smaller than 5mm grid
Most dot grid notebooks have a 5mm dot grid. I usually skip a row in this size dot grid as I don’t like how bunched up my writing looks if I don’t. But if you have small handwriting the 5mm grid would probably work quite well to write on every line.
If you’re not sure what dot grid size to use, see this post for tips: What dot grid size is best for bullet journaling?
If you’d prefer a smaller dot grid, the Nuuna notebook has a 3.5mm dot grid.
Nuuna dot grid notebook (3.5mm grid) review including pen test and video flipthrough)
If you want more notebook options, I did a comparison of 70+ notebooks which can be downloaded here.
0.3mm or 0.4mm pens
Most pens are 0.5mm to 0.7mm but if you’re looking for something smaller, here are a few I recommend:
- Muji gel pens 0.3mm
- Staedtler Triplus finerliner 0.3mm (although I feel these write more like a 0.5mm)
- Frixion erasable 0.38mm
- Sakura Pigma Micron
- The Paper Studio fineliner pens
- Artline fineliner 0.4mm
- Pilot G2 gel ultra fine 0.38mm
- KINGART PRO Inkline™ Fine Line Pens 0.35mm
- UNI Pin 0.3mm Fineliner
- MARVY Uchida Le Pen 0.3mm
I usually stick to 0.7mm pen tips but I don’t mind the 0.5mm MUJI Gel. They write very smoothly, come in plenty of colors and you can buy them individually so if you have a favorite color you can buy more of just that color, instead of having to buy an entire pack again. Which is much appreciated as these pens aren’t cheap!
The 0.38mm Frixion erasable were a little too scratchy to write with for my liking, but I still think Frixion is the best erasable pen brand I’ve come across to date. The ink doesn’t skip as much as some other brands I’ve tried, and they erase the cleanest of the erasable pens too.
I write on an angle so needle tip pens are a bit difficult for me to write with. But if you have small handwriting then needle tip pens usually have a 0.3mm or smaller tip.
Unfortunately I can’t find The Paper Studio pens for sale anymore…
…If you want a pack like in the photo above where you can try out different pen thicknesses, try the Sakura Pigma Micron.
Or the Kingart inkline pens.
If you’re curious about which pens work best on different paper thicknesses, see this post: Testing different pens on different paper thickness (80, 120, 140, 160 and 180 GSM paper)
Some pens with smaller tip sizes that I don’t recommend (they write scratchy, they’re oddly expensive but not very good quality, or the ink doesn’t last very long):
- Hi-Tec-C Maica
- Pilot Juice and Pilot Juice Up (very disappointing as I love the Pilot Pop’lol pens)
Read more: Pen Brands Comparison (and my favorite pens for each brand)
Highlighters
If you write small your pages can end up looking like a sea of text. Highlighters are great way to break up all that text without using up any extra space on the page. You could use dot markers (I’m still testing if this will blunt the tip in the long run so maybe only do this with some cheap dot markers), otherwise most highlighter brands have a 5mm chisel tip.
Here are some highlighters with a 3.5mm chisel tip:
- Pilot Spotliter 2
- Mitsubishi PROPUS 2
- Typo
- Preppy platinum
- BIC brite liner grip
- DONG-A Miffy Twin Underliner
- Pilot Frixion erasable
- Staples Hype
And some more options with a 3mm chisel tip:
- Zebra Sparky-1
- Sharpie Smear Guard
- Target
- Daiso fluorescent pen
Read more: Highlighter swatches and thickness comparison (38 brands compared)
Mini planner stickers
Some brands with smaller planner stickers are:
- KHD Stickers
- Planner Kate
- Carpe Diem
- PMD Stickers
- Peter Pauper Press
- Recollections
- Happy Cloud Inc
- Sticker Paige Plans
- The Paper Studio Agenda 52
- Life Organized by Paper House
Of the above brands, my recommendation would be KHD stickers. I love the bright rainbow colors plus the quality and color printing is excellent.
Related post: Planner Kate versus KHDStickers: Which brand has better planner stickers?
Stencils
I usually steer clear of metal stencils as the opening isn’t big enough for me to get a 7mm pen tip in there. If you like using 3mm pens that size would be ideal for these types of stencils:
aleks melnyk no.423 metal stencil
All the tiny little boxes on habit trackers are another one that’s better with a small pen tip.
Alphabet stencils are another problematic one. I usually avoid using these for anything other than the main heading, but I’m on the search for some alphabet stencils that I could use for list / category headings. Where I don’t want the text taking up multiple lines in the dot grid, but I want it to be larger than my handwriting. Plus not so small that I can’t easily get a pen around all the bends of the letters. It’s quite frustrating going back and erasing where the pen slipped then doing manual touch ups, the time it takes I may as well just write it out myself and not use a stencil!
Some more planner stencils recommendations are in these posts:
- Quickly create monthly spreads in your bullet journal: These are all the stencils you need
- Review of the Speedy Stencils by Sunny Streak (plenty of weekly and monthly layout ideas)
- Best stencils for bullet journal daily, weekly and monthly spreads
- The best time saving row and column stencils for bullet journaling
- Quickly create monthly spreads in your bullet journal: These are all the stencils you need
Happy planner inserts
Most planners are A5, around 7 x 9″ or US letter page size. If you have small handwriting you might not need all that space and that’s where I think the Happy Planner half sheet inserts are a good option.
I often use the classic size half sheets for making lists, and for weeks where I don’t have a lot to plan.
If you have really tiny handwriting you could try the Happy Planner mini half sheets but I think the size of them (2.625″ wide x 7″ high) makes them unusable. The only insert I’ve used in this page size is the habit tracker.
Rainbow weekly spread with Happy Planner Half Sheet Inserts & Fun Brights Sticker Book
More planning tips
- How I use different types of pens when planning
- Minimalist Planner Decorating: Title Ideas for your Bullet Journal
- How to get started digital planning: the tools & resources you need
Liked this post? Pin it!
