Highlighters vs. Highlighter Pencils: Are they worth the cost?
Given my addiction to pens and highighters, it isn’t surprising that when I discovered highlighter pencils I had to get some to try out!
There aren’t many highlighter pencils to choose from – I was only able to find a couple of brands and all were pricey.
Highlighter Pencils
- The Faber-Castell
- Hi Line Neon Color Marker Kutsuwa 3.9
- Staedtler Text surfer dry erase pencil
- Eco Highlighter Pencil ($5.95 each – expensive!)
Highlighters versus Highlighter Pencils
Highlighters come in more colors than highlighter pencils and it’s faster to highlight.
Pencils are less prone to smudging than highlighters but they do require sharpening.
If you’re after a finer tip than normal highlighters, some come in dual tip format (i.e. the chisel tip and a marker pen style tip) such as the Tombow Kei Coat and Zebra Midliner (Daiso has a cheap knock off that is just as good!)
Related: Review of Frixion Erasable Highlighters by Pilot – are they worth the cost?
Highlighter Pencils versus normal pencils
Normal pencils are a lot darker than highlighter pencils so it’s not as easy to see the words.
I compared highlighter pencils to Crayon, Texta and Faber-Castell pencils – highlighter pencils are definitely brighter.
I found some fluorescent colored pencils at Daiso and they were almost as good as the highlighter pencils, were only $2.80 for a pack of 8 and had more colors to choose from.
In terms of being able to erase, highlighter pencils were like normal pencils in that they don’t quite completely erase. If you’re prone to making mistakes I’d go with an erasable highlighter. I shared my favorites in this post: favorite erasable highlighters for planning
Related: 6 Useful ways to efficiently plan your week using highlighters
Highlighter Pencils versus wax highlighters
Wax highlighters don’t dry out like traditional highlighters do. They come in fewer colors and are harder to find. I’ve found them at Typo. Staedtler make some as well. They are faster and smoother to use than highlighter pencils. I definitely prefer wax highlighters to highlighter pencils (or pencils in general!)
Wax highlighters are also super bright and are less prone to smudging than normal highlighters.
Wax highlighter brands:
- Monami Essenti Soft Stick Dry / Wax
- Typo Wax highlighter
- Ohto Rouge Highlighter Pen
- Staedtler Textsurfer Gel
Are highlighter pencils worth it?
If you don’t highlight things very often e.g. you only highlight things when tax time rolls around, then yes, highlighter pencils are worth it. However, if you’re a more frequent highlighter I’d stick with traditional highlighters. A very similar option to highlighter pencils (and far less messy!) are twisable crayons (known as zooms here in Australia).
Related: Simple method for organized brain dumping of blog post ideas using a notebook and zooms
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