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July 13, 2018

Pens & Highlighters Smear Testing: Which ones don’t smear

As someone that tends to avoid using highlighters as they’re prone to smearing, I decided once and for all to do some smear testing!

I grabbed a bunch of gel pens, fineliners and ballpoint pens plus some of the (many!) highlighters I own and set to work testing each one. I used one of my Plum Paper notebooks.

Highlighters Smear Test

I waited approx 10 seconds before highlighting. Overall I think I should’ve waited longer since a lot of them smeared. I typically wait 30 seconds when doing weekly planning and when I wait just that little bit longer the highlighters are much less likely to smear.

highlighter smear test bleed through ghosting best highlighters for planning zebra midliner stabilo gel ballpoint review recommendation tips tools supplies

Best highlighters

My all time favorite are Smiggle, Zebra highlighters and Pilot Frixion Erasable, (bright not the pastel) however all of these on this list are good!

  • Daiso Soft Marker
  • Smiggle
  • Crayon type markers
  • Mitsubishi Uni Propus Window
  • Essenti Soft Marker
  • Mitsubishi Propus 2
  • Sharpie Smear Guard
  • Pilot Frixion Erasable (brights not the pastel)
  • Zebra Justfit
  • Ooly
  • Zebra Midliner
  • Luxor Eco Write Textliter
  • Zebra Sparky – 1
  • Zebra Just Fit
  • Pentel Handy-Lines retractable & refillable
  • Platinum Preppy Fluorescent Highlighters
  • Zebra Optex Care
  • Pilot Spotliter 2
  • Zebra Optex 1 EZ
  • Chosch Light Double CS-8120
  • Tombow Kei Coat Double Sided

One brand that keeps popping up on the recommended list? Zebra highlighters. I’m yet to find highlighters from Zebra that don’t highlight smoothly with minimal smudging for both ballpoint and gel ink pens. Mitsubishi highlighters, while expensive, also rarely smear.

favorite highlighters for planning no bleed through ghosting or smudging zebra faber castle monami wax midliner staples stabilo boss honest review

favorite highlighters for planning review best planner supplies no smear bleed through smudging with gel pens ballpoint colorful erasable wax

Related: Favorite erasable highlighters for planning 

For all the hype about the Zebra Mildliners, yes they’re nice and are dual tip with a fat and thin end which is always handy, however, they aren’t a must have. There are cheaper alternatives with nicer, brighter colors! One of which are the Daiso Soft Markers.

highlighters for planning favorite supplies no smudge bleed through bright thin dual tip smiggle artline faber castel zebra midliner tombow sharpie preppy pentel

Zooms are another alternative to highlighters (plus they’re cheap and the ink never dries out). Yes another alternative is wax highlighters.

how to color code your planner using zooms cheaper alternative to highlighters blog post ideas organization how to use empty notebooks

Related: Simple method for organized brain dumping of blog post ideas using a notebook and zooms 

Ok Highlighers

  • Bic Brite Liner Fluorescent
  • Staples
  • Stabilo Boss
  • Artline
  • Big W (they’re cheap and work fine but the ink dries out after 1 year)

highlighter swatches color coding smear testing smudge bleed through planning supplies recommendation favorite tools diy

Worst Highlighters

  • Kmart
  • Woolworths
  • Reject Shop
  • Typo (ink dries out before they’re a year old)
  • Yoobi
  • Diaso erasable (the Daiso soft markers are great but the Daiso erasable highlighters are awful)

Most of the highlighters on the worst list are cheap highlighters. Cheap ones work ok with ballpoint pens if you wait a bit but almost always smudge with gel pens.

The highlighters on this list are also the most prone to bleed through and heavy ghosting on the back side of the paper (with the exception of the Daiso Soft Marker)

favorite highlighters for planners planning tool supplies zebra faber castel ooly yoobi staples mitsubishi daiso sharpie

Related: Highlighters vs. Highlighter Pencils: Are they worth the cost? 

Pens that work best with highlighters

Ballpoint pens work best with highlighters as the ink dries a lot quicker (i.e. a ballpoint 0.7mm doesn’t look at thick / inky on the page as a 0.7mm gel pen).

My recommendations:

  • Pilot Frixion erasable
  • Artline Smoove Ballpoint Pen 1.0
  • Smiggle Ballpoint Tri Grip
  • Papermate Inkjoy 100 1.0M
  • Tombow Twin Tone

Avoid

  • Gel Pens
  • Pens with a tip larger than 1.0M (tend to take longer to dry so more prone to smudging – both the pen and when highlighting)

favorite highlighters for planning swatches no bleed through ghosting brands recommendation faber castel zebra monami wax artline sharpie

More highlighter reviews

  • Cheap versus expensive pens: is there actually a difference in quality? 
  • Best highlighters for planning 
  • Ooly pen & highlighters haul (cute rainbow planner supplies) 

Pen recommendations

  • How to choose the right planner pens: what to look for when buying planner pens
  • After trying more than 20 pen brands, these are my top 5
  • Ultimate list of the best planner pen brands and how to choose colors for color coding 

Found this post helpful? Pin it!

highlighters smudge smear and bleed through testing best brands ghosting swatch test

favorite highlighters for planning smudge test smear bleed through ghosting pros and cons planner supplies

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  • Color coding your planner: how to choose which colors to useColor coding your planner: how to choose which colors to use
  • Review of Frixion Erasable Highlighters by Pilot – are they worth the cost?Review of Frixion Erasable Highlighters by Pilot – are they worth the cost?

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Posted In: Highlighters, Planner pens · Tagged: affordable highlighters, all time favorite highlighters, alternatives to color coding using pen, artline highlighter review, ballpoint pens don't smear with highlighter, ballpoint pens that don't smear, beetle tip highlighters, best colors for color coding, best highlighters, best highlighters for study, best highlighters that don't smear, bic highlighter review, cheap good quality highlighters, cheap highlighters that don't smear, cheaper alternative to zebra midliner, chosch highlighter review, compact highlighters, daiso soft marker review, dry highlighters, dry highlighters review, dual tip highlighter, essential planner supplies, faber castell highlighters, favorite highlighters for planning, favorite planner supplies, gel pens don't smear with highlighter, gel pens that don't bleed through, gel pens that don't smear, gel pens that don't smudge, highlighter pen, highlighter review, highlighters that don't smear, highlighters that don't smear on the bible, highlighters that don't smudge, how to color code using highlighters, how to stop highlighters from smearing, mitsubishi highlighter review, must have planning supplies, ooly highlighter review, pen like highlighters, pens that don't smear with highlighters, pilot highlighter review, planner essentials, planning supplies, stabilo highlighter review, thin tip highlighters, uni propus window highlighter review, where to find highlighters, yoobi highlighter review, zebra highlighters

Comments

  1. Mary says

    July 13, 2018 at 21:54

    I’ve been doing it the other way around for years. If I know I’m going to highlight what I’m about to write, I highlight the area and then write.

    • Rachael says

      July 13, 2018 at 22:44

      That would certainly avoid any potential smearing! I usually write everything in black pen then color code with highlighters afterwards as the task might end up being longer (or shorter) than the highlighted area. Your method would work well if you had recurring tasks and knew how much space you needed though

    • Kt says

      July 14, 2018 at 00:02

      I love this idea of highlighting first! Thank you for posting it.
      Cheers,

  2. vanessa Bourque says

    July 13, 2018 at 23:50

    That is good to know. Thanks for doing this test and letting us know.

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