I’ve tried many planner pens (to be honest, it’s become a bit of an addiction) and have come across many I recommend, but I’ve also come across a few planner pens that I don’t recommend.

Planner pens I don’t recommend

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1. Papermate Premium Replay Erasable

They call this pen erasable…but it’s not very good. It hardly erases any ink – you can still see the pen underneath.

Image credit: Officeworks

If you want a decent erasable pen, go with the Frixion erasable. They’re $3.50 each at Big W here in Australia – you can also find them on Amazon, at Officeworks and Jet Pens.

2. Le Pen Pens

I’d read many good reviews about these pens so was excited to try them, but was disappointed with them for a couple of reasons:

These pens are very thin – they’re hard to get a good grip with writing
They’re also neon colored (I’m not a fan of neon colored pens in general as the color is too bright to read)
They come in random colors that aren’t ideal for color coding
They aren’t readily available where I live (Australia)

I do think the fact that I could only get a hold of a few colors in Australia contributed to them making the list – I’ve seen pretty rainbow colored packs of these pens on Jet Pens so I may have to buy some and give them another go!

Image credit: Jet Pens

3. Uniball Signo Rollerball 0.7mm

This pen is inky and heavy to write with – I also find it’s prone to smearing. The uni ball insight 0.7mm can be a bit inky as well.

I love lots of the other lines of the Uni-ball range (including the 0.5mm and 0.3mm Uniball Signo) – I just don’t recommend their 0.7mm thick pens.

4. Pilot G2

A lot of people rave about how much they like this pen but it’s too inky for my liking. The ink tends to feather on the page – it does come in a lot of colors though if you wanted to use them for color coding.

5. PaperMate Grip Roller

This pen is heavy to write and the ink is prone to feathering. It’s also quite an expensive pen – there are much better cheaper alternatives!

6. PaperMate Kilometric Neon

The neon of these pens are too bright to read. I do like their black and blue pens though – they take a while to break in but once they are, they write super smooth and last a long time (they were my go to exam pen back in school!)

If you really want to use neon pens, the only neon pens I recommend are the Kaisercraft color. I also have them in the metallic. They write really nicely and come in lots of colors 🙂

7. Sharpie Ultra Fine Tip Pen

This pen tends to bleed through the pages and is rather thick to right with. It’s ok for labelling or writing titles when making a list, but I don’t recommend them (or any Sharpie) for everyday planning. If you want a thicker tipped pen for titles to make them stand out more in your planner, instead of Sharpies, then I recommend the Triplus Fineliner 1.0mm < love those pens!

8. Maxum 1.6mm

This pen is rather fat and as such, a bit clunky to write with – especially if you’re used to thinner tip pens. I only use it for headings. It’s a shame as it comes in so many nice rainbow colors!

9. Milan P1 Touch

This pen is prone to skipping (i.e. leaving white spaces in between the words. It also comes in only 5 colors and no black 🙁 – it’s only available at Officeworks

Pen Tip Size

I personally prefer to use pens that are a medium tip size (0.7mm to 1.0mm). The thinnest tip pen I own is the Stabilo point 88 in the 0.4mm size, although I’ve read nothing but rave reviews about the Staedtler Triplus 0.3mm (they’re next on my pen wish list!)

If you don’t like writing with a thick ballpoint pen, then I’d avoid anything more than 1.0mm. I have 2 pens with a thicker tip: the PaperMate Profile 1.4B and the Maximum 1.6 and both I rarely use as they’re a bit clunky to write with – especially when you’ve been using a medium tip size for so long.

I wrote an entire post with a guide on how to choose the right planner pens: what to look for when buying planner pens

Are expensive pens worth it?

Yes and no. I’m not someone that spends much money on clothes and shoes (in fact, I hate shopping for them). But stationery? Don’t let me near a stationery store – I won’t be able to walk out of there empty handed!

If you do a lot of writing and you’re fed up with using cheap pens that smudge (especially if you’re left handed), then I do think it’s worth it to splurge on expensive pens. So what qualifies as an expensive pen?

To me, pens that cost $3 or more each are an expensive pen. I’ve spent quite a few lunch breaks at Officeworks testing out pens and in my opinion, most ballpoint pens write the same, regardless of price. The only argument would be that the more expensive ones could last longer.

Gel pens are expensive (more expensive than ballpoint pens) but they tend to come in nicer colors that write brighter on the page. Colored ink on ballpoint pens can be a bit dull.

I hesitated about buying the PaperMate Inkjoy Gel 0.7mm pens for a long time. They’re really expensive but they are also my all time favorite gel pens.

So yes sometimes expensive pens are worth it!

Tip: if you find a stationery store that allows you to test pens – test them! Just make sure if you do want to buy one of the pens you test, that you check it has a full amount of ink – you can never know how many people have tested the pen before you!

If you’re not sure about a pen brand, Officeworks (for my fellow Aussies) have tons of pens available individually if you want to try one for a while first before buying a pack with other colors in the range.

Color Coding

If you want to color code your planner, I don’t recommend using red, teal or yellow as part of your colors. Red and teal are often hard to find in matching stationery such as sticky notes, and yellow pens are always hard to read as the ink is so bright.

More tips on color coding in these posts:

What about writing on label paper?

Note that while I don’t recommend the above pens, all wrote ok (apart from ink feathering) when I tested them on normal copy paper as well as matte label paper.

If you’re looking for a pen to write with on glossy label paper, use a ballpoint pen. Ballpoint pens write well on any type of paper, they’re also a lot cheaper than gel pens!