I tend to avoid using yellow pens as the ink tends to be so bright you can’t even see what I’ve written. I typically reach for my Papermate Inkjoy Gel when I want a yellow pen for a rainbow spread. But instead of using that same pen all the time I decided to test all of the yellow pens I’ve acquired over the years from various rainbow pen packs.

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Yellow Pen Swatches

I did this testing in one of my Plum Paper notebooks (see my haul in this post).

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These are the yellow pens I tested (a variety of ballpoint, gel pens, fine tip and marker pens)

• Staedtler Color 1mm
• Stabilo Point 88 fine
• Uni Pi’s dual tip (only the fat end had ghosting)
• MUJI Hexa Pen
• Pilot twin marker Fine & extra fine
• Ooly color connect gel
• Pilot Frixion erasable
• Staedtler Triplus Fineliner 0.3mm
• Daiso fine tip
• Papermate Flair UF
• Sharpie Art Pen Fine
• Inklab Fineliner
• Pilot pop’lol pastel
• Kikki K write in rainbow 0.4mm
• Paperchase sign pen
• Faber Castell Grip fine pen 0.4mm
• Caliart Fineliner 0.38mm
• Kikki K make it precise felt pen
• Zebra Sarasa Clip 0.5mm
• Kaco Pure Green Gel 0.5mm
• Kingart Inkline Pen
• Papermate Inkjoy Gel 0.7
• BLOT Gel Pen
• DONG-A Twinliner Soft
• Smiggle tri grip ballpoint
• Staedtler Triplus Broadliner 0.8mm
• Staedtler Twin tip 0.5/0.8mm and 3mm

Ghosting and bleed through

As yellow is such a light color, there was no bleed through. There was some ghosting for only 2 of the marker pens (Uni Pi’s and Pilot Twin Marker)

Related: How I use different types of pens when planning

I recommend

• Staedtler Triplus Broadliner 0.8mm
• Staedtler Twin tip 0.5/0.8mm and 3mm
• Staedtler Color 1mm
• Stabilo Point 88 fine
• Uni Pi’s dual tip (only the fat end had ghosting)
• MUJI Hexa Pen
• Pilot twin marker Fine & extra fine
• Ooly color connect gel (ok, but not as good as the rest of the pens listed above)

If you don’t mind more of a golden yellow than a real yellow, then I recommend:

• Papermate Inkjoy Gel 0.7
• BLOT Gel Pen
• DONG-A Twinliner Soft (note that this is actual a dual tip highlighter)
• Smiggle tri grip ballpoint (the only ballpoint pen on this list)

I do not recommend

• Pilot Frixion erasable (my favorite pens let me down – the yellow sucks!)
• Staedtler Triplus Fineliner 0.3mm
• Daiso fine tip (this pen looks like a knock off Papermate Flair – it dried out about a month after I purchased it)
• Papermate Flair UF – note that I have the candy colors set so not a true rainbow collection. The Candy color with the gold lid actually looks like a mustard color
• Sharpie Art Pen Fine
• Inklab Fineliner (the rest of the colors these pens come in are great just not the yellow)
• Pilot pop’lol pastel (too neon it’s hard to read)
• Kikki K write in rainbow 0.4mm (the needle tip tends to skip)
• Paperchase sign pen
• Faber Castell Grip fine pen 0.4mm (the pens with yellow lids either look mustard or orange when you write with them)
• Caliart Fineliner 0.38mm
• Kikki K make it precise felt pen (love the other colors in the pack and how these pens write, but the yellow is too light)
• Zebra Sarasa Clip 0.5mm (the ink comes out more orange than yellow or gold)
• Kaco Pure Green Gel 0.5mm
• Kingart Inkline Pen (the rest of the colors in this pack are fine, it’s just this yellow one that randomly dried out)

More pen reviews

• After trying more than 20 pen brands, these are my top 5
• Brush pens versus highlighters: which is better for planning?
• 5 Pen brands that are similar but cheaper than the Staedtler Triplus Fineliner 0.3mm
• How I use different types of pens when planning

Planning tips

• Answers to 50 Frequently Asked Planner Questions 
• Why I plan my day using planner stickers (and why you should too!) 
• My all time favorite weekly planner layout (plus my favorite planners in this layout)

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