Students! What Highlighters Do You Use?

[zuerincolour]

As someone who uses highlighters on a regular basis in conjunction with their fountain pens, I thought that it would be appropriate to ask you guys what you prefer to use! Anything that doesn't smudge and is bright would be great!

 

Here's the ones I prefer:

 

 

I used my Faber-Castell E-motion (M nib) with J. Herbin eclat de saphir ink.

 

My favourite highlighter would have to be the Staedtler textsurfer mainly due to the vibrant colour and slimness of the pen itself. Sharpie is quite fluorescent while the Pilot is slightly more pastel. The Moleskine ones didn't work for me, especially the orange. Barely shows up on a page, perhaps more suited to underlining. The yellow one is quite a lot better (in person) than the orange though. Unfortunately some of the colours didn't show up as nicely as I've hoped.

[montegrappaman1]

I use two preppy highlighters that I turned into eyedroppers. The ink in one is Pelikan Yellow highlighter ink, and the other is filled with Noodler's Saint Patty's Eire green. Nice bright, vibrant colors with no bleed through.

[zuerincolour]

 

 

I've never thought of trying highlighter ink, mainly 'cause it's not readily available where I am. I'm still definitely going to hunt some down and try it out, thanks!

[montegrappaman1]

I've never thought of trying highlighter ink, mainly 'cause it's not readily available where I am. I'm still definitely going to hunt some down and try it out, thanks!

Yes, it works very well, try it when you can!

 

You are quite welcome!

 

David

[Dionzi]

For the last 3 years I've used Staedler "Textsurfer Gel" highlighters, almost exclusively. http://www.amazon.com/Staedtler-Textsurfer-Gel-Highlighter-Yellow/dp/B004E2IE7Q/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t Just as a note, the URL is provided for reference, as that particular Amazon store seems to be out of the product.

These highlighters work extremely well on loose-leaf, copy paper, high-grade drawing and writing paper, and glossies, printer ink, fountain pen ink, pencil, laser ink, etc. The one caution I'd make is to not squish papers together soon after application, for the medium will transfer to other surfaces for about 5-10 minutes afterward. These do not fade in direct sunlight - it's taken two years for one sample I've experimented to dull in sunlight.

[Conan the Grammarian]

Because the bright ink highlighters I've tried tend to smudge fountain pen ink, I've been using the clutch pencil Levenger highlighter, which they don't seem to be selling anymore (only refills).

 

The yellow is pretty faint, so I use the green if the highlighting needs to stand out.

 

You'll probably get the same effect from the Moleskine highlighter pencils.

 

I'm going to try the other three you feature to see if they'll work for me.

[BlotBot]

Back in my last student days, I used Prismacolor colored pencils from an art store. Plenty of colors to choose from, and the won't run dry or bleed through thin pages.

[Threadbear]

I use a water brush (Pentel, I think), filled with Noodler's Year of the Golden Pig highlighter ink. It gets the job done and the ink lasts for ages. It's not perfect though - the brush runs dry pretty quickly and needs to be constantly recharged by squeezing the barrel to supply more ink, so it isn't ideal for highlighting big blocks of text.

 

One thing to be careful of is that this particular ink seems to curdle to a kind of toothpaste-like goo over a longish period - this has happened to me a couple of times when I left the pen untouched for something like 6 months. Not sure if it would happen if used regularly. It's not the end of the world if it does happen, because you can just squeeze the paste out, flush out the brush with water, and refill, and it goes back to working fine.

[casualmerlinconstant]

I use "Ditto" brand highlighters.

The alcohol in my sharpie highlighter destroys fountain pen inks.

[dothgrin]

With the exception of Staedtler textsurfer highlighters for printed text, I pretty much have stopped using them now that I use fountain pens. I underline extensively with fountain pens, brush pens, or Staedtler fineliners.

[Mezzie]

I use a Pilot Parallel filled with highlighter ink for typed pages, but it's a bit too wet for most books, smears on glossy paper, and makes even bulletproof fountain pen ink run. For those last few situations, I've just started using the Da Vinci dry highlighter from Rosetta (http://www.rosettausa.com/da-vinci-comfort-grip-artists-sketch-pencil-dry-highlighter-5-6-mm-lead/). It's not terribly bright, but it is far from invisible. I haven't tried any colors other than yellow yet, so it's possible the other colors are more noticeiable still.

 

I was going to get the Levenger, but it went out of stock before I got around to buying it.

[vinper]

Pelikan makes wonderful highlighting fountain pens. I have one in yellow with a BB nib and yellow fluorescent ink. There is also a model in green and I believe one in orange with an italic nib is on the way if not already here. Mine does a wonderful job of highlighting and is far more environmentally friendly than plastic disposable highlighters. Good luck with your studies. vinper

[Davis19942003]

I use a customized preppy. First, fill the pen with Noodler's Firefly, then cut the nib and feed, finally adjust the nib with sharpening stone. You just got yourself a Preppy fountain highlighter.

[Horseknitter]

Pelikan makes wonderful highlighting fountain pens. I have one in yellow with a BB nib and yellow fluorescent ink. There is also a model in green and I believe one in orange with an italic nib is on the way if not already here. Mine does a wonderful job of highlighting and is far more environmentally friendly than plastic disposable highlighters. Good luck with your studies. vinper

+1 that is, until my new puppy chewed the end of the barrel

 

Now I'm using my Neon Coral Safari (1.1mm) with Diamine Coral ink until I get my Pelikan repaired. I'm enjoying the bright coral and I'm wondering why a highlighter has to be specifically labeled as such?

[annettefhorn]

Has anyone tried the Monami pastel highlighters? Example: http://www.jetpens.com/Monami-Essenti-Soft-Highlighter-Pen-Pastel-Green/pd/9161 I don't really use highlighters any more, preferring to mark up with red FP ink, but these look nice for those put off by the eye-searing nature of most highlighters.

[Plume145]

I like the Pilot Frixion line myself, because whenever I've had to use highlighters, I've needed the ability to erase (and preferably re-write, but at least erase). The Frixion does that, you can even rewrite. You just have to make sure to wait a little bit: after highlighting if you want to erase it (if the ink is still wet it smudges) and once you have erased you need to wait to rewrite as well. Otherwise it's great.

 

If you think the frixion is a little pale, maybe try the other colors? I seem to recall the yellow being a little anemic, but tbh yellow is the last color I use out of the typical lineup of yellow-green-pink-orange-blue-purple, so I didn't try it out on many different kinds of paper or ink.

 

It also shouldn't smudge as long as you wait for your (FP) ink to dry. I mainly used mine over a darker Herbin - Bleu Nuit - and I never had any problems as long as I let the ink dry first.

 

Highlighting on paperback is a different story. PB paper and ink is pretty terrible, so for those you might need to adjust. It might be worth keeping two separate sets of highlighters, if you use them lots it's probably worth the extra expense and clutter.

[aj3537]

I love the preppy highlighters. I have the five colors and made a 6th one on my own. I personally don't like eyedroppers. I'm too clumsy but don't condemn them. I love that I can replace the tips as needed. I bought a purple preppy marker and replaced the tip with a highlighter one. I use Noodles hellfire for pink, Noodlers firefly for yellow, Noodlers st patty's Erie for green, Noodlers blue lighting for blue, purple is my own mix of hellfire and blue lighting. For orange, I bought Noodlers sunrise but it wasn't orange enough so I mixed in a little Noodlers cayenne.

 

DO NOT use the Noodlers dragon or catfish highlighter inks in Preppys, it clogs them.

 

And best of all, they're only a few dollars each. For me, a complete win. I babysit small kids and I put in the marker tips for them. So much cheaper than the Crayola marker maker and we have tons of fun with the inks I have. Or I put the roller ball tips in and let them do homework in any color they please. Their mother is pleased they like doing homework with me.

[Hewson]

If someone says a BBB Pelikan or something of the sort I will cry

I may just want to add that highlighting slabs of text is amongst the worst kinds of studying a person could possibly do. You'd be much better off practicing recall by turning over your textbook and literally recalling or possibly going through practice questions with as little reference as possible

Edited September 6, 2014 by Hewson

[ethosophical]

A year or so ago I tested several highlighters for, among other characteristics, their tendency to bleed paper. I came out really liking Pentel's Handy-Line-S. Retractable (which is kinda neat), a surprisingly good performer for the price, and refillable if that's your bag.

 

Bonus tip: if the writing on the barrels is too much for you, I'm convinced that MUJI's retractable highlighters are the same model without the writing, and take Pentel's refills.

[zuerincolour]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I may just pick up a parallel with highlighter ink for a change and try out some others mentioned here!

 

As for gel highlighters, I've found that they fade my ink to a weird brown colour a couple weeks after use, so I've avoided them sadly.