Highlighter And Ink

[Chrontius]

I just bought a three-pack of Sharpie Gel highlighters - a lot of highlighters simply don't work over Sheaffer Turquiose - and first off, I am startled by how smoothly they cover the page (Staples bagasse). I laid down a squiggle of my favorite blue ink, and immediately hit it with three different colors of gel. The result? Less smearing than going over it with a finger. While there is some greater-than-zero amount of smearing, you need excellent light and better eyes to spot it; in practice, it's as close to zero as any product is likely to ever achieve without using nanomachines. I haven't tried any other inks under it, I've only used my most twitchy one.

 

On the other hand, writing on top of the stuff really doesn't work. You might get an inch and a half but you also risk clogging the nib with the polymer highlighting compound; a little bit of scrubbing it on the paper will suffice to clear it, however. Gel pens are not fouled but are much more susceptible to instantly stopping writing on top of the stuff. Ballpoints are much less effected; cross works without a practical hitch, Parker rollerballs are more strongly effected, and Lamy pens require pressure to write over the polymer. My representative "generic" ballpen refill (the Night Companion Light Pen) is mildly effected, but more strongly during the "slow start" phase of ballpoint writing; Fisher space pens, as usual, don't so much as notice what they're writing on. My representative micron-ink art pen (Faber-Castell PITT artist pen; the closest to hand) works perfectly and is not significantly more likely to smear over the highlighter ink than otherwise.

 

Consider yourself warned about highlighting first, or broadly, but under normal usage conditions, these are likely the best highlighter on the market for using around fountain pen writing.

[sidewinderwcc]

Very interesting! I have never seen these before and had to google them to see the ones that you where talking about. I am for sure going to keep a look out next time I am at the store. Thanks for the heads up

[Akishira]

Hmm, interesting! Wonder if my local Officeworks will start carrying it.

 

On a side note, your Portal reference killed me.

[WinBagel]

I have been loving these for easily smeared inkjet print outs. But I have trouble getting a fine enough line with these a lot of the time. I also lose track of exactly where the point currently is (wears down like a pencil, you have to keep turning it or adjusting) and end up highlighting the wrong line.

 

But the concept is brilliant. I also like that they come in the colors I like to use, yellow, orange and pink as opposed to green and blue which always seem so harsh...I'm a bit nutty about highlighting...

[Astroix]

I just bought a Yasutomo Hi-Glider Gel Stick Highlighter and I love it. There's only one problem: no refills (that I know of).