Posts filed under Marker

Zebra Clickart Knock Sign Pen Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

These Zebra Clickart pens have all the joy of a felt-tip marker with the convenience of a clicky pen. The 6mm tip is fine enough to use for writing or sketching, while the side of the bullet-shaped tip also works for coloring and filling in. They're very versatile and perform better than I expected.

The pen body is in white plastic with a molded roll-stop, but no clip. I wish they had clips, but the lack of one does mean they fit more nicely into overstuffed pen pouches. Since this pen is available in 36 colors, your pen pouch is bound to need all the extra room possible. The tip of the pen is conical in plastic the color of the pen's ink, and the clicky knock is also in the ink color, so you can easily see what color you're selecting from either end. The clicky knock has a very satisfying click. An A+ on the fidget scale.

The felt tip is a fine bullet shape. The tip makes a nicely thin line, and holding it at an angle creates a bolder line. It has the feel of a marker, with that familiar feedback and scritchy sound.

I was skeptical about a click marker's ability to not dry out, and even more surprised to see these don't have any sort of trap door that closes off the tip when it is retracted. The tip just retracts, chilling there in the barrel, open to the air. The secret lies in the ink, according to the specs. It will apparently not dry out for a year, so long as it is kept retracted when not in use. This magical ink absorbs moisture from the air, so it may not work as well in arid climates.

The ink performs beautifully on paper, with rich colors and good coverage. It does feather and bleed a bit on cheap copy paper, though--like just about any marker will. I think these would be excellent for sketching and art, perfect for coloring books, and super fun for planner decorating. I have blue-green, peach-pink, and dark brown here. They cost $1.65 in open stock, or $41 for a set of all 36 colors. I think that's a very good value and I definitely want all the colors.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on August 27, 2020 by Sarah Read and filed under Zebra, Marker, Pen Reviews.

Teranishi Magic Glow Slim Black Note Marker Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

The Teranishi Magic Glow Slim Black Note Markers are a bit of a marker-paint pen hybrid. They operate like markers in that they have felt bullet tips that don't require any priming, but the pigment ink behaves more like a paint. It's a pretty happy medium, if that's what your craft requires.

The build of the marker is excellent. They're sturdy and well labeled, the snap caps snap with enough satisfaction that you know they'll protect the felt tip. I was underwhelmed with the felt tips, though. They seemed a bit rough and the quality was inconsistent. Some of the markers seemed to have dried out a little in the package, so the lines were not as opaque as the wetter ones. When I applied some pressure--not a lot!--to try and squeeze out a little bit of pigment, I completely broke it. Oops! My favorite color, too! So be careful with the tips. When they say they don't require priming, they mean "don't press on this at all".

The pigment is very rich on white paper and shows up nice and bright. On black paper, it goes on dark, then give it a few seconds, then it pales to a vibrant opaque color. It looks a lot like the liquid chalk on the menus at coffee shops. It's a nice effect and it does its job well.

These could be really fun for card making or scrapbooking--but it would have to be a project you want to invest in. At $3.55 apiece or $42 for a 12-color set, these are pricey. In my opinion, too pricey. But if it's exactly the tool you need for a special project, it may be worth it. Just be careful with those tips!

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on August 16, 2018 by Sarah Read and filed under Teranishi, Marker, Pen Reviews.

Tombow Play Color Dot Marker Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

The prospect of dotting all my stationery with perfect little bright circles delighted me to no end, so I was excited to try these new Play Color Dot Markers from Tombow. The colors are fantastic and the dots are definitely charming, but ink issues severely limit their usage. Alas, I cannot dot all the things. These markers only work on goldilocks paper--coated enough to prevent massive bleed-though, but not so coated as to prevent drying. The design is brilliant, and with a recipe change I think these would be a staple product for me. But right now, I can't use them the way I want to.

These pens have two ends--a 5 mm round felt-tip marker that works as a fat line, or as a highlighter, or as a circle stamp. The stamping is tricky to get the hang of. You can't just do a vertical drop like you would with a rubber stamp--you have to lightly press, do a little wiggle so that the full circle makes contact, and then peel it away from the page at an angle. This prevents the pigment from pooling at one side of the circle making it uneven and causing it to bleed through. You can see on my test page a variety of circle fails before I got the hang of it. Once I did, however, the circles came out really nicely.

The pigment is bright enough to be seen when used as a line, but pale enough to use as a highlighter as well. Because it is water-based, though, be careful about what you highlight over. And be mindful of the paper you're using, too, because of the bleeding issues.

The other end of the pen is a very fine .3 mm plastic tip. It's nice for writing or coloring in fine spaces, though the water-based ink does give it that over-pigmented area where lines overlap. In contrast to the very wet broad end, I did experience some dry-out of the tip during longer coloring sessions.

The pen body is plastic, and colors are very well indicated all over it. The broad end has the cap with a clip, while the fine point has a small cap. Bothe caps click closed securely, and both caps post on each other, which is a lovely clever thing. The clip is nicely flexible and sturdy. The side of hte marker includes instructions for proper stamping technique both in Japanese text and in a small graphic. If it hadn't been for that graphic, I'd be making blobby circles, still.

The 12-pack includes brown, grey, lilac, blue, sky blue, mint green, apple green, honey yellow, orange, coral, sakura, and cherry red. The colors are all vibrant and fun--I really like the palette chosen. It includes practical staples and a few fun accents.

Now, those bleeding issues. The wide tip causes some ink to pool, and it's in those pooled spots that bad things happen. If used carefully, the pooling can be mostly avoided, but not entirely. On cheaper paper, even the lightest touch soaks right through. And if the ink really concentrates, it can bleed through even Tomoe River paper. And it has some drying issues on heavily-coated papers as well. The two best papers I found for these markers were Kokuyo and Rhodia--and I still had to be careful (and still did get some faint bleeding). It's a shame, because these would be SO useful for planners and bullet journaling, but no one wants to make a confusing mess of their planner. I sincerely hope that this design might be revisited in the future with a revised ink recipe. They're nearly perfect, but the flaw is a fatal one.

I'm still going to use these, though. The colors are too good, the dots are too fun. If I can't dot all the things, at least I can dot some of them. It's better than no dots at all!

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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