Posts filed under Pen Reviews

Morris Round Tip Scented Retractable Highlighter 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.)

Highlighters--an essential study and organizational tool. So much of our work depends on them, but they're not versatile. They have one job. The Morris Round Tip Scented Retractable Highlighter set didn't quite get the job done, for me.

The charm of these highlighters is in their unusual features. The tip is a wee bulb--a sphere that assures a uniform line no matter which angle you use. It does indeed stay uniform, though it's a very narrow line. To highlight larger fonts, you'd have to use several passes to cover the text. It should work great for highlighting in books, but is less effective on handwritten notes.

Another unique feature is the scent. Scented highlighters! Just like the charming markers of childhood. The included scents are orange, strawberry, blueberry, grape, banana, and melon. They are quite subtle--you have to be pretty intently huffing your highlighters to enjoy them--and some have a more chemical than fruity scent. Not always pleasant. But definitely something different.

The tips are retractable and can be extended by pushing down the large top button. They retract by pushing the button again, or by pinching the alligator clip. The overall design is cute and bubbly and feels very sturdy. They have a lovely mix of bright and pastel body colors. The clips indicate the ink color.

The colors are standard highlighter fare--neon green, yellow, blue, violet, pink, and orange. They are bold enough to be easily seen.

My main complaint comes with the actual function of the highlighters--highlighting things. The round tip makes it difficult to guide a straight line. When I use these, I end up with a very narrow wavy stripe, rather than the nice uniform ribbon of a chisel-tip highlighter. I also had serious smudging issues, even after allowing generous drying time. The only medium that didn't smear was ballpoint pen. Pencil, rollerball, gel pen, fountain pen, marker--all had significant smudging that not only obscured the text, but transferred mess to the tip of the highlighter and caused it to leave a dingy trail until the messy part was rubbed clean. It also did okay on printed text--but it showed through quite a lot on printer paper.

Overall, these are cute and fun and quirky, but don't meet my needs. If all of your highlighting is done in fine-print text books with sturdy paper, these would be just peachy. They're not great for pretty much anything else. At $2.80 apiece or $14 for the set, I'd say they're overpriced. Still, it is fun to be surprised by something new and different in what is usually a fairly mundane study aid, and these definitely have the fun factor.

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

Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Posted on March 1, 2018 by Sarah Read and filed under Morris, Highlighter, Pen Reviews.

Pentel EnerGel Clena 0.3 mm Gel Ink Pen Review

The Pentel EnerGel Clena is the brands latest foray into micro-tipped gel ink pens. Like all of its Pentel predecessors, it’s a good one. Also like its predecessors, it could be better.

Like many of you, I was first introduced to Pentel’s micro-tips with the Slicci. At the time, it was one of the best writers on the market, especially in the 0.25 mm, 0.3 mm, and 0.4 mm tip sizes. It also has a terrible barrel that is skinny and uncomfortable. For those who enjoyed the writing experience it was worth it, and I certainly used my share of them. We all wished for more though.

The Euro came out a few years later to almost no fanfare, except from me. I love this pen! It’s a weird offering though, which is why it never stuck. It was a capped barrel with a needle tip - which is fine - but only had one micro size in 0.35 mm in black, blue, and red. The remainder of the sizes were the admittedly more popular 0.5 mm, 0.7 mm, and even 1.0 mm. More traditional EnerGel sizes if you will.

The standard EnerGel kept trucking along all these years, with the RTX being the most popular yet. The barrel design got a graphical update, and the color palette was expanded to 12 colors. 12 really good colors at that. This is the product lineup that most consumers are referring to when discussing the Energel.

The introduction of the Clena caught me off guard a bit, having both 0.3 mm and 0.4 mm sizes available out the gate. Like every other EnerGel I’ve used, they are amazing writers. The lines are clean, sharp, and dark, and the writing experience is smooth, which you can’t always say about tip sizes this fine. But I want something more from this pen.

There are two reasons Pentel can’t compete in the micro-tip gel ink category against the Uni-ball Signo DX, Pilot Hi-Tec-C, and Zebra Sarasa Clip: Barrel diameter and color choices.

The Clena uses what I call the traditional EnerGel barrel. It’s the one you see in the wild and go “yeah, that’s an EnerGel.” The paint job is different for the Clena, but for all intents and purposes its identical in size, shape, clip, grip, and knock. The barrel is great for wider writers like the 0.7 mm size, but I feel that it is too wide for 0.3 mm. Since you aren’t generally writing big, flowing lines with pens this fine, you want the control of a narrower barrel. Not Slicci thin, but Euro thin.

Secondly, the only ink choices are black and red. Even the Euro had blue! The 12 shades of standard EnerGel ink would be perfect for the Clena. I’d even forego complaints of the barrel diameter if I could get orange, blue black, purple, turquoise, and more in 0.3 mm.

To fix all of this, Pentel should rework the Euro barrel with the new shiny RTX silver paint job and add in all of the new colors. That fixes both of my complaints about what is actually a very good pen. If they do that, then Pentel will be in the same conversation with all of the other micro-tip gel greats.

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

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Posted on February 26, 2018 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Pentel, Energel, Pen Reviews.

Zebra Funwari Fude Color Brush 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.)

Brush pens are so fun, but so tricky. I learned a lot listening to Ana on the recent Pen Addict Podcast (episode 292). These Zebra Funwari Fude brush pens have the firm, reinforced felt tips she mentioned that are ideal for beginners.

The pens have a white plastic body with a snap cap that matches the color of the ink (sort of). The cap does post, but not very deeply. Overall, it's a plain design. The real feature on these is the brush point.

The tips are felt, but reinforced with some plastic so they aren't as flexible as some. That helps a lot with line control and learning how and when to add pressure to get your desired line width. At first, they didn't seem to flex much at all, but they did break in after some use. They were still firm enough that the tip could be used to write with to get a finer line. Gentle pressure adds some width to the line, and then using the sides of the tip adds even more variation.

All the ink colors are water-based, but the black has some extra water-resitance so that it can be used for sketching and outlining. The pens would be great for drawing or calligraphy, though I did get a little feathering where I put down more pressure.

This set includes eight colors--black, grey, red, golden yellow, green, blue, purple, and pink. It's the full color range of the model, which has a lot of gaps, unfortunately. There isn't an orange! That shouldn't be allowed.

At $22, I do think they're a bit pricey. The overall feel and use is more school supply/beginner tool, rather than an artist's pen, but they're priced higher than some much fancier models. If you're wanting to get more into brush pen techniques,though, and struggling with the full-flex brushes, these are a great way to ease into the hobby.

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

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!