Kuretake ZIG Clean Color Dot Double-Sided Marker Review

The Kuretake ZIG Clean Color Dot is the marker I didn’t know I needed.

A few months ago, Kuretake reached out to me to see if I wanted to test out their Ink-Café Ink Mixing Kit, and of course my answer was YES! I had a blast mixing inks on Twitch, ending up with some very on-brand colors to use in markers and brush pens. I need to test them in fountain pens next.

Unbeknownst to me, Kuretake would add a few extra items to my swag bag, including these Color Dot markers. I’m a fan of Kuretake products already, and I thought “Oh cool, some markers to play with. Wait, they do what?”

The Color Dot series isn’t simply a set of double-sided markers with one side featuring a broad tip, and the opposite side a fine tip. Yes, it is that, but the broad tip is round and squishy, allowing for pressure sensitive line variation ranging from 1.0 mm to 5.0 mm line widths.

Also, the squishy round tip makes perfect circles when using the pen like a stamp. This is what I am here for.

While not marketed as a highlighter, these markers are a perfect compliment to any type of journal or planner. Headers, highlights, checkboxes, underlines - all in cool colors - make these markers fun, and functional. That’s my favorite category of stationery.

I have a # and —> habit in my planner that is tough to break. Main topics start with a #, with sub-topics leading with an —>. It’s a functional way of writing for how I process things. If I wanted to add color to my page (I always want to add color, I rarely do,) I could swap those marks with various dot widths. The dots could be used for task lists as well, with a colorful dot marked through with a pen or pencil when completed. I just need to be willing to use multiple pens when I’m focusing on writing. It’s a process.

Box instructions are something I rarely discuss, but Kuretake went out of their way to include all kinds of details on the packaging, and on the pens themselves. There are visuals for pressing the tip on the page to show the range of dot sizes, a caution not to press too hard or the ink might bleed through the page, and even a “Keep Horizontal” note on the pen barrel so you don’t have to question how to store them when not in use. There is even a QR code to scan for additional tips and techniques for the Clean Color Dot series of markers.

Yes, its a lot of information, and yes, the barrels are loaded with text as well, but at least the details are pertinent and proper.

If there was any hammer to drop, it would be the price. $3.45 individually, or as low as $2.05 when bought in sets (This 6-color set is easily the best deal.) That’s expensive on a single pen basis, but fine for a single pen test. If you like them, individually would not be the way to go, unless you wanted to add in some of the Metallic options.

Overall, I’m impressed. I would have never bought these myself, but Kuretake’s sneak attack got me good! I love the dot variability they offer, plus the great marker colors. Consider me Clean Color Dot convert.

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

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Taccia Spotlight Forest Eye Fountain Pen Review

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

The Taccia Spotlight debuted a few years ago at the Dallas 2019 pen show. I remember Shu-Jen Lin, Taccia’s Brand Manager, telling me that they had just gotten them in time for the show and she was really excited to have a new offering. Taccia is known primarily for their gorgeous, artisan-made urushi pens, but they have always made sure to have pens that were more budget-friendly, like the Spectrum and Pinnacle.

The Taccia Spotlight is a classically-shaped resin pen with silver trim. All of the models of the Spotlight are demonstrators; this review is for Forest Eye, which is the only colorway that is multicolored, with swirls of green, yellow and brown against a clear canvas. The other available colors are Highlighter Vision (a fluorescent yellowish green), Pure Clear (totally clear), and Airline Blue (a medium sky, almost turquoise blue).

The Spotlight comes in a black Taccia-branded box with a black outer box sleeve. There is a Sailor converter with a green piston knob included, which looks really good with this colorway.

The green piston knob of the converter looks great in this pen.

Closeup of the green, yellow and brown swirls of the Forest Eye.

The pen is polished on both the interior and exterior, giving it a smooth clean finish. According to their website, the pens are not injection-molded but hand-turned. But the pen isn’t just lovely to look at, it also writes well because it houses Sailor nibs which are specially made and branded for Taccia. Unlike other steel nibs found in other Sailor pens like the Lecoule or Compass which are usually only available in MF, the Spotlight’s steel nib comes in a variety of nib sizes and the writing experience also feels different. The Spotlight steel nib feels more like a Sailor 14kt gold nib than the Lecoule steel nib; the pencil-like feedback is more like the gold nib, firm but not quite as nail-like as the Lecoule nib. Sailor does have some steel nibbed models, like the Procolor or Shikiori, that look more similar to the Taccia nib. Aesthetically, the Taccia steel nib just looks nicer/fancier to me than the Lecoule nib.

L to R: Nibs from the Sailor Pro Gear Slim, Pro Gear, Procolor, Taccia Spotlight, Lecoule, and Compass.

Feeds from the same pens - The Spotlight has a similar feed as the Procolor, and is more similar to the gold-nibbed feeds than to the Lecoule/Compass feeds.

I like that the cap has an inner cap to help prevent evaporation. The nib wrote flawlessly even after not being used for a couple weeks.

The inner cap stops right at the collar of the feed/housing to minimize evaporation.

The Spotlight is a fairly light pen, weighing in at 0.845 oz/23.95 g capped and 0.42 oz/11.91 g uncapped. I excluded the converter in the weight, in case you wanted to use cartridges instead. Note that Taccia Pens only work with proprietary Sailor converters and cartridges. I don’t post my pens but you could do so with the Spotlight and it wouldn’t feel too back-heavy. Similarly weighted pens include the Pilot Custom 74 and Platinum 3776, both of which weigh in at 0.8oz/0.70 oz capped and 0.5 oz/0.33 oz uncapped, respectively.

Comparison with other pens L to R: Platinum 3776, Esterbrook Estie, Pelikan M600, Pilot Custom Heritage 92, Taccia Spectrum, Sailor Pro Gear Slim, Sailor Pro Gear, Sailor Compass, Taccia Spotlight, Sailor Lecoule, Sailor Procolor, TWSBI 580 ALR, TWSBI Eco, Lamy Studio, Lamy Safari, Leonardo Momento Zero

The Taccia Spotlight, along with other models like the Spectrum and Pinnacle, are available in steel (EF, F, M, B & Music) or 14kt gold (EF, F, MF, M, B and Music) nibs. It has a retail/street price of $159/$127 (~140 EU/110 EU) for the steel nib and $269/$215 (236 EU/189 EU) for the gold nib. I think the steel nib is a nice option for someone looking for a next-level steel nib pen as there aren’t many Japanese steel nib pens in the $75-$150 range, but the gold nib feels just a bit on the pricier side, considering the street price for a regular issue Pilot Custom 74 is $200/$160, the Platinum 3776 is $220/$176, and even the Sailor Pro Gear Slim or 1911S which would be the most similar to the Spotlight is $225/$180.

Likes:

• Good looking, demonstrator pen that’s available in several colors and nib offerings in both steel and gold
• Reliable, well-tuned nib that writes well out of the box
• Inner cap helps with preventing evaporation

Things to consider:

• Pen may be too light for some users
• Price is a bit on the higher side, especially for the gold option, as compared to similar Japanese counterparts

Overall, the Taccia Spotlight is a really nice writer and very comfortable for long writing sessions. The inner cap sealed well, allowing it to start up immediately after a couple weeks of unuse.

(Brad purchased this pen at a discount from Vanness Pens for review purposes.)

Livework Ballpoint 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!)

You know how sometimes you just need a pen? Not a writing experience, not anything transcendent or luxurious--you just need to write something down real quick. It happens all the time, right? At least, it does for me. And I don't usually want to unpack and unroll a swath of glorious pens in that moment. One needs a quick -access basic pen sometimes.

But we're pen addicts, so our quick-access basic pen must also be fun in some way. Enter the Livework Ballpoint Pen. It's cute and exciting enough to feel special, inexpensive enough at $2 to be a loaner pen, and can be tossed in a bag or backpack with nary a worry for its survival.

The pen is made from lightweight plastic with a simple plastic clip and click nock. In the hand, it feels like a typical disposable ballpoint, though it is refillable. The refill is $1.50, which is nearly the cost of the pen itself, but is definitely where the cost is balanced on this pen.

The refill is a 0.5 mm with a nice crisp line and smoothly flowing ink. It writes very well and I haven't had any issues with skipping or slow starting. Despite all the fun colors of the pens in this series, the ink is only available in black. The name of the color printed on the pen itself is just the name of the plastic color, which could be a bit confusing if you're expecting that to be the color it writes, as would be the case for most pens.

Ultimately, this is a cute series of pens that are good quality writers that can be that emergency writing utensil you need when you just NEED a pen, but can't bring yourself to settle for a boring one. I think it's great, and I want more colors. And at $2 apiece, I can actually have all the colors, if I want. Maybe not the one called “Mayonnaise" but maybe even that one. It's a simple, low-investment piece that still brings me joy when I'm crossing items off a grocery list or jotting down an appointment time in the back of an envelope.

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

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