Posts filed under Pentel

Pentel EnerGel Permanent Gel Ink 0.5mm

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

The Pentel EnerGel line of pens has been around for quite some time and enjoys a healthy level of popularity due to how easy they are to find in big box stores. They're known for the dark, rich line that the gel lays down, and there's good reason that many people swear by them.

If the EnerGel is already so good, how can you improve it? Well, one way is to offer a variant of the pen that provides waterproof and fade-resistant gel ink. That's exactly what the Pentel EnerGel Permanent Gel pen sets out to do.

On the outside, the permanent ink version of this pen looks exactly like a normal EnerGel, minus the slight accent color variations. The click mechanism is the same, the grip section is the same, and the clip is the same. As an added bonus, the barrel is made up of 54% recycled material.

When writing with this pen, it's easy to compare it to the normal EnerGel since it shares the same product name. But since this variant features a new ink formula, it doesn't write exactly like its older sibling. It's still a smooth feel with plenty of ink flow, and the colors are bright and pleasing. The ink delivery is consistent and there aren't any issues with skipping. The pen itself is quite light, so it's easy to hold and manipulate on the page.

Where it differs is hard to put your finger on at first, but it comes down to the different ink formula. It looks and acts like a regular EnerGel, but the ink color and line isn't quite as bold and sharp. In both the black and blue pens, I sometimes noticed a small amount of railroading in the line, which I've never experienced with the standard EnerGel pens, regardless of tip size.

By no means am I saying that this pen doesn't write well — not at all. It's a great pen that writes well, dries fast, and leaves you with the assurance that it's as permanent as ink can be. The difference here is that it just isn't as nice to use as the standard EnerGel pen, which is already a tall order.

The waterproof nature of this ink is no joke. I tried several different paper types and patterns for this example, hoping that one would show up well in photographs. The ink is so resilient to water that it's almost impossible to capture with a camera. Let's just suffice it so say that the only way you can tell water was added to the page is due to the rippled texture of the paper where the water evaporated. The ink is completely unaffected by the water.

There are many waterproof or archival quality pens available on the market today, and they all have some kind of trade off. They may not write as well as your favorite pen, they normally aren't offered with many colors or other options we're used to, but they fulfill a very specific purpose. In the case of the Pentel EnerGel Permanent Gel pen, it excels at hitting the mark.

The Pentel EnerGel Permanent Gel pen is available in 0.5mm and 0.7mm tip sizes with an option of Black, Blue, or Red in both sizes. At just under $3, they're a great deal considering the specific purpose. If you need a waterproof ink, this pen should be on your list!

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

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Posted on October 10, 2018 by Jeff Abbott and filed under Pentel, Energel, Pen Reviews.

Pentel Fitline 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.)

The Pentel Fitline set of highlighters includes the standard basics--yellow, pink, orange, green, and blue. They're double-ended, with the classic chisel tip at one end and a 1 mm bullet felt tip at the other. They're designed to work both for highlighting and quick note taking, though that always baffles me a bit. Generally, ink bright enough to highlight is terrible for reading notes, and ink dark enough to read is terrible for highlighting. Still, the design persists across a number of brands, so maybe I'm missing something.

These are, in nearly every way, just your standard highlighters. They've set themselves apart with two features, though. One is a notched neck which allows the chisel tip to flex a bit for easier highlighting over curved pages. It's an interesting feature in theory, but I didn't see much flex in my samples. In order to get any bending, I had to press hard enough that the tip was getting squished and there was a risk of ink bleeding. It's possible they'd become more flexible with use. And due to their other unique feature--they are refillable--it is actually worthwhile to break them in. The refill is for pigment only and does not include a replacement tip, so eventually the tip will move past the broken-in phase and become worn out--at which point the whole pen will have to be replaced.

These are on the pricier side for a standard highlighter at $1.75 apiece. And refills are $1.40--quite high for pigment alone. That cost would make sense if you were getting a replacement tip, and I wonder if the felt tips will last more than a few fillings.

The tips do write smoothly and well. The ink distributes evenly and there are no issues with bleeding or show-through, even on cheap printer paper. There was some slight smearing on rollerball and gel pen ink, but surprisingly none with fountain pen ink. It also did well over pencil, ballpoint, and printer ink.

The clips are sturdy and have enough space between them and the body to be clipped to a book cover. The caps snap securely and both can be posted to the other, but the fine-point end caps are very small--so be careful not to lose them.

Overall, I think these are a good quality school supply, if a bit on the pricier side. They work very well, but fall short of being anything particularly innovative. For highlighters, though, my only real expectation is that they be practical, and these do that very well.

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

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Posted on June 21, 2018 by Sarah Read and filed under Pentel, 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.)

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