The Well-Appointed Desk

You know you’re an office supply nerd when you think a good way to spend the weekend is to do a highlight head-to-head. Yep. That is me. I pulled out all the highlighter tools I have to see which ones I liked best.

In the pile:

• Sanford Accent Highlighter (found in desk drawer)
• Sharpie Accent Mini Highlighters (purchased on clearance at Office Depot)
• Poppin Thin Highlighters
• Platinum Preppy Highlighter
• NPW Neon Pencils (purchased at Target)

The industry standard for highlighting is the yellow so first I wanted to see which yellow looked the best. I was a little disappointed by how light the NPW neon pencil was. I really want to embrace pencil highlighters but I’ll definitely have to keep looking in regards to yellow pencil highlighters as this one left me wanting. Poppin’s Thin Highlighters had a bright clean neon yellow I was quite happy with. The Sanford Accent looks more like a yellow orange but I have to wonder just how old the marker is. The Sharpie Accent mini was an acceptable yellow but the Platinum Preppy and Poppin Thin Highlighters had the best yellow color, IMHO.

When I started looking at the colors (and I did not have a full range of colors for every brand) I ended up really liking most of the colors in the Poppin set. I still think purple is an awfully dark color to highlight but it would work well for underlining or otherwise marking a passage in a book or notes.

In the NPW pencils, I think the orange was the most effective highlighter color. The pink and green work pretty well too. I definitely prefer the other colors in the pencil highlighters to the yellow.

When tested over various writing tools, using highlighters with pen or pencil is a fine balance. Ink that dries to a water resistant finish work best with the marker highlighters. The reason I’m so keen to find a good pencil highlighter set is that they can be used over less water resistant inks like fountain pen ink and they are less inclined to bleed through in books or textbooks.

Surprisingly, Marvy Le Pens, which are not particularly water resistant, held up well to the highlighters.  The Sakura Pigma Micron and Uni Jetstream also did well with all the various highlighters. The Staedtler Triplus did well with everything but the Sharpie and Stanford Accents. And pencil performs with wet and dry highlighters. My Retro 51 Rollerball is not highlighter-friendly.

The NPW neon pencils (from Target) came in a set of four in an acetate box. I found them on clearance for a few dollars.

The Sharpie Accent Minis came in a set of four on a blister pack at my local Office Depot. This particular set was in their clearance bins up front so I got them for about $3. While I love the idea of being able to attach them to a keychain or something, I never do so they just end up being really short highlighters that fall to the bottom of my pen box.

The Platinum Preppy highlighter is a refillable highlighter. It uses the Platinum ink cartridges and I believe the tip can be replaced as well. I like that its reusable and refillable and I could probably even use my bottled Noodlers Firefly ink an syringe fill the cartridge. Its one of my favorites because of this. Highlighter is $2.50, set of three refill cartridges is $2.50  and replacement tips are $1.65 for a package of two. The Platinum Preppy Highlighter is available in five colors: yellow, green, orange, red and blue.  A set of all five available highlighter colors is $12.50.

The Poppin Thin Highlighters are available in boxes of 12 for each color or an assorted box with 2 of each color. $10 per dozen.

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For more about highlighter options, check out the Highlighter Round-Up, The History of the Highlighter, Office Max Liquid Highlighters and the Kaweco Highlighter Pen.

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Now, for the giveawayI have a set of six Poppin Thin Highlighters — one of each color — available to one lucky reader. Just tell me what you like to highlight to be entered to win.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Friday, October 25, 2013. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Saturday. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 30 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money.

DISCLAIMER: Some items were sent to me free of charge by Jet Pens and Poppin for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.