I was using a regular pen for my weekly spreads for like a year before a friend pointed it out

I kept getting frustrated because my ink would smudge when I'd highlight things, and my pages looked messy. My friend Sarah saw my journal at a coffee shop and just said, 'Dude, you need a fineliner, that's a ballpoint.' I switched to a 0.3mm Pigma Micron and it was a total game changer. Anyone else have a basic tool they were using wrong for way too long?

3 comments

3 Comments

simonm673mo ago

Totally did that with cheap highlighters.

oliviabennett20d ago

Oh man, I've been there with the cheap highlighters (and honestly still use them sometimes when I'm in a pinch). The waxy streak thing is so real, it's like the highlighter is just pushing the ink around instead of actually highlighting it. I remember buying a whole pack of those neon ones from the dollar store and they bled through like three pages of my textbook. That was a rough semester when I had to read around all those giant yellow blotches on the back of every page. But you know what, I actually prefer the cheap ones for my personal notes because if I mess up, I don't feel guilty tossing the whole thing.

the_richard3mo ago

But have you tried the good ones? Those cheap highlighters bleed through everything and the ink dries out in a week. My Sharpie tank highlighters last the whole semester and don't smudge. The cheap ones just leave a waxy streak that ruins the page underneath.