My Top Pen Picks: Everyday & "Everyday Extras"

We’ve already established that I’m not an artist. But I do like office supplies, pens & ink, etc. Letter-writing and paper-crafting things, basically. And while I enjoy some really fun & fancy things sometimes, today I want to share my favorite basics and a few “core” extras that do a lot with a little.

Top Pen Picks: Everyday Favorites

When it comes to everyday favorites/routine use, there are two lines of pens I prefer — sort of three. My absolute favorites are Pilot G-2s, which are rollerball gel pens, and Papermate Flairs, which are felt-tip pens. I also use Pilot FriXion erasable pens when the erasability is necessary, which (for me) usually is just with a Rocketbook notebook.

PILOT G2 Premium Refillable & Retractable Rolling Ball Gel Pens, Bold Point (1.0mm), Black Ink, 5-Pack PILOT G2 Premium Refillable & Retractable Rolling Ball Gel Pens, Fine Point (0.7mm), Black Ink, 5-Pack PILOT G2 Premium Refillable & Retractable Rolling Ball Gel Pens, Extra Fine Point (0.5mm), Black Ink, 5-Pack PILOT G2 Premium Refillable & Retractable Rolling Ball Gel Pens, Ultra Fine Point (0.38mm), Black Ink, 5-Pack PILOT G2 Fashion Collection Colors Refillable & Retractable Rolling Ball Gel Pens, Fine Point, Silver/Pink/Blue/ Orange/Green Design Barrels, Black Ink, 5-Pack PILOT G2 Premium Refillable & Retractable Rolling Ball Gel Pens, Fine Point, Purple/Pink/ Turquoise/Burgundy Inks, 4-Pack

As you can see, the G-2s come in four different point sizes (bold 1.0; fine 0.7; extra fine 0.5; ultra fine 0.38). They also come in a wide variety of colors, including metallics, and all of them are refillable. If you use them regularly, you might even want to grab one of Pilot’s nicer Metropolitan pens, which can take any of the refills, but look really classy. (Be sure if you’re looking for the rollerball that you don’t buy the fountain pen by accident. It’s also nice, but different.)

I have all four sizes, but I use three regularly. I love the bold, because I like a strong ink line. But because it’s gel ink, a thick line like that is more prone to smudging than the thinner lines are (just ’til it dries). So I do have a few of those around. I also use the fine point (most often), and an ultrafine for writing in my day planner when I want to write really small.

The extra fine is kind of overkill if you already have both of those, because it splits the difference. It would be more useful if you wanted to, say, use the bold and the extra fine instead of the fine and the ultra fine. I also have two or three favorite ink colors I use regularly (like burgundy & teal). And I keep a silver/gold/white set with my gift-wrapping supplies for cards and gift wrap. (You’ll see in the photo right below “top pen picks” that I have holiday-themed washi tape around one. That’s my way of marking that as the pen that stays in the gift wrap box.)

Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens | Medium Point 0.7 mm | 24 Count Paper Mate Flair Porous Felt Tip Pens, Medium Point, Black Ink (12 Count)PILOT FriXion ColorSticks Erasable Gel Ink Stick Pens, Fine Point, 16-Pack PILOT FriXion Clicker Erasable, Refillable & Retractable Gel Ink Pens, Fine Point, 15-Pack

I like that the gel ink of the G-2s is really smooth, because when I’m doing regular writing, I really like for my pen to just glide across the page. These are perfect for that, especially in the thicker point sizes.

The Flairs are a whole different thing. These are felt-tips, so they’re basically very fine markers. They don’t glide like the G-2s — that’s just the nature of felt tips — but they’re pretty smooth for what they are. I love the vibrant colors, and they shadow very little unless your paper is exceptionally thin (and don’t bleed). These can be used for both writing and doodle-type drawing.

The ones I use are the standard “medium,” which is pretty fine for a marker, and definitely fine enough to write with unless the writing is very small. They do come in an ultra fine, and I bought one small set to try them, but I don’t really use them. It just loses something, in my opinion, to have such bold colors and then make such fine lines so you can’t fully appreciate them. But they can be a useful adjunct to the thicker ones.

The FriXions, as I mentioned, I use only when I need something erasable. They come in a nice variety of colors, and they seem to be smooth writers that work well. I just don’t typically have any need for something other than my G-2s and Flairs in everyday applications unless I need to erase.

There are also FriXion (erasable) markers (bold & fine) and highlighters, but I haven’t tried any of those yet.

Everyday Extras – “Special” Options to Make Things Pop

I’m pretty confident I had most of these recommended to me at some point, but I can’t remember where now. (The ZIG Memory Writer in grey doesn’t seem to be available on Amazon.)

Zig Memory Writer, dual-tip, Platinum (grey)Uni-Ball Signo Broad Point Gel Impact Pen White Ink-1.0mm Set of 5 Uni-Ball Signo Broad Point Gel Impact Pen White Ink-1.0mm Set of 3 Zig Wink of Stella Brush with Individual Paper Box, Glitter Clear

There are three items here, each with specific functions.

The grey marker makes drop shadows on lettering easy. This is the one that was recommended to me, and I already had experience with others in the same line, so it’s what I picked up, but I’m sure there are any number of other grey markers that would do the job just fine. Something like the Tombow dual brush pen or this set of Sakura gray brush pens would probably be fine.

You just want to make sure it’s fairly thick, a medium-ish gray, and a type of ink that’s not going to bleed easily. (e.g. don’t grab a grey Copic marker!) Even a plain old Crayola marker will probably suffice, if you have a gray in your set.

White gel pen is good for adding highlights and for writing on dark paper. The quality of these varies by a lot. I’ve tested a few of these myself, and watched videos of other people testing a zillion of them, with very mixed results. Unless you already have a favorite, I really recommend just sticking with the Uni-ball Signos I’ve mentioned above. (There’s a 5-pack or a 3-pack — prices are fairly comparable; it just comes down to how fast you think you’ll go through them.) You do not want the Uni-ball Signo Angelic. I don’t know why this is different, but the ink is fade-y.

I love, love, love my Pilot G-2s in general, but their white is pretty “meh.” I don’t like mine; the Uni-ball Signo is definitely superior.

You can use metallic gel pens similarly, although the effect will obviously be a bit different, and I do like my Pilot G-2s for that. The silver and gold are better than the white.

The ZIG Wink of Stella is totally optional, but fun. This is a glitter ink in a brush pen, so it’s fun for adding a bit of glitter or shine to things, with easy control. The one I have is clear glitter, and it’s a good general-purpose thing, but they have others, too: gold glitter, black glitter, holiday-colored glitter… A similar product is Tonic Studio’s Nuvo Aqua Shimmer, available in a variety of basic metallic options. Spectrum Noir has a similar product, as well. I haven’t tried any of these personally, except the one shown above.

Almost Everyday

When it comes to writing — by which I mean writing things out by hand, like letters or routine journal entries — I enjoy a good fountain pen. Pilot (yes, I really love that brand for pens, in case you hadn’t noticed) makes a couple options that are wonderful starter options because, let’s face it, fountain pens can often be pricey. And if you have to buy multiple options because of a steep learning curve, that’s even pricier.

Varsity pens are disposable fountain pens. I know, disposable kind of undermines one of the cool things about most fountain pens…but there’s also a major advantage here in that you don’t have to figure out how to fill anything. These are truly as easy to use as any other pen you can pick up at the office supply store, and they flow beautifully across the page. (You might also see these listed sometimes as “V pens.” I think it has to do with what country they’re sourced from.)

If you want a “real” fountain pen (as in, refillable, metal, etc.) but you’re looking for inexpensive, Pilot has you covered there, too. The Metropolitan pen is available as either a rollerball (which I mentioned further up) or a fountain pen. [Read my review.] You can find it sometimes for under $20 — definitely for under $25 — and the quality is excellent.

I’ve never used a super-expensive pen, like a Mont Blanc, to compare (frankly, I wouldn’t want to use a pen that expensive because I’d be too worried about losing it!) but this…just works (which is something I cannot say for all of the “real” fountain pens I’ve tried). It takes either cartridges or a converter, so you have a lot of flexibility.

Do you have favorite pens? What are your top picks and why?

(Wondering about the graph paper that appears in some of the photos? You can find it here.)