(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
Highlighters are one of those stationery items that many people keep on hand without fussing about the features and quality of the ink, tips, and other items. Even though highlighters aren't an exciting genre of our world, they are something you expect to work well when you need them. When it's time to mark up a book or some notes, it's good to have options. The Zebra Sparky-2 highlighters are great at both making marks and providing a great amount of variety in color and tip size.
Double-sided highlighters aren't a new invention, and you could even argue that they're the new baseline these days. Who doesn't want the option of a thick or thin line from the same pen? Even so, manufacturers have to tick several products and offer a compelling product. The Sparky-2 is a well-performing highlighter with a couple of nice features to set it apart from the pack.
The liquid ink is resistant to both light and water, making it a great option for annotating notes and textbooks. Your marks will stand the test of time and play nicely with most inks and papers. Fountain pen inks can sometimes bleed and smear under a highlighter, but this is a problem that impacts any highlighter. With gel pens, ballpoints, and pencils, you'll never deal with any smearing or bluring.
The ink is also very bright and fluorescent without being too dark. I've used highlighters in the past that made it difficult to read the text or notes that they covered. This is not the case with the Zebra Sparky-2 highlighters, and I'd even prefer the green highlighter to be a bit darker.
Another great trick that the Spark-2 pens offer is a protective covering around the tip. The purpose of this small sleeve is two-fold: one, it adds rigidity to the tip so that it doesn't collapse over time, and it also prevents ink from getting on a ruler or straightedge if you run the highlighter alongside it. It's not something I've ever wished for, but now I wish that all highlighters were made this way!
As an added bonus, both caps can post to their sibling cap, meaning you don't have to keep trck of these small, clear caps. Losing a cap is a death sentence for the liquid ink tip!
Finally, the number of color options available in this line is astounding. At a total of ten (10!) colors, you should be able to differentiate your notes and research with no problem. Add in the fact that each pen has two sizes of tip, and that's effectively 20 highlighters.
The three-pack of yellow, green, and pink that I'm using comes in at just $6, which is a great deal for such a great and useful product. If you spring for the 10-pack of all colors, they'll come in just under $16, which is also an incredible value.
Pick up a set for yourself or the industrious student in your life!
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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