Choosing Highlighters

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I've been talking about how highlighting has changed the way I think, and how it helps reading non-fiction as well.  But what kind of highlighters work the best?  I thought I'd share my journey on finding the perfect highlighter...and while this topic might seem silly, when I think about marking up my greatest treasure, I want to make sure that I am enhancing them and not ruining them, right?!

1.  I started with standard highlighters.  There is nothing wrong with basic highlighters, but I had a hard time finding a blue that wasn't so dark that it felt like I was marking it out instead of highlighting it. Since I'm a visual person, I also struggled with my ability to highlight evenly, and I didn't want to be distracted by any bleed through to the next page.  While my son is content with his dollar pack of highlighters, I needed a different solution.

2.  So then I tried my favorite Stampin Up markers.  These markers have a brush end and a fine tip end.  I loved the brush end because it highlighted more surface area and looked cleaner.  However, I do a lot of highlighting and it seems I was burning through my markers pretty quickly.  I would switch to the fine tip end, but the colors that worked for highlighting with the brush end would be too light to see in the fine tip.  Then I found myself trying to keep up with two versions of each color...that was a lot of work!

3.  So I switched to map pencils.  

I figured that map pencils are inexpensive, and would last longer than the markers.  While they did last longer, a new problem arose - sharpening.  It also took extra time to "highlight" the passages.  Map pencils are a great inexpensive way to get your children started highlighting.  You can see the difference between highlighters and pencils in the picture below.

4.  Then I finally found my favorite highlighting tools: Micron Pens.  

A good friend of mine introduced me to Bible journaling, and one of the tools utilized was micron pens.  These are my absolute favorite because they don't bleed through the pages, they create a clean look on the page, and they have lasted me at least six months now without showing signs of running out of ink.

The great part about using these pens for underlining is that you can also quickly add notations as you read.  So which will you choose?