I have been a loyal user of Hobonichi planners for a number of years. Though out this time, I have discovered the best pens for Hobonichi planners, and want to share them with you.
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What is Hobonichi?
Hobonichi is a company that creates the best planners and “life books” on the planet. Their flagship Hobonichi Techo planner comes in both English and Japanese and comes in a A6 size. I used the English version of this for years before I switched to the Hobonichi Techo Cousin this year which only comes in Japanese, but is A5 size.
The big difference between these two planners, beside size, is that the Techo Cousin also comes with a weekly layout for each week in addition to the daily and monthly layouts. I have found this to be an important layout for me, and worth the switch, even if I can no longer read the fun quotes. Even the Japanese versions of the planners have enough English in them to be used by English speakers.
There are also the Hobonichi Techo Weeks planners, which come in the weekly layout with some plain gridded paper as well. The Hobonichi Techo Weeks Mega has three times as many pages at the end. The best pens for Hobonichi Weeks are also the best pens for Hobonichi planners in general, since all of the planners use the same type of paper.
Hobonichi for Bloggers
I use my Hobonichi for everything, but especially for blogging! I list daily tasks of what I want to complete on each day’s page, and I keep a running list of blog topics I want to work on each week on the weekly layout. In the monthly layout, I also note which days I want to target to publish blog posts.
I also track the follower counts for my social media accounts every day at the bottom of my daily page.
If I have a particularly great brainstorming session in my Hobonichi, I simply mark the corner with some washi tape so I can go back to it later.
Finding the Best Pens for Hobonichi
To find the best pens for Hobonichi, you really need to understand the unique paper type. It is a very thin paper, and can bleed with certain pens. If you are a heavy writer using a very pointy pen (like an extra fine tip on a fountain pen), it may rip.
The texture of the paper is quite lovely, and the thinness of it is what allow so many pages to fit into a manageable book. The good news is the right pens will not cause you any problems.
The Hobonichi paper layout is gridded. This is great for bullet journaling, and fancy planner layouts in general. You cat get very creative with your page layout every single day if you would like! Since there is so much room in these layouts you can also practice calligraphy and brush lettering as part of your daily planning in these notebooks.
I’ve used all three of the Hobonichi flavors: Hobonichi Techo, Hobonichi Cousin, and Hobonichi Weeks. Each of these Hobonichi types use the same Tomoe River paper, so these pens are great for any of them.
Best Pens for Hobonichi
Want to know the best pens to use in your Hobonichi Techo, Hobonichi Weeks, or Hobonichi Cousin planner? No matter which type of Hobonichi planner you use, they all share the same unique paper type. Learn which pens write best on this paper from a loyal Hobonichi user!
PILOT Dr. Grip Limited Refillable & Retractable Gel Ink Rolling Ball Pen, Fine Point
This is the gel pen version of the popular Dr. Grip pen, which is great for writing a lot and won't bleed through pages or damage paper. Best of all it is refillable.
Tombow Fudenosuke Colors Set 10-Pack
Tombow Fudenosuke brush pens are the best brush pens for planners in my book. They have a smaller, harder tip than the traditional Tombow Brush Pens, and are great for making lists of tasks.
iBayam Fineliner Pens in 18 Colors
If you are looking to get as much color as possible and as much bang for your buck as possible, these fine tip colored pens are perfect for your Hobonichi planner.
Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils, 24 Count
Why not use a colored pencil instead of a pen? Colored pencils are a great way to add some color and fun to your panner, without the permanence of a pen. These colored pencils can be erased, which makes them great for doodling and brainstorming.
Sakura Gelly Roll Moonlight Pen Set, 1 mm Bold Tip
This is a great pack of gel pens with amazing colors. Be sure to check out all of the different color options at the product page, but these pens won't bleed and are super smooth to write with.
Be sure to grab a pack or two of these along with your Hobonichi pens!
Best Highlighter for Hobonichi
This is a list of fantastic highligthers for Hobonichi planners. Whether you are using a Hobonichi Techo, a Hobonichi Weeks, or a Hobonichi Cousin, they all feature the same thin smooth as silk paper.
These highligthers are an essential Hobonichi accessory!
Zebra Mildliner Highlighter Pen Set, 20 Pastel Colors
The Zebra Mildliner is the de-facto standard when it comes to Hobonichi planners. I have several sets, and they come in a wide variety of colors. You can see the many options here.
Besides coming in every color under the sun, these hilighters do not even begin to bleed through the pages. They also feature two tips, your traditional highligther chisel tip, and a fine point tip.
The only downside is they will smear fresh water based inks.
Tebik Gel Highlighter, 10 Colors
These hiligthers are another great option that do not bleed or smear. They come in a very nice array of colors, and is completely different than many of the other options.
These are gel hilighters. The ink is actually a solid gel stick, so it will not smear, smudge, or smear any of your writing.
They are however, very delicate.
GTL Accu-Gel 6 P Gel Highlighter Set
This is anohter gel highlighter set in amazing vibrant colors.
It uses the same gel ink stick as the previous listed highlighter.
PILOT FriXion Light Pastel Collection Erasable Highlighters
Now for something completely different - erasable highlighters!
This set comes in pastel colors, and is erasable.
ZEYAR Highlighter Pastel Colors Chisel Tip Marker Pen
This is anohter pastel option that uses traditiaonl hilighter waterbased ink.
It has a chisel tip, that can be used for fine lines as well as highlighting test or images.
Be sure to highlight quickly, and not let the hilighter sit on the same part of the page too long with these.
Tombow Dual Brush Pen Art Markers, Pastel, 10-Pack
Did you know you can also use brush markers as highlighters?
They are great for higlighting and underlining text.
Be sure to stick with lighter colors so you can still read your text, dark colors do not work as well for highlighting.
