Best Highlighters For Annotating Books

By Shaira Alano Written by Shaira Alano
Updated on April 2, 2022

These are the best highlighters for annotating books that you can find in the market

  1. Sharpie Tank Style Highlighter
  2. Sharpie Clearview Highlighter
  3. Stabilo Swing Cool Highlighter 
  4. Zebra Pen Double Ended Highlighter
  5. TwoHands Highlighter 
  6. Pilot FriXion Light Pastel Erasable Highlighters

No, highlighting your books doesn’t guarantee that you’ll ace your exams. 

However, highlighting the most important information, and going through them after you’re done reading your books, reading them again for an entire week, and quizzing yourself to assess what you know, promises superior long-term learning. 

So, even if there are psychological studies that discourage the use of highlighters when you study, they are still proven to be helpful and play an important role in every student and book lovers’ life. 

This article will help you dissect the best highlighters for annotating books and give you the ten best options for you to choose from.

Let’s start!

What highlighters are good for annotating books?

Sharpie Tank Style Highlighter

Sharpie lands on the first spot as it is the most dependable highlighter amongs all the brands that we have tried. 

This particular item comes in a wide barrel and a large ink supply that gives off its signature vibrant color without bleeding through the pages of your book. 

Sharpie highlighters could even highlight over correction tape or correction fluid

It also has a chiseled tip that allows you to highlight entire sentences without highlighting them twice and you can even angulate its tip if you want to use it as a liner. 

The Sharpie Tank Style Highlighter comes in different colors and all of their items have quick-drying ink that allows prevent sit from smearing. 

You can buy this item online individually or in bulk. 

Sharpie Clearview Highlighter

Think of all the pros that a Sharpie highlighter can give- easy to use, good grip, wide barrel and large ink supply, chiseled tip, and long-lasting.

But on top of all that, they have included a see-through tip for a more precise and clean highlighting. 

Like any other Sharpie highlighters, it can highlight texts, your own notes, or even portions of the book with correction tape on it. 

It’s a little more expensive compared to the Sharpie Tank Style Highlighter, but it’s definitely worth its price. 

If you’ve always struggled with highlighting the texts in your book, or if you are in a hurry and you want to highlight important items as you read, this highlighter is for you. 

You can also buy this item online per piece or by bulk. 

Amazon Basics Chisel Tip, Fluorescent Ink Highlighters

If you want a bolder and brighter highlighter, you should add Amazon Basics Chisel Tip, Fluorescent Ink Highlighters to your cart. 

Just like Sharpie highlighters, they come in a tank-style pen that guarantees an ample ink supply that makes this item durable and long lasting. 

The special feature of this highlighter is that its cap fits perfectly on the highlighter’s end while we use it. 

Another thing that we love about this highlighter is that the chiseled tip allows its users to precisely highlight the texts that they want and it never frays or bends even if you have been using it for quite some time. 

It doesn’t seep through the bank of a book’s page, but because of its vibrant color, you can sometimes see it from the other side. 

Zebra Pen Double Ended Highlighter

If you easily get distracted by fluorescent and bold ink and you prefer a highlighter with softer and lighter colors but would still help you go through the most important information as you study, this highlighter will perfectly do this job. 

Since these highlighter has pastel colors, they never bleed through on the other side of the page, so it will not also disrupt any texts on them. 

These Zebra highlighters also have a felt tip pen on one side and a chisel tip highlighter on the other, so you can underline or highlight the text according to your liking. 

The price of this highlighter is on the more pricey and expensive end, but I can guarantee you that with this brand, you always get what you pay for. 

Stabilo Swing Cool Highlighter Wallet Set

The Stabilo brand is one of the legends in terms of stationery products, but their original highlighters have a wide design that makes it hard for its users to grip on. 

However, they were able to fix this by releasing the Stabilo Swing Cool Highlighter Set. 

This Stabilo highlighter doesn’t strain on our hands as much because of its pocket-sized design, plus it doesn’t roll off surfaces because it is flat, unlike other trusted brands. 

You don’t even have to worry that your highlighter will dry out if you don’t put a cap on it immediately because it offers the Anti-Dry Out Technology that prevents the ink to dry up for as long as 4 hours. 

Unlike the chisel tip that other brands offer, these highlighters provide a wedge tip that enables its users to highlight texts using the 4mm tip and underline them using the 1mm tip. 

If you want light-colored highlighters that don’t dry out immediately, this is definitely a must have. 

TwoHands Highlighter 

If you love pastel-colored highlighters but don’t want to splurge on it, TwoHands is the best option that you’ve got.

This is the best dupe for Stabilo Swing Cool Highlighters that we have found in the market, but this comes in a wider and larger tank. 

In spite of its shape, it still doesn’t strain much on your hand when you use it.

The only difference in TwoHands and Stabilo is that this one dries out quicker once you’ve left it uncapped for a long time, but this is still worth buying. 

TwoHands Highlighters come in sets of 6, 8, 12, and 16, which could give you a wide array of colors to choose from and highlighters that could last up until your graduation day. 

Pilot FriXion Erasable Highlighters

Yes, you’ve heard it right- ERASABLE.

You no longer need to worry about creating mistakes with the Pilot Frixion Erasable Highlighters, because you can easily go back and erase them without creating any mess in your textbooks. 

These highlighters never smear or bleed through the other side of the page, so it is perfect to use even on thin paper. 

The only problem with this highlighter is its pastel color might be lighter than what people usually go for, but no worries, because they offer bolder colors that might be perfect for your taste. 

These highlighters also tend to dry up quickly so make sure that you put the cap on immediately after use. 

Do Sharpie highlighters bleed through book pages?

No, Sharpie highlighters don’t bleed through book pages. If you worry about annotating books that use thin types of paper like a scritta paper or onion paper, Sharpie guarantees that this will not be a problem. 

Which color highlighter is best for books?

For highlighter, colors like orange, green, and yellow help in capturing your attention, focusing on the text and improving its retention in your brain. 

These colors are also brighter than most highlighter inks in the market, which makes them easier for you to spot if you are browsing through your books. 

Is it OK to highlight your books?

There is no rule that prohibits anyone from highlighting books, but studies have shown that they do not offer any benefits in learning. 

The problem with this is that the studies that were conducted often assumed that the mere action of highlighting books will immediately retain information in the readers’ brain. 

This is not the aim of highlighters, as they are often used to take note of the important ideas that we find in the books we read. 

If your aim is learning and retention, going through the highlighted texts, creating your own reviewers and quizzing yourself to test your knowledge is the best way to do so.