Well, I think it kind of looks cool. The plastic there we see the top button has, ah, this plastic shell around it, and it just makes it look a little cooler. We've seen this a fair bit, Uh, some other manufacture do that. I think, like maybe some jet streams I'm trying to recall off top my mind that I'm not quite sure. Let me see. Ah, no, not zebra, but it's similar. A few people do that. Just a nice little design tweak You can see the blue piece inside is actually doing the work. This outside pieces, just a shell that looks cool. There you see it. Now it's functional. A CZ, really, all there is to it, and reasonable grip. It's kind of a harder plastic. All right. This is a rubber, but it's hard like a plastic, and it's it's not quite a soft touch material. It's rubberized, but there's no road give to it. So and this piece is a little short. It's not tapered around it anyway, so I'd say it's reasonably comfortable, but not very special. Uh, the nose piece is obviously quite blunt. I'm not quite sure why they made it so short. I guess they wanted to look different from kind of amore. Tapered knows, but, uh, it's fine. It's functional. If you open this off, you see the newest piece it comes off, and it's just this tiny little metal thing, very squat looking inside. If you take a close look at these pens you will see that they are an attempt at a high-end office product — something rivaling a Uniball Jetstream or Pilot G2, not simply the cheapest pen possible. For years big box retailers sold their own brand pens which were simply aimed at being as cheap as possible, but this race to the bottom led only to poor quality products and unhappy consumers. Did someone say erasable? “They erase with no marks left behind,” says WeAreTeachers reader Holly R. How amazing is that? In this guide, we're thoroughly breaking down everything you need to know about the best pens and how to differentiate among types, so you can make the best choice for you.

We found that most of the TUL products are manufactured by WHJJK, OFFICE DEPOT, and Office Depot. The manufacturers provide TUL with a steady supply of products, and they have a good cooperative relationship with each other. We researched pens within each of the above categories individually. Due to each pen category's unique ink type and design characteristics, we decided that the pens within them should be judged against each other, not across categories. Looking for more brands like Tul? The companies pens are most like those from Pentel and Kaco, while their disc-bound notebooks are similar to those sold by Levenger. Tul’s pens had a significant reboot in 2012 which remodeled the entire line and changed the pens significantly. If you have only experienced their older, pre-2012 pens then you might be surprised at what you find today as it’ll be totally different than before. The general consensus is that most changes have been for the better. Tul pens originated in 2006.

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Although the judgment of a pen's performance is somewhat subjective, it's important to understand the differences between the five most prominent pen categories and their respective ink types so that you know which ones are most compatible with your writing style. While this is not a pen for extended longhand writing, its included medium-size nib gives a nice flourish to handwritten notes, calligraphy, and of course, your signature on important documents. If the provided medium nib doesn’t work for you, you can always swap it out for a compatible model in your preferred size. As far as writing smoothness goes, the Uni-Ball Vision Elite may be the best of the bunch. Our testers found its fluid ink flow quite exceptional, with one person saying, “I thought it wrote very smoothly. I also love how dark and rich the ink appears.”

TUL is a brand in the gel ink pens industry, offering a wide range of rollerball pens, ballpoint pens, and planner refills to its customers. Lefties face special challenges when they write. That’s why these pens are such a revelation. Teachers often recommend them for their left-handed students (“My grandson loves them and his teachers said it helps make it easier to read what he writes,” says a reviewer), but lots of them use these pens themselves too.

Tul Retractable Gel Pen Review

The design of this rollerball pen can also be a point of contention with users. A few of our testers loved the substantial flow of ink from its slim 0.8-millimeter tip, but they found that the pen's crosshatched grip was uncomfortable to hold for longer periods of time. Others found this design to be a major plus and actually conducive to the writing experience. One tester said, “The heft makes it feel expensive and substantial. Aesthetically, it’s very pleasing, and the writing is easy and smooth.” Tul also sells customizable notebooks, which are essentially binders not unlike a Filofax, Levenger Circa, or Traveler’s Notebook. These notebooks are bound with plastic discs and have a large number of cover options a well as many accessories for the inside.

The colors are quite vibrant, which makes them good for art purposes, but that’s not the goal of the pen. The Tul medium is quite wet, almost like a 1.0 mm. This means it’s heavy for many paper types (like a Rhodia) and slow to dry. In fact it’s much slower to dry than a comparable Energel or Sarasa gel pen. We know there are plenty of Sharpie fans out there, so these ones are for you. “As a teacher I have always been a fan of Sharpie. They have never let me down and always work great on any classroom project!” The Ohto Fine was a nib disaster, and I was still new enough to the fountain pen game to where I didn't have the knowledge or skills to figure out what was wrong with it. I gave Ohto another shot with the Dude, but instead of getting a decent pen I doubled-down on terrible. An Ohto fountain pen will never grace these hands again.

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I wanted to like this pen so badly but the refill was horrible. The barrel is excellent though, leaving some room for improvement. Still, it was a poor overall experience.