Review – Sharpie Colors Part 3 Greens – Green, Lime Green, Mint, Aqua, and Argyle

Now I’m on the third part of my look at all of the Sharpie colors that I have. I’m not sure I need to introduce the color green to you, so I’ll just get into it.

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Green – This green is a very dark color, even more so than the standard green color most art supplies feature. It’s a deep, leafy green that is quite natural but does look generically dark in bad lighting. On copy paper, it can be hard to distinguish for people with bad eyes. It’s also quite bleed- and feathering-prone, but on less absorbent papers all three of the last points are minimized. It’s a good generic color, but far from my favorite of the selection.

sharpie colors greens

Lime Green – The lime green is a variety of lime that isn’t an eyesore and looks sufficiently like the fruit to justify the name. It’s bleed- and shade-prone, but isn’t too bad on feathering. It is a very visible, not too bright to read, not too dark, and not too close to the standard green, making it good for organizing. It’s finally a lime color I would use.

Mint – The mint is more akin to ‘mint flavored’ than to the plant. It’s a very frosty, light green. It is still not too light to read, and is very distinguishable from the other colors. It’s also a fairly natural shade, so it works for art as well as the office, though this might be a bit extreme for some offices. It’s less bleed- and shade-prone than most of the greens, but the most susceptible to shading.

Aqua – Aqua is a nice dark blue-green color. I’d say it leans more to the green side myself, while the turquoise leans more to the blue (which is the opposite of real life). Still it is a very natural shade for both water and land. It is a darker green, but not one that I think would be confused with any other color, but it might be a bit out there for office use. It also has the least shading, feathering, or bleeding of any of the greens.

Argyle Green – This is the second and final color that I am dubious of my identification of. If you think I’m wrong, feel free to correct me in the comments. Argyle is a medium green very similar to the lime color but a bit darker. It’s got some bleed-through and feathering problems, but minimal shading. Other than that, I’d say it mimics lime well on the page: it has similar organizational and artistic properties, and would be hard to distinguish at a glance. It’s just not very original.

And that’s my look at the green selection of Sharpies I have collected. They are all very good for organization and artistic efforts, but they may stick out or be frowned upon in the office. They behave all right in terms of properties, but they aren’t the best in that regard. But I think they might be my favorite set.

Next time I’ll take a look at a collection of purple pens.

Review – Sharpie Colors Part 1 Neutrals – Black, Brown, Slate Gray

I’ve taken a look at several of Sharpie’s products in the past, from their regular markers to pens and liquid pencil. But their main product comes in a large variety of colors I have not yet covered. I received a gift of a set of 24 Sharpie pens some time ago, but haven’t looked at them until now due to the fact that I didn’t know what the colors actually were. Sharpie and several other well-known pen brands are notorious for not having their colors easy to identify, so this series took more research than usual. I will say that I might not have identified all of the colors correctly, so if you see something that seems like it has been misidentified here, please leave a comment and I will reevaluate it.

With that said, let’s get to the pens.

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The first set I’m going to look at is the neutrals. There are only a few, which makes sense. But these are some of the most useful: they show on many surfaces, are not an eyesore in general, and are workplace appropriate.

sharpie colors neutrals

Black – Black is the gold standard Sharpie color (except for the actual gold ones) and it is very good. It is quite dark and professional. It does have a tendency to shade as most dark inks do, but if gone over a second time there are no problems. It’s pretty waterproof (they all are so I won’t mention that again), has almost no spreading or feathering, and is tied for the least show/bleed-through with navy. It’s a great, well writing color, but it can be a bit dry.

Brown – Next is brown, a color that doesn’t seem that popular (but I’ve ended up with a few, take that as you will). It is a very dark brown, distinct from black in even poor lighting, but it looks more like a gray in that case. It is also fairly dry, and thus feather- and bleed-resistant, though not as much as the black. It’s good for sorting, but not for art, really.

Slate Gray – I don’t know where the trend of having “slate gray” be standard gray started, but it continues here. This is a “just over the dark line” gray. It’s not a very natural color, and isn’t even something you’d really see in a city. It is very wet and really does feather and bleed, meaning it’s not the greatest for use on thinner paper. It is almost the same on both sides in that case, and it even goes through card stock a bit. I’d say it holds the title as wettest, and is just a boring color.

And that’s the neutral colors. They’re good for office use, and for sorting things by color, but for art applications they are limited. Next time I’ll take a look at a few of the blues Sharpie offers.