You can tell when it is exam season in our house as the highlighter pens come out and all notes you see lying around are highlighted in numerous different colours.

As the 'buyer' in our house it is always upto Dad to go and buy a pack when they run out and I always choose Staedtler, like I do with a lot of my stationary.

It is fair to say that Staedtler are more expensive than many of the other highlighters out there but I believe you pay for quality and in this case they are just that. I also find they last twice as long as other brands and therefore it is false economy buying the cheaper ones.

In my pack they look very similar to the above. There are six in the pack in different neon colours. Mine are Yellow, Orange, Reddish, Purple, Turquoise and Green. They cost £6 plus to buy so each pen equates to about £1.00 each.

For those not familiar with highlighters they are used, often by students to highlight certain text. In the olden days we'd have just underlined it for quick reference. When highlighting the text it usually does not smudge over most inks instead making the ink stand out on a coloured background. These particular highlighters are Ink Jet Safe on all colours and do not smudge inkjet print-outs. Ideal for exams.

The pen itself is about 6 inches or so long and quite chunky. It comes with a chisel tip end which makes it ideal for neat highlighting and a clip on the side. It also is very fast drying. The cap is of the twist type variety and is easy taken off. Equally important is that it is also easy to put back on. This is a must if you want to stop it drying out. Although if it does you can use the refill because these pens are fitted with a PP barrel and cap which guarantees long service life.

Just a word of warning for those who want their highlight to show up on documents which are going to be photocopied. Use violet and turquoise. If you use any of the other colours it won't show up.

For those that use airoplanes often I am also informed that it is 'Airplane-safe: Automatic pressure equalization prevents the highlighter from leaking on board aircraft'. Although I've never tested this.

Would I recommend these highlighters? Yes I would. They are very reliable and as a family we have been using them for a number of years. You may pay that bit more. But in life sometimes you just need to pay a bit more for quality.

Copyright stebiz 2013 - also on ciao.co.uk