I wanted to see if I could find pen and highlighter matches for the monthly colors in the Hobonichi cousin planners, so I did A LOT of swatching and these are my choices.
I may change a few in the future if I find better matches, but this is what I owned and liked as of July 2024. Some colors are closer than others. Some look different under different lighting conditions. But what do you use? Do you color match to the Hobonichi? Let me know your thoughts and suggestions in the comments.
Skip to any month below:
January
- Pen:
- Staedtler Triplus Fineliner Kalahari Orange
- Highlighters:
- Zebra Mildliner Vermillion
- Tombow ABT 912
February
- Pen:
- Zebra Sarasa Clip Vintage Colors Brown Grey
- Highlighters:
- Staedtler Triplus Textsurfer Sand
- Sun-Star Awaii Marker Chai Latte
March
- Pen:
- Uni Ball One Gel Pen Plum Purple
- Highlighters (the closest matches I could find, but this was hard):
- Faber Castell Textliner Brilliant Ruby (mine writes really dry, maybe because of the shimmer particles?)
- TEMU highlighter (sorry I don’t know a brand name for this one) Also, yes, it’s a weird choice but every other marker I tried was too purple/blue or too pink. Looking for better matches if you know any.
April
- Pen:
- Zebra Sarasa Clip Milk Red
- Highlighters:
- Zebra Mildliner Red- this one is a pretty dark color so you’d need a black or very dark pen to really see your writing. It doesn’t work over the Milk Red pen I like!
- Tombow ABT 761
May
- Pen:
- Sakura Gelly Roll Moonlight Fresh Green
- Highlighters:
- Monami Essenti Soft Pastel Olive
- Tombow ABT 076
June
- Pen:
- Uni Ball One Gel Pen Avocado Green
- Highlighter:
- Kokuyo ME Marking Pen Dusty Olive
- Zebra Mildliner Olive
July
- Pen:
- Zebra Sarasa Clip Vintage Colors Blue Grey
- Highlighters:
- Zebra Mildliner Smoke Blue
- Sun-Star Awaii Marker Raindrop
August
- Pen:
- Zebra Sarasa R Blue Black
- Highlighters:
- Zebra Mildliner Dark Blue
- Tombow ABT 553
September
- Pen:
- Sakura Gelly Roll Moonlight Pale Brown
- Highlighter:
- Tombow Kei Coat Brown
October
- Pen:
- Uni Ball Signo RT1 Gel Pen Violet
- Highlighter:
- Zebra Mildliner Violet
- Tombow ABT 623
November
- Pen:
- Zebra Sarasa Clip Vintage Colors Green Black
- Highlighters:
- Sun-Star Awaii Marker Midnight Forest
- Tombow ABT 312
December
- Pen:
- Uni Ball Signo RT Gel Pen Red
- Highlighters:
- Sun-Star Awaii Marker Cheek Pink
- Pilot Frixion Red
So what do you think? Would you ever try matching colors to your Hobonichi? I don’t think it’s necessary at all but it’s fun to play around with and see how close I could get with these options.
Major credit for most of these matches to JetPens and this super useful guide on matching supplies.