I’ve always found that when my notes look nice, I feel better about studying. Having pretty class notes makes me feel like I have my life together and I know what I’m doing. Learn what are the best pens for note taking.

I’m 100% more likely to get started on learning if I let myself spend some time adding additional artistic flair to my work. I’ve even spent an hour or several looking at #studyspo on instagram and tumblr to get me in the mood to start working.

Here’s an example of my class notes:

If you, like me, appreciate pretty class notes, this is the article for you.

If you’re trying to make your own notes gram-worthy, here are my #studyspo school supply essentials for pretty class notes, plus which types of activity I personally recommend that they’d be best for.

Table of Contents

1. Mildliners

If there was only one writing utensil I could recommend beyond all others, it would be Mildliners. They’re pastel-colored highlighters so you can color-code and emphasize your notes without the intensity of regular highlighters.

I personally get overwhelmed looking at a page lit up by neon colors, so Mildliners have been perfect for me. I can easily use the yellow mildliner as a traditional highlighter or take advantage of the set to organize my notes. In the photo above, you can see I even use them to add to diagrams.

These highlighters come conveniently with a tip on each side – one in a regular highlighter shape, and one with a fine point. The fine point makes it especially easy to do detailed work in diagrams and add colored titles or notes without needing to write in size 64 handwriting.

Also Read: 20 Cute Pens and Pencils for College

2. Paper Mate InkJoy Pens

InkJoy pens are perfect for when you want to color-code your notes or add extra captions to your work. These pens write smoothly and come in a variety of sizes. They also don’t smear and only bleed minimally, even on thin paper.