Highlighter Review: Zebra Mildliner – Cool & Refined Set

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The Zebra Mildliners are a set of highlighters that have soft, muted, almsot pastel colors. Because of that, they have gained popularity in the Bullet Journal and the Studyblr/Studygram community because they served as a good alternative to standard neon highlighters.

I already had a set of Stabilo Boss pastel highlighters which I use when I read non-fiction books. I used them for bullet journaling for a while before I decided I wanted to try the Zebra Mildliners. I bought the Mildliners on impulse. I wanted a grey marker – that was all but I couldn’t find online retailers who would sell a single piece of it with free shipping (I mean, let’s be real, that’s why we love Amazon). Only the Zebra Mildliners sold a 5-pc set that included a grey highlighter so I bought the “Cool and Refined” pack on Amazon.

Score Rationale

Color Options – 9/10

If you compare this with other highlighters like the Stabilo Boss, the Faber Castell, or the Pilot Frixion, the Zebra Mildliner has a wider range of colors. The colors mentioned in this review is just one out of three. However, I see the Mildliner as a happy medium for pastel highlighters and pastel markers. Tombow Dual Brush pens offer a wide range of colors and so do the Crayola Supertips – the only difference is that they have a marker or brush styled tip compared to the standard highlighter’s chiseled tip design.

Performance on Various Types of Paper – 8/10

I did a few tests on three types of paper: generic recycled paper, Moleskine, and Leuchtturm. While there is no bleeding or feathering, it showed through the back of the recycled paper pretty heavily. If the recycled paper were thinner, it would have bled through the next page for sure.

Design – 9.5/10

I like the design of the Mildliners. I appreciate how thin they are because they can fit smaller pen cases. It also has a fine tip that can be used like a felt tip marker. However, because its body is thin, the chiseled tip is also thin (0.3mm)

Readability – 7/10

I find these colors dull, to be honest. The only color that works for me in this set is the violet Mildliner. What I liked about the Stabilo is that they are bright pastels – the colors jump off the page without blinding you. The rest of the colors here don’t contrast well with black text. I find this somehow difficult or tiring to read especially with the blue and red Mildliners.

Swatch and Pen Test

Generic Recycled Paper

No bleedthrough but high showthrough. Because the recycled paper absorbed the ink, it also made the ink look darker than it should.

Moleskine

The Mildliners performed well on the Moleskine. No bleedthrough and minimal showthrough.

Leuchtturm1917 – 80gsm

It even performed better on the Leuchtturm and look more vibrant than the swatches on the Moleskine.

I am still planning on adding highlighting tests on books and copy paper. If you’d want me to test these on other types of papers, just let me know so that I could test it (provided that I have access to the paper)

Overall thoughts

The Mildliners are alright. I had high expectations with these highlighters because they always looked so good when folks in the bullet journal community use it. This particular set wasn’t as light as I thought and I wasn’t so happy about that. If I were to purchase Mildliners again, I would go for the newer version of this – the 15-count pack just because the colors are more vibrant.

Overall, I think this is great for those who are looking for non-neon highlighters and those who are looking for markers that can pass as highlighters. A happy medium. It’s no wonder people have been mistakenly calling this the Midliners!.