I got some fun Caran d’Ache Couleurs Fluos highlighter pencils recently. These are a good alternative to liquid highlighter pens, which dry out quickly and also pick up all sorts of grime from the page. It’s difficult to reproduce the colors accurately in the writing sample below (the orange Fluo in the first line is particularly distorted), but perhaps you can notice that the CdA Fluos are much more vivid in color than the Faber-Castell Textliner? They are indeed “fluorescent”. I like the Lyra Fluorliner too, it lays down a very legible line despite its yellow color.
pencils and other things 
I wonder why no one makes these in a Carpenter pencil shape?
They’d be easier to sharpen to the sort of chisel tip that an ink highlighter uses.
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John, I’ve been using (or trying to use) carpenter pencils these past few weeks and I can guess why. First of all carpenter pencils are difficult to sharpen, even if you have a dedicated sharpener. And secondly these highlighter-type pencils tend to have a softer core (feels like paraffin) which will probably break if exposed to the extent of the lead in carpenter pencils. Also, I find it difficult to make the broad strokes, even if the chisel point is sharpened very well – the tip has to be held at a precise angle in order to produce the desired effect. The jumbo hexagonal shape just seems much simpler.
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Fair point on the softer cores – I’d still be up for trying a flat highlighter pencil though – I think it would knife sharpen, although maybe the tip couldn’t be finessed with sandpaper like a graphite core.
My current flat pencils are all graphite – I tend to knife sharpen them, and shape the core with either knife, or sandpaper. (Although I do have a sharpener for flat pencils, I don’t use it much).
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I prefer to knife sharpen these kinds of pencils too, but I wonder how many people would really take the trouble to do so on an everyday basis. I was surprised to discover how difficult it was to use a flat-pencil sharpener – it’s actually easier to sharpen the pencil by hand.
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Yes, re: taking the trouble to knife sharpen – I realised as I was typing quite what a niche market I was describing! One day, maybe :)
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And I bet you’ve had more practice, too! I’ve a long way to go ;)
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There used to be very posh Graf von Faber-Castell fluorescent pencils. Unfortunately they stopped selling them long ago.
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What a shame! Will keep an eye out for them however. You never know ;)
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