Pencil Drawing of Sun Sgining on Wooden Cart

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"The Best Pencil in the World" is a contentious title. Pencils come in an extraordinary number of varieties, and no two people need quite the same thing from their pencil. A student looking for the best mechanical pencil for math has very different needs from an artist looking for professional colored pencils.

To help you find your personal best pencil, we've chosen recommendations for specific categories rather than arranging all of the pencils in an arbitrary list. We also link to more in-depth guides so that you can learn more about why we chose what we did and see the competition. We encourage you to look around, evaluate our selections, and pick your own favorites.

How We Tested

To choose our recommendations, we referenced the many tests we've put our pencils through over the years for our topical guides and videos. These include overviews of full product lines, detailed product comparisons, and other educational resources. We use different tests depending on the guide, but we often evaluate pencils on qualities like consistency, darkness, vibrancy, erasability, and comfort.

Best Mechanical Pencils

The Pentel Sharp Kerry is a seriously cool mechanical pencil. It dares to be different with a capped design that is both stylish and supremely practical. When you're not using the pencil, the cap protects the delicate lead sleeve from damage and prevents the lead sleeve from stabbing through your clothes. This makes the Sharp Kerry an excellent pocket EDC pencil. But it's when it's time to write that the true genius of the Sharp Kerry shines through. Every part of the pencil is perfectly integrated for a seamless writing experience regardless of whether the cap is posted or unposted.

If you prefer to leave the cap off, simply push the button on the body of the pencil to advance the lead. When you do post the cap, it snaps securely into place with no risk of it flying off during use. Posting reveals a push button on top of the cap that lets you advance the lead even though the cap is covering up the main push button on the body of the pencil. It's no wonder that the Sharp Kerry is the top pick in our guide to The Best Mechanical Pencils!

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The Zebra DelGuard is the original unbreakable pencil. If you struggle with broken pencil leads, its highly engineered two-part lead guarding system will be a lifesaver. A spring in the barrel cushions lead from too much vertical force by allowing it to slide back inside the pencil instead of breaking. Another spring in the tip of the pencil extends a pipe to reinforce the lead when the writer applies too much sideways pressure. This is slightly different from other lead guard mechanical pencils that use a sliding lead sleeve to prevent breakage.

Sliding lead sleeves are highly effective, but they require you to write with the end of the lead pipe touching the paper at all times. Since the Zebra DelGuard protects your pencil lead no matter how you write, we believe it's the best unbreakable pencil for most people.

The Zebra DelGuard comes in several different styles, including the lightweight standard plastic version and the ergonomic Type-GR. If you appreciate being able to write in ink or pencil at a moment's notice, try the Zebra DelGuard +2C Multi Pen. It combines the DelGuard's lead guarding features with smooth black and red Zebra Surari Emulsion ballpoint ink refills.

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All pencils suffer from a fundamental flaw: as you write, the pencil lead wears down on one side until you finally turn the pencil to find a sharp edge. The Uni Kuru Toga pencil solves this problem with an internal mechanism that rotates the lead for you every time you lift the pencil tip from the paper. This prevents the lead from ever getting dull so that you can write comfortably without the distraction of constantly adjusting your grip. It also reduces lead breakage and ensures that each letter looks crisp rather than varying in width as the lead wears down.

The Uni Kuru Toga comes in several versions, but two of our favorites are the Uni Kuru Toga Roulette and the Uni Kuru Toga Advance. The Uni Kuru Toga Roulette is consistently the most popular Kuru Toga on our site for its premium look, knurled metal grip, and comfortably low center of gravity. If you're looking for a fancy mechanical pencil, the Roulette is it. The Uni Kuru Toga Advance features a "W Speed" rotating mechanism that turns the lead twice as fast as standard Kuru Togas. This faster speed is better for people who write in cursive since they don't lift the pencil from the paper as often as people who print. The Advance also has a sliding lead sleeve that protects against lead breakage and can be retracted to prevent the pencil tip from damage when it's not in use.

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If you suffer from achy fingers, the Alpha Gel line has your back. It is equipped with the luxuriously squishy Alpha Gel grip, which features a soft cushion that provides much-needed relief for your fingers if you grip your pencil hard or have sore spots that are sensitive to pressure. Depending on your grip, hand size, and writing style, you can choose from a variety of models including the Shaka Shaker, Slim, and even Kuru Toga, which incorporates their famous auto-rotation mechanism. The Shaka Shaker line extends lead with a shaker mechanism and offers two additional grips: firm and medium firm. Don't be fooled by the names though—the grips are still quite squishy; they're just slightly firmer than the original soft grip for those who need more support.

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If you're looking for a new mechanical pencil but can't pick just one, our mechanical pencil sampler is the way to go. It comes with six fantastic mechanical pencils, including a super-fine 0.2 mm Pentel Orenz (recommended below, in the Best Pencils for School section), a Uni Kuru Toga, and a Zebra DelGuard.

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Best Pencils for Writing

The sleek Tombow Mono 100 is a favorite among draftsmen, designers, engineers, and students. It's an outstanding writing pencil due to its high-density lead, which resists breakage and stays sharp longer than other pencils. It writes smoothly with a hint of satisfying feedback and barely smears, even in the darker lead grades. We do recommend pairing this pencil with a good eraser, especially if you grab the B grades—they took a bit more effort to erase than the H grades.

Most people use medium lead grades like HB, F, H, and B for writing, but the Mono 100 does come in a wide range of lead grades if you prefer harder or softer options. If you like soft leads and want something with a bit more flair, try a Blackwing Pencil, which was our top pick for writing in The Best Wooden Pencils guide. Its distinctive look and smooth, dark leads make even everyday writing feel special.

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Our wooden pencil samplers let you several of our best wooden pencils so that you can find your favorite. The JetPens Pencil Starter Kit comes with everything you need to get started with wooden pencils, including a selection of fantastic HB pencils, two of our best pencil sharpeners, and an eraser. If you already have a sharpener and eraser you like, choose from our other wooden pencil samplers to compare pencils within the same lead grade: H, HB, F, B, and 2B.

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If you enjoy using wooden pencils but have trouble with hand fatigue, try the oversized Staedtler Triplus Jumbo pencil. Although it was designed with young writers in mind, its thick body is just as good for adults who need to hold their pencils more gently to reduce cramping. The pencil's triangular shape also encourages writers to use a tripod grip. This makes it easy to maintain control of the pencil without using heavy pressure. If you don't like large writing instruments, Faber-Castell Grip 2001 pencils are a good alternative. They're no thicker than typical pencils but feature triangular bodies lined with grippy dots to reduce slippage.

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Best Pencils for School

The Pilot Opt is our pick for the best mechanical pencil for students. It is inexpensive enough to fit in most students' budgets but still has excellent ergonomics to prevent hand fatigue no matter how long you study. Its barrel is wider than most mechanical pencils'. This, together with a low center of gravity and added traction from the tapered rubber grip, allows you to hold the pencil gently while still maintaining control.

The Opt also has two handy extras: a shaker mechanism and a binder clip for fastening the pencil to notebooks and pockets. The shaker mechanism lets you advance the lead without readjusting your grip, so you don't have to break your train of thought. In addition to these practical features, the Pilot Opt comes in fun body colors so that you can express your style.

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The best mechanical pencil for math lets you write intricate equations clearly and precisely, easily fitting numbers into the small squares of graph paper. The Pentel Orenz is the only pencil to accommodate 0.2 mm lead, which makes even the tiniest notations easy to read. Although the 0.2 mm lead size is delicate, the Pentel Orenz is equipped with a sliding lead sleeve that reinforces the lead along its entire length and retracts as it wears down. As long as you do not extend the lead beyond the sleeve, you can write indefinitely with no breakage.

The Pentel Orenz comes in four different styles, ranging from the lightweight standard Orenz to the premium Orenz Nero. This futuristic pencil is made from a sturdy metal and resin blend and features an automatic advancement mechanism that extends the lead every time you lift the tip from the paper.

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The Tombow Mono Graph Shaker Mechanical Pencil is chock-full of features, including multiple ways to extend lead (push button or shaker mechanisms), two lead sizes, fun body colors, and more. But we're turning the spotlight on its most overlooked feature: its eraser. If you're an avid reader of our blog, you already know that we love Tombow Mono erasers, because they erase efficiently and cleanly. The Tombow Mono Graph provides a decently-sized eraser that's larger than most mechanical pencils'. It extends with a convenient twist mechanism and has a usable length of 0.7 inches (1.8 cm). When you run out, you can even purchase mechanical pencil eraser refills!

If you don't need all the features of the Tombow Mono Graph, another mechanical pencil with a generous twist-up eraser is the Pentel Twist-Eraser III. Its soft, latex-free grip earned it a spot in our Best Ergonomic Pencils guide.

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Best Colored Pencils

If you're looking for a set of good colored pencils that will work for almost any project, Prismacolor Premier Color Pencils are exactly what you need. Their 72 vivid colors provide a wide range of color options, and their soft wax cores are a pleasure to use. They apply smoothly, easily achieve full coverage, and can be blended and burnished with almost no effort. Their opacity gives drawings excellent contrast even when done on colored paper. Prismacolor Premier pencils deserve a place in any artist's pencil case, whether you're a professional, student, or hobbyist.

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Faber-Castell Polychromos are the best colored pencils for professional artists whose drawings will be on display. Each pencil is filled with a buttery smooth, richly pigmented core that lays down vibrant color at the slightest touch. Because their cores are oil-based, there's no need to worry about unsightly wax bloom on your art. Most impressively, Faber-Castell Polychromos are lightfast. Asterisks on each pencil indicate how well that particular color resists degradation from light exposure. This lets you choose hues that will remain vivid over time and show your work to the best effect.

As a bonus, Polychromos pencils are color-matched with other Faber-Castell products for easy mix media work.

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Uni Arterase pencils are fantastic colored pencils even if you don't plan to use their erasable properties, with firm yet smooth cores that blend well and are highly opaque. They are also the best erasable colored pencils we have ever seen. Most colored pencils will smear and leave pigment on the page no matter how good of an eraser you use, but Uni Arterase pencils lift cleanly and easily every time.

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Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer pencils are the best watercolor pencils for making stunning, long-lasting watercolor pencil art. Their buttery cores contain intense, high-quality pigments that deliver brilliant color payoff and excellent lightfastness. Like the Faber-Castell Polychromos, each color's lightfastness rating is printed on the barrel of the pencil for easy reference. Although Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer pencils are a pleasure to use dry, they truly shine when used as watercolor pencils.

Their colors dissolve into even more intense hues when touched with water, allowing you to blend new colors and spread them into lovely watercolor washes.

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Although they're not as common as wooden colored pencils, mechanical colored pencils do exist—and the Pilot Color Eno is the best mechanical pencil with colored lead that we've seen. Each of the eight body colors is matched to the lead inside so that you can easily pick the right pencil. The pencils are filled with 0.7 mm Pilot Color Eno Erasable Lead. It is smudge resistant and wonderfully easy to erase, which makes it perfect for sketching, editing, and color-coding notes or planner entries.

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We put our JetPens Sketch Starter Kit together with artists in mind, but its components could work just as well for writers! This versatile kit comes with a Pilot Color Eno mechanical pencil in Soft Blue, which is known as non-repro blue because most scanners and photocopiers won't pick it up. This lets you easily make clean copies of sketches and edited documents. The set also includes a box of smooth Blackwing Pearl pencils, a high-quality Maruman Mnemosyne notebook, and several other sketching tools.

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Readers ask us all the time whether it's possible to create their own multi-color mechanical pencil. In the past, we've recommended picking out a customizable multi pen and filling it with all mechanical pencil components, but now, Uni offers the Color 3 Erasable Multi Mechanical Pencil. It comes installed with Uni's NanoDia lead in blue, orange, and red, so you can start sketching and color-coding right away. You can swap out the preloaded colors with other colored leads or even graphite lead in different lead grades.

Plain 0.5 mm mechanical pencil components with graphite lead are also available so you can easily tell the difference between colored and graphite lead components. NanoDia leads are infused with nano-diamond particles, making the leads stronger and more break resistant than typical colored leads. We do find that they take a little more effort to erase than other comparable leads like the Pilot Color Eno, but they feature truer, slightly darker colors.

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Uni No.888 pencils are specifically designed to be the best colored pencils for adult coloring books. They come in a set of 36 rich hues including several shades of red, blue, brown, and green. This allows you to color natural motifs with great detail and produce beautiful gradients. Because they also layer well, it's easy to build up more hues than are represented in the set. If you want more different colors, try Tombow Irojiten Color Pencils. They have harder cores and come in several unusual hues, including fluorescent and grayscale.

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Best Drawing Pencils

We chose the Platinum OLEeNU as the best mechanical pencil for drawing because it protects lead three ways to keep softer graphite lead grades and colored leads intact. In addition to a sliding lead sleeve, a cushioning spring protects against heavy vertical pressure. This allows artists to get away with using more pressure to blend colored leads. The third protective feature is the OLEeNU Guard clutch system. Most pencils leave leads unsupported between the clutch and the pencil tip, which can lead to fractures when the pencil is dropped.

The OLEeNU Guard includes two extra grasping parts that hold the lead along the entire length of the mechanism to protect it from sudden shocks. A side benefit of the OLEeNU Guard is that the pencil can use much shorter leads than most other pencils. This "Zero Shin" feature reduces lead waste and saves artists money over time.

The Platinum OLEeNU comes in three styles: the standard Platinum OLEeNU, the OLEeNU Shield, and the OLEeNu High Grade. They all share the same lead guarding features, but we particularly like the standard version for sketching due to its lightweight body, comfortable rubber grip, and binder clip that can easily be fastened to sketchbook covers.

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No matter how you use them, Uni Mitsubishi Hi-Uni pencils deserve a place in your art kit. These professional drawing pencils are some of the best pencils for art we've ever seen, with outrageously creamy and expressive graphite cores across every lead grade. Each grade is clearly differentiated from the next so that artists can build up realistic drawings with the full range of graphite tones. The B grades' exceptional smoothness makes them some of the best pencils for shading and drawing quick, fluid movements, but even the H grades are smoother than most.

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The Uni Vermilion and Prussian Blue Pencils are designed for editors, but they're great for sketching. They're double sided, so you can carry two colors without taking up any extra space. Their firm cores barely smudge and are soft enough to easily lay down smooth lines. The vermillion side is an orange-leaning red that works well for underdrawing, while the darker Prussian blue side is ideal for overdrawing and adding emphasis. This pair of colors would also work well for capturing warm light and cool shadows, a combination often found when drawing in sunlight. These two-sided pencils come in hexagonal or round bodies and either an even distribution of the two colors or a 7:3 ratio of vermillion to Prussian blue for those who use the red side more often. Single-color erasable versions are also available.

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It's no wonder that the Staedtler Silver Series lead holder is the top choice in our guide to The Best Lead Holders. It combines excellent build quality with all of the features a lead holder should have, all for a thoroughly reasonable price. Its aluminum body is well balanced and sturdy without being heavy. It is equipped with a knurled grip to reduce slipping. The 4 mm long guide pipe provides a clear view of the paper, and a built-in lead grade indicator lets you easily keep track of which lead is installed in which pencil.

Unlike many lead holders that use a drop clutch mechanism, this 2 mm lead holder has an easy-to-use incremental advance clutch that works just like a 2 mm mechanical pencil would.

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Best Technical Pencils

The Pentel Graph Gear 1000 provides all of the features you need in a drafting pencil for a thoroughly reasonable price. Its solid aluminum construction is sturdy without being overly heavy, so it won't tire your hand out during use. It's also comfortable to hold due to a knurled grip section that is inlaid with rubber ovals for extra traction. The Pentel Graph Gear 1000 includes a lead grade indicator as well as a 4 mm lead sleeve that makes it easy to use with a straightedge.

One of the Graph Gear 1000's unusual features is a spring-loaded binder clip that fastens easily onto thick notebook covers and pockets. Opening the clip retracts the pencil tip, so there's no danger of accidentally poking yourself through your clothes. The Pentel Graph Gear 1000 comes in tip sizes from 0.3 mm to 0.9 mm for artists and engineers who need a wide range of sizes at their disposal.

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The Staedtler Mars Lumograph is our top pick in The Best Wooden Pencils guide for good reason. Its high quality lead is smooth, while providing just enough grip for control when writing or drawing. What makes it especially good as an architect pencil is its superb point retention. Many architects go for mechanical and drafting pencils because regular wooden pencils wear down too quickly, leading to thick and inaccurate lines. All wooden pencils need to be sharpened periodically, but the Lumograph stays sharp longer than most. This lets you keep drafting without frequent pencil-sharpening pauses.

The Staedtler Mars Lumograph is also a genuine pleasure to use. It sharpens and erases easily, so your work will always look tidy. The Lumograph comes in a full range of lead grades if you prefer harder or softer options, which is great for both architects and artists.

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Our wooden pencil samplers let you test the Staedtler Mars Lumograph alongside several of our other best wooden pencils so that you can find your favorite. The JetPens Pencil Starter Kit comes with everything you need to get started with wooden pencils, including a selection of fantastic HB pencils, two of our best pencil sharpeners, and an eraser. If you already have a sharpener and eraser you like, choose from our other wooden pencil samplers to compare pencils within the same lead grade: H, HB, F, B, and 2B.

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Best Pencil Accessories

Best Pencil Sharpeners

If a good sharpener is one that reliably produces long, clean, sharp points, Kum Automatic Brake Sharpeners are the best pencil sharpeners there are. They use a two-step process. First, place the pencil in the hole on the left to shave away the wood and reveal the graphite. Then use the hole on the right to bring the lead to a needle-sharp point.

Even the best pencil sharpener is only as good as its blades, so Kum Automatic Brake Sharpeners come with spare blades to replace the originals when they get dull.

As a bonus for those who use lead holders, the blue sharpener also has built-in lead pointers for sharpening 2 mm and 3.2 mm leads.

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The Uni Color Pencil Sharpener is the best sharpener for colored pencils we've found. Don't be fooled by its unassuming looks—its simple design gently shaves colored pencils' delicate leads to short, sharp points without crumbling or chipping every time.

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Previously known as the Teffa Pen Case, this Lihit Lab Book Style Case is the best pencil case for keeping your supplies organized and easy to find. Its book-like shape allows the case to open flat so that you can see everything at a glance, and handy straps and pockets keep pens and accessories firmly in place. It isn't the most compact case out there, but it can hold up to 23 pens and fits easily into backpacks and bags. The larger Triple Zipper version fits up to 55 pens!

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The Sakura Sumo Grip is the best eraser we know for just about any use. It is made from a microporous plastic foam that lifts graphite with the lightest touch and traps it for a smudge-free clean every time. It's also a bit firmer and grippier than similar erasers like its cousin the Sakura Foam. This makes it easier to control so that you don't accidentally erase more work than you mean to. The Sumo Grip's eraser crumbs roll together for easy cleanup, and since it's black, it'll keep looking tidy no matter how much you use it.

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The JetPens Eraser Sampler lets you test seven of our best-selling erasers to find your own favorite. It includes block eraser favorites like the Sakura Foam, Uni Boxy, and Tombow Mono as well as a kneaded eraser that is ideal for art applications.

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Stillman & Birn Alpha Sketchbooks are ideal for use with graphite and colored pencils. Their bright white paper has a mild tooth that helps pencils deposit more color and graphite on the page but won't cause skipping. The paper is a bit heavier than necessary for dry media, which gives you the option of incorporating light washes and ink into your art.

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Best Mechanical Pencil Leads

It doesn't matter how good your mechanical pencil is if the lead you put in it doesn't measure up. Uni NanoDia lead is the best mechanical pencil lead we've found for all-around performance. It is smooth, dark, and infused with nano-diamond particles for extra strength and wear resistance. Uni NanoDia leads come in a wide variety of grades and sizes so you can be sure to find one to fit your preferences.

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If you need something more interesting than plain graphite, Pilot Color Eno Neox leads are for you. These high-quality 0.7 mm colored mechanical pencil leads come in eight vivid colors and are remarkably easy to erase. This makes them perfect for sketching, color-coding notes, and making planner entries.

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CONCLUSION

We hope you've enjoyed this exploration of the best pencils for 2021! Check out our companion Best Pens for 2021 guide if you also write or draw in ink, and be sure to subscribe to our newsletter to be updated on new guides, videos, and products.

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Pencil Drawing of Sun Sgining on Wooden Cart

Source: https://www.jetpens.com/blog/The-22-Best-Pencils-for-2021-Wooden-and-Mechanical-Pencils/pt/30

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