Gel highlighters are your best bet for textbook pages

Gel highlighters are your best bet for textbook pages because they don’t soak into the paper like liquid ink.

The regular liquid highlighter pens bleed because the dye is dissolved in a solvent that wicks through thin page fibers. Gel highlighters have a thicker pigment that sits on top of the page instead of soaking in. Dry/wax highlighters work too, but they feel like a pencil and are harder to get a crisp line.

Textbook paper is usually thin and cheap, so even some gel brands might ghost through. Test any highlighter on a corner or an unprinted page before you go marking up your notes. And lighter colors like yellow or green show less bleed than dark pink or orange.

This is not the place to save two bucks on the bargain bin pack.