Supplies
The best markers for coloring
One question decides everything else: alcohol or water-based. This page answers it, then names the sets worth buying on each side.
Most marker guides are written for illustrators working on marker pad, a paper made for the job. A coloring page is a different situation: either a bound book on cheap stock, or a sheet that came out of a home printer. What follows is written for those two, and the advice changes because of it.
Alcohol or water-based, and nothing else matters first
Every marker sold for coloring is one or the other, and the choice decides how the page looks, what you can put it on, and what happens to the tablecloth.
Alcohol markers carry pigment in a solvent that evaporates on contact. The colour sits flat with no visible strokes, a second pass deepens it without leaving an edge, and two colours pushed into each other blend on the page. It is why a page coloured with them looks printed rather than filled in. The cost of that solvent is that it keeps travelling after it leaves the nib: sideways past your line, and downwards through the sheet.
Water-based markers carry pigment in water, which the paper fibres absorb and hold. Nothing reaches the page underneath, the ink washes out of most clothes, and the caps on children’s sets are made to pass air if swallowed. The trade is that water swells the fibres, so a heavily coloured page buckles a little as it dries, and going back over a dry area leaves a mark where the two passes meet.
What actually bleeds, and through what
Ignore the words no bleed on the box. Markers that don’t bleed are not a category the manufacturers can sell you: the phrase describes how far ink spreads sideways from the nib, not whether it reaches the back of the sheet. What decides that is paper weight, and there are only three numbers to remember.
- 80 gsm (20 lb), the paper already in your printer: fine for water-based, useless under alcohol markers.
- 120 gsm (32 lb): alcohol markers stop here. This is the useful number.
- 160 gsm and up: card stock. Nothing goes through, and the sheet stays flat enough to frame.
A bought coloring book is usually printed on something between 100 and 120 gsm, which is why alcohol markers behave better in a book than on a page you printed at home. If you are printing, the paper costs less than the pens and fixes the problem once.
Hammermill Premium Color, 32 lbPaper
Thirty-two pounds is 120 gsm. This is the sheet that stops a marker reaching the table underneath. Ordinary copy paper is 80.
Alcohol markers worth buying
The studio brands cost several pounds a pen because they are refillable and their nibs are replaceable, which matters if you draw for a living and does not if you colour on a Sunday. The mid-range sets have taken almost all of that market, and the Ohuhu ones come up more often than any other name in coloring groups.
Ohuhu alcohol markers, 120 coloursMarkers
The set that comes up most often in coloring groups. Alcohol ink lays flat with no pencil grain, and goes straight through anything thinner than 120 gsm.
Ohuhu Honolulu, brush and soft chiselMarkers
The same alcohol ink as the Oahu set with a brush at one end instead of a fine tip. Better on petals, fur and anything curved; worse in small enclosed shapes.
Ohuhu Oahu, 320 coloursMarkers
The set people search for by name. Three hundred and twenty is far more than a coloring page needs, and buying it for that reason is buying the object, which is a fair reason but not a technical one.
The first two differ only at one end. A fine tip is the safer choice for coloring pages, because most enclosed shapes are small. A brush tip is better on petals, fur and anything curved, and it is the one to buy if lettering or sketching is also on the table.
The third is the same ink in a set of three hundred and twenty, which is the one people look up by name. Nothing on a coloring page needs that many colours: past sixty you are buying neighbours of shades you already own. Buy it because owning it is the pleasure, which is honest, or buy a hundred and twenty and spend the difference on paper.
Water-based markers worth buying
This is the honest recommendation for anyone colouring on printed pages without buying special paper, and for any house with a table that matters.
Ohuhu Maui, 120 water-basedMarkers
Water-based, so the ink stays on the sheet instead of reaching the table. Brush at one end, fineliner at the other. Reviews complain that some of the 120 are close to each other, which is true of every large set at this price.
Ohuhu Pupe, 120 water-basedMarkers
Water-based, and built so the ink does not lift when a second pass crosses a dry first one. That peeling is the usual complaint about water-based sets, and it is what this one is sold on.
Crayola Super Tips, washableMarkers
Water-based and washable, which on a school morning is the only specification that counts. The tip goes thin or thick with pressure.
The complaint that follows water-based ink everywhere is peeling: a second pass over a dry first one lifts what is underneath and leaves a pale scar. The Pupe set is built against that specifically, which matters if you colour in layers rather than in one go.
Brush, chisel or fine
Nearly every set is dual-tipped now, and the pairing tells you what it was designed for. A fine tip and a chisel is made to fill areas quickly and edge them cleanly, which is what a coloring page mostly is. A fine tip and a brush is made for lettering and organic shapes, and it rewards a lighter hand.
For coloring specifically, chisel wins on large areas and brush wins on petals, fur and anything curved. Neither is wrong, and the fine tip on the other end does the small enclosed shapes in both cases.
Paint markers, and why they are the wrong tool here
Posca is the name everyone means by paint marker, and the search volume says a lot of people arrive at coloring pages looking for them. They are excellent pens and they are not for this.
Paint markers lay down opaque, water-based pigment, which is why they work on rock, glass, fabric and dark paper. On a coloring page that opacity is the problem: it buries the printed line instead of filling beside it, so the drawing disappears under the colour. The tips are also wide, the narrowest common one being about 1.8 mm, and most enclosed shapes on a detailed page are narrower than that.
They also take a real minute to dry, and a hand resting on a finished area smears it. If you own them, use them on the largest, boldest sheets and nothing else. If you are buying for coloring, buy alcohol or water-based markers instead.
What not to spend money on
Sets above 100 colours, unless the size itself is the pleasure. Past sixty, the additions are neighbours of colours you already have, and on a printed page nobody will see the difference.
Colourless blenders sold separately. They come in most sets already, and on the paper weights discussed here they mostly push ink around rather than blending it.
Anything sold as suitable for every surface. A marker that writes on glass and metal is a paint pen, and the section above explains why that is the wrong tool for a printed page.
Then print something to try them on
Every sheet in the catalogue is free, drawn with a solid black outline that markers cannot feather along, and downloads as a 300 dpi PDF without an account. If markers turn out not to be your medium, the pencils page covers the other half, and the supplies page the paper and printers around both.
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Marker questions
Are alcohol or water-based markers better for coloring books?
Alcohol markers look better, water-based markers are easier to live with. Alcohol ink dries instantly and blends where two colours meet, so a finished page has no streaks. It also passes through anything thinner than 120 gsm. Water-based ink stays on the sheet and washes off skin, but a second pass over a dry first pass leaves a visible edge.
Which markers don't bleed through paper?
Water-based ones. Look for the words water-based or washable on the box. Alcohol markers will bleed through ordinary 80 gsm printer paper no matter what the packaging claims about no-bleed ink, because the solvent is the thing that travels. If you want alcohol markers on printed pages, buy the paper first.
What is the difference between a brush tip and a chisel tip?
A brush tip bends under pressure, so the same pen draws a hairline and a wide stroke. It suits organic shapes: petals, fur, hair. A chisel tip keeps its width, which fills large areas evenly and faster, and gives a clean straight edge along a border. Most sets now put a fine tip on one end and one of these on the other.
How many colours do I actually need?
Between 24 and 60. Below 24 you start mixing to reach ordinary skin and foliage tones, which alcohol markers do badly. Above 60 the extra colours are variations you will use twice a year. The 120 and 160 sets are bought for the feeling of owning them, which is a real reason, but not a technical one.
Do markers work on printed coloring pages?
Yes, with the right paper. The sheets on this site are 300 dpi PDFs with solid black line, so nothing feathers along the outline. The variable is what you print on: 80 gsm copy paper for water-based, 120 gsm or heavier for alcohol. The printing guide covers the settings.