Review: Zig Letter Pen Cocoiro

When I initially purchased the Zig Letter Pen, I only bought the holder. I didn’t realize the cartridge was sold separately. So, after a frustrating wait with an empty pen case, I received cartridges to fill it. Oddly enough, the end of the pen projects out of the pen case in kind of a jarring way. While I like the texture of the matte-finish pen, the wonky protruding pen cartridge really disappointed me. But since I finally had cartridges, I figured I would go ahead and put it to use. Maybe it writes better than it looks?

The cartridge has a fairly fine-point, fiber brush tip. As opposed to other brush pens I prefer, the fiber tipped tend to lose their pointy-ness over time, particularly on toothy paper stock.

I tested it on some fairly smooth paper (Ecosystem blank) and what pleased me most was the richness of the black, very solid which is great for sketching and drawing. Brand new, the pen held a fairly fine point but I don’t know how well it will wear over time, the tip already looks a bit frayed.

I bought several different colors but I always seem to end up going back to black since I use brush pens mostly for work which means the art is scanned and manipulated digitally and black scans the cleanest.

In the end, for blackest black, fine point reusable brush pens, this isn’t bad. I do find the exposed end a little strange-looking though I see that it does allow you to see if there is still ink in the cartridge. Though I’m a sucker for anyone who will sell me something in acid-y lime green, this does not rank high in my pen hierarchy.