Best Brush Pens For Hand Lettering

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Best Brush Pens For Hand Lettering

Are you looking into brush pens for hand lettering? If so, it looks like we have something in common. I recently did some research online and picked up a few pens to test out. I’ve documented my findings and I hope it helps.

If you want a quick summary, check out the table below. For more details on each pen, there’s more details lower down.

To give you a clear understanding of each pens’ strengths and weaknesses, I will be judging each pen based on 4 categories; tip size, tip flexibility, control/ease of use, and colour selection.

The Tombow Fudenosuke comes in hard and soft tips. The hard tip  has better control, whereas the soft is a bit thicker. Either way, I would say it is personal preference. These are amazing pens for small scale use. The ink flows easily and dries quickly. Overall, the Tombow Fudenosuke is a beginner friendly brush pen that is a lot of fun to use.

Hard Tip: Check Price
Soft Tip: Check Price

Twin Tip: Check Price

Tombow Dual Brush is a popular pen with a large flexible tip. You will feel this pen is easy to use and very controllable. The water-based ink blends and dries very well. You don’t have to be careful with the steadiness of your hand, which is ideal for beginners.

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The 3 Sakura Pigma Pens are all very different. The small (FB) is similar to the Tombow Fudenosuke Soft Tip. You get a small letter size with control and ease of use. The medium (MB) is similar to the Sakura Koi. The big (BB) is extremely flexible and hard to control. I find the FB and MB are the most useful.
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The Sakura Pigma Blister Card Brush Pen is on the small side of the medium category. I found a nice balance of precision and flexibility. This pen only comes in 9 colours.
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The Pentel Fude Touch is similar to the Tombow Fudenosuke. You will find that this pen has a flexible nib that is easy to control.
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I found the Faber Castell is another great choice. It has a longer nib which you will see, provides flexibility. Yet the control is really good. This pen also comes in tons of colors.
12 Color Set Check Price
60 Color Set Check Price

If you like thicker lettering, Sakura Koi is a good choice. It is larger than the Tombow Dual Brush. Also a bit more flexible. However this means you lose a bit of control. You really have to be light handed on the up-stroke to make sure it doesn’t get too thick. The Sakura Koi comes in a wide range of vibrant colours.
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The Zig Brushables are similar to the Tombow Dual Brush Pen. But I found that this pen gives a nice balance between flexibility and control. It is firm, yet it flexes. Another thing I enjoyed with these is the ink, which is slightly transparent. This is cool because the harder you press, the darker/more opaque the ink is. This difference, when paired with thin and thick strokes, gives depth, which looks like a real brush.
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The Kuretake Fudebiyori, in Japanese means: it’s a perfect day for brush, was fun to use because it had a good balance of tip flexibility and control. This pen is similar to the Tombow Dual Brush Pen, and the Zig Brushables. They come in a lot of colours, including metallics.
12 Color Set Check Price
8 Metalic Set Check Price

With so many great pens, it is hard to make a decisive recommendation. It really depends on the use case. For small lettering and general use, the Tombow Fudenosuke, specifically the hard tip, was my favorite. For the medium category, I recommend the Kuretake Fudebiyori. Finally the large, my pick is the Tombow Dual Brush.

If you are new to hand lettering and what to leaern more, check out our article What Is Hand Lettering?.