This is the loud one. Opaque fluorescent gel ink that sits on top of dark and coloured paper instead of sinking into it, and glows under a black light. If you have been trying to get neon to read on black card with ordinary pens, this is the set that actually does it.

Perfect for

Black paperUV and neonComics and mangaGel pensLayering over colourGifts

The six colours

Approximate colour reference only. Screen calibration and the colour of the paper underneath both change how these read.

Fluorescent ink works by taking in light you cannot see and giving it back as light you can, which is why a fluoro colour looks brighter than the paper it is sitting on and why it lights up under a black light. Sakura's fluorescents sit in the Moonlight line, which is their opaque formulation, so you get the neon and the coverage in the same pen.

One honest caveat, because it decides where you use these. Sakura state that fluorescent Moonlight colours can fade if they are left in direct sunlight. That is the trade for the brightness and it is true of fluorescent pigment generally. For a journal, a poster, a card or anything that lives in a drawer or on a wall out of direct sun, it is a non issue.

What you are actually getting

Getting the neon to actually read

Two passes, not one, and let the first dry before the second. Opaque ink builds. On black card a single pass of fluorescent yellow looks like a mistake and a second pass looks like a highlighter that has escaped. Under UV, work on a matte black stock rather than a gloss one, because gloss throws the lamp straight back at the viewer and washes the effect out.

Questions about the Gelly Roll Moonlight Fluorescent set