BIC 4-Color Original
What We Like
- Quick color-switching across four refillable inks that hold out through months of notes
- Works across school, desk work, and clinical color-coding routines
- Smooth stroke that keeps pace with fast note-taking without skipping
Worth Noting
- Plastic barrel and clip can crack when the pen takes a hard drop on a hard floor
- Tip Size
- 1.0mm
- Durability
- Plastic barrel
- Ink Colors
- 4 colors
- Grip Comfort
- —
Read the full review
Four ink colors live in a single barrel, each called up with one click, and the cartridges refill when empty — a near-disposable price that stretches into months of writing instead of replacing separate pens. The click mechanism switches colors mid-sentence without fuss, and the ink flows smoothly under firm handwriting pressure, holding a consistent line through a full lecture or clinical shift. Refills replace worn cartridges rather than the whole pen, which is where the long-term savings land — ink refills cost a fraction of a new pen and keep the system affordable across a full semester.
For students, desk workers, and nurses who color-code by subject on the job, the four colors switch consistently without drying out between uses, and the red, blue, and green pop clearly against black text for quick scanning. The medium 1.0mm tip writes bold, so note-takers with very small handwriting will find it heavy — a finer point suits them better. Color-coded notes stay legible across an entire notebook because the ink keeps its consistency page after page, which is the whole point of a multi-pen.
Bottom line: The value benchmark for four-color note-taking — a per-pen cost low enough that the color-coding habit stops being a budget question.