PILOT Color Eno 0.7mm Automatic Mechanical Pencil 8 Color Set

I purchased these to have an erasable alternative to color pens and preferred mechanical pencils to those that require sharpening. This was one of the few if not the only one available. I located a couple of individual mechanical pencils with limited color options. This was the only set I could find with the most color options available. It's nice that they come in a set and at an acceptable price. If some reason one is lost or breaks I don't see an option to replace just one of the 8 pens. They are inexpensive enough to buy an entire set when comparing the price to buying an individual mechanical pencil that it may not be a big concern. If it is important that a set contain matching pencils then buying a new set appears to be the only option. Another option is to purchase individual mechanical pencils in a more customized fashion with barrel colors to match. From what I've determined the cost would be considerably more expensive to purchase 8 individual pencils rather than this 8 pack (depending on the brand and the quality of the pencil).As of this review I've had them a little less than two weeks and started using them immediately to see if they would be a good fit for my habit of use. The pencil itself is typical of mechanical pencil quality in my experience. There has been no experience of jamming. On occasion I can be heavy handed and like any other mechanical pencil lead it can break but haven't had too much breakage. If you're heavy handed on any mechanical pencil there will be breakage but again no more than any other mechanical pencils I've used. The .7 lead size seems to hold up better. I've typically gotten .5 lead for finer lines now I prefer the .7 over the .5.As some reviewers have stated some of the colors are lighter than others. The yellow is the lightest and the text is difficult to read much like a highlighter near the near of life is light. I tend to favor the yellow for use as an erasable highlighter if needed. Just color over the text to highlight. The green lead seems to be the next lightest in my opinion more readable than the yellow but still light. The blues, purple and red are the darkest. The orange and pink are readable lighter than the three previously mentioned colors and darker than the yellow. They do erase easily at least in my application. I use them for making notes/highlights in Bibles. Any of the colors will show up in contrast to white pages. Writing on any colored pages other than white would be difficult to read.The packaging of the pencil is a very thin plastic with a light tacky seal. The packaging doesn't have a snap or is the plastic thick enough use to store the pens. when I opened the box I noted the plastic is so thin the pencils easily move around in the packaging. There was no damage and packing was sufficient just a note if this was of importance to some.Before purchasing it was important to determine availability and cost of replacement lead. Local office stores do not appear to carry replacement leads in store or online. Amazon seemed to be the only seller (through various retailers) offering this lead and it is the "ENO" same as the pens. The cost can be somewhat expensive compared to purchasing the same amount of standard lead for any mechanical pencil. It is less expensive to purchase the 8 color replacement set. If a particular color is used more frequently then this may be the better option than buying the entire site.All in all I'm satisfied with this pencil set. The most important is to have multiple colors with the ability to erase any mistakes. Not sure how anything written will hold up over time (i.e. 1, 2, 10 years) but that will have to come with time. Each pencil comes with only 2 pieces of lead in each so depending on your usage you may want to order additional right away.

I only have one question and that is where can I get refills because this is the best pencil set you’ll find. It gently colors the page without gouging it being the correct #2 (#1.5) led. Easy on paper back pages.

I completely adore these color pencils. As a math major, I must graph a lot of functions, and these pencils let me differentiate between non-continuous lines and line transformations on one graph in a fun and distinctive way, yet I'm able to erase if I make a mistake. They erase fairly well, although writing a line with a really sharp edge may not erase as thoroughly as a softer edge line.One advantage of the Eno lead is that it always writes, no matter how often I erase something, unlike the Crayola erasable color pencils. The Crayolas erase well, but then the lead sometimes won't stick to the paper anymore in that spot. These Enos don't care how much or how often I erase, they'll lay down another line, no problem.I'd think that science, engineering or computer science majors would find these useful for schematics, differentiating system functions/paths, and so on. They got heavy use in my economics class, where I had to do a lot of graphing surplus this or deadweight loss that. In a pinch, they work nicely as highlighters, and color coding fiends will love them for organizing notes and agendas. I also find them enormously useful for editing papers for my liberal arts courses as well.I know a math TA who used these when he was in the training process for grading papers. He said it helped that he could grade and write notes or questions on the tests in colors that grab a professor's attention right away, and then the professor could get back to him, review anything either of them messed up (yes, professors make mistakes with tests and answer keys!), and then he could erase away his first run through the test before committing to a red pen for the final grading process.To everyone who has complained about the yellow pencil, try using it on dark paper, and then you will see it shine. I have a very old set of goth-dark Post it notes from (I think) the 90s, and everything but the purple and dark blue Eno shows up perfectly on them, even the red, which is really rare to see on dark paper in color pencils or gel pens. That makes the brighter shades of this set perfect for scrapbookers and other people using dark paper. I'd never really used the dark Post-Its much because it was so difficult to find anything that showed up on them as consistently as the brighter colors of the Eno lead. Now I can finally put them to use.For art work, these Enos are rather limited, so if you absolutely need erasable pencils for drawing, I'd stick with Prismacolor, or, if you've gotten your hands on them, the Uni ArtErase set. They have more color variation, line variation and richness of color that work better for more serious art work using color pencils than the Eno. Not that these won't work in a pinch, but they won't make the average artist happy.I have only a few complaints about the Eno:1) If you write hard or try to lay down a hard, thick line in one go with this pencil, it will frustrate you. The leads seem to be on the delicate side. Don't advance the lead too much and use a lighter touch than you normally would when drawing or writing with them, or the lead will shatter on you.2) If the lead gets too small from breakage, then sometimes it won't advance or stay advanced. The leads are rather expensive to replace, so I'd be careful with how I stored and handled the pencils and leads. Again, a lighter touch when writing, and avoid dropping them or letting them roll off a desk to a hard floor. I keep my set in a padded pencil case, and this has extended the life of the leads considerably.These are minor points, only enough together to take off a star. Otherwise, I really recommend the pencils for people like me, who need the combination of color and erasability for their school work or professional life.