Rotring Tikky Graphic Fineliner 0.5MM Review

Rotring Tikky Graphic

The Rotring Tikky Graphic is a fiber tip drawing pen that features water resistant pigment ink.  The Tikky comes in seven different tip sizes with black ink only.

The Tikky features a brown body with the famous red Rotring ring.  There is a translucent ink view window that continues into the feed section.  I like that you can see the ink level while the pen is capped.  The look of this pen is quite pleasant despite the branding. I also cannot think of another disposable pen that uses a brown body, so in that way it is unique.

Rotring Tikky GraphicRotring is famous for making excellent quality German-made technical drawing pens and to be honest the Tikky is a letdown.  While I generally like fiber tip drawing pens, the Tikky is hands down the worst I have used in recent memory.

Rotring Tikky GraphicThe 0.5mm tip is not particularly smooth, resulting in a considerable amount of resistance on the Rhodia pad I used.  The lines are messy and I found that my lines began and ended with what I will call “snake tongue” (see below).  I found no issues with ink flow or skipping.

Rotring Tikky Graphic
Notice the “snake tongue” at the bottom of the Rs the T and the N.

 

I looked at the tip under a loupe to see if the tip was misshapen and I could not see any flaws; it looked perfectly formed.  Even though I couldn’t see any problems with the tip, I may still have gotten a dud.

Rotring Tikky Graphic

The Chinese-made Tikky costs $3.60 which is $2.30 more than the excellent German-made Steadtler Triplus Fineliner and a $1.10 more than the popular Japanese-made Sakura Pigma Micron.  I cannot recommend the Tikky; a high price and poor performance do not go well together.  Avoid this one.

 

Here is a great review of the Rotring Tikky:

(I have no affiliation with the site linked below)

The Pen Addict – Rotring Tikky Graphic Drawing Pen 0.4 mm Review