Well, I was a fan of COPIC. Was.
I’m not an artist whatsoever, but I like drawing and coloring, so in my arsenal, I have a full set of COPIC SP Multiliner and many COPIC CIAO during these years, and I enjoyed them.
When I first hearing about COPIC SP Multiliner few years ago, I immediately became a fan, since I like the concept of replacable nib, and refillable ink. I like them not bacause of economic reason (well in the past yes, university students don’t have much money), but I’m also a careless dude with the constant fear of dropping, pressing to strong etc., and the feeling of having my pens fixable eases me whenever I use them.
The same reason went for COPIC CIAO, refillable ink may sometimes be a nuisance and a mess. But having the capability of playing around with the marker has a very relaxing value.
Till today, 2025.
I’ve learned that the refill-ink is reduced in volume for the increased price (for the marker). Inflation ? I understand. But COPIC reduce the volume while increase the price at the same time is a scummy move.
I also learned today that in 2021 COPIC stopped supporting the spare nib for COPIC SP Liner, but the COPIC SP Multiliner is still being sold. WTF? What the point of selling the product but you stop supporting the product left and right ? About this point, Canon is the same, they stop manufacturing the ink for the Portable Printer QX10, but they’re still selling the printer. Evil.
What to do now ?
Too bad, not many choice for replacable nib (there is but I will write anothe blog post). For Copic SP Fineliner nib repacement, now we can still find some left on Amazon. Or switch to disposable pens like Sakura Micron, Ohuhu, Graph’IT etc.. they are great. COPIC also has disposable fine liner pen, but fuck them.
For marker, recently Ohuhu is a very capable candidate, and the quality is pretty good, I have dozens of Ohuhu Markers, and they are great : saturation, blending, longitivity… and they support many colors as well. Graph’IT also jumps on the “refillable” wagon as well, which is great since in my region finding a graph’it marker is very easy (europe). Anyway, among Ohuhu, Graph’it, Promarker, Faber-Castell… I realized that COPIC is overpriced and seem to forget about what made them great : good quality and good durability, now they don’t respect consumers anymore. It’s sad but it’s a good lesson for me, there is no reason to be a fan of an only brand if they don’t care about their customer.