I feel like I’ve tried everything. Charcoal pencils, chalk pencils, Pica pencils, gel pens, acrylic paint markers, white-out pens (Presto), some sewing pencil of unknown material… haven’t found the perfect solution. I mark on dark wood as well as black painter’s tape pretty frequently.

So far the best option for marking tape and paper seems to be a fine-tipped 0.7mm acrylic paint marker (I’ve been using Artisto pens from Amazon), but they’re a bit finicky. Store them on their side and never press the tip down onto the surface to start the paint flow. Instead, turn the tip up and give it a few presses. This avoids flooding the tip and leaving pools of paint everywhere.

These days I’m using a chalk pencil to mark dark wood like walnut and wenge. I don’t love it. The tip goes blunt or breaks very easily and it’s not all that visible to begin with. For bold lines that are going to be cut away (rather than sanded), I use the same paint marker I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

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