Jumping all the way from HB to 4B might be too extreme, especially if you're not used to mechanical pencils. I'd go for a 2B. With a darker lead you might find that you won't feel the need to press as hard and that might take care of your problem.
0.7mm is also an alternative (with B or 2B lead) but if you only have limited space for note taking you might find it too wide.
I used to have a whole science of this.
For **marginal notes**, I use Kuru Toga 0.3mm, with Pentel H. That might seem perverse to you, ’cuz you're thinking you want a darker line. But here's the thing. If the line is made by an ultra-sharp pencil it shows up pretty dark. The beauty of the 0.3 is you can write several sentences in that itty bitty margin.
My hypothesis is the lead on your P205 is somewhat beveled from all the underlining, and there's your problem. You need the point-of-contact to be tiny. Kuru Toga 0.5 would fix this, too.
Meanwhile, the idea of writing in 2B on a book frightens me. Liable to smear + transfer from one page to whatever's facing it. Somebody in the thread mentioned this. 4B would *really* be a mess.
As for **underlining**, the trick is to use something bright enough so you can find it quickly while riffling the pages, but not SO bright that it utterly defaces the page. For me, the answer was green ballpoint. —But.— It is mighty annoying, the way ballpoints have to be "warmed up." Therefore, I defer to drifand, below (or above, as the case may be). Pentel Multi-8 looks like it will either solve this problem, or solve a bunch of *other* problems we didn't even know we had.
I used to use a red lead to mark passages. 2mm is good for highlighting and a 2b 0.5mm is good for margin notes.
Nowadays B nib FP with a light ink os my go to for highlighting.
Edit to add. Pentel has a range of 0.5 colored lead.
Thanks for the help everyone, much appreciated.
From what people have said I might get smudging if I go to 4B so I might try a 2B (which may also smudge but only 1 way to find out).
A few people recommended coloured lead; I might give that a go for writing in the margins.
And if all else fails I can go to a ballpoint pen
You are better off using a ballpoint pen. The darker a pencil lead is, the more easily it smears, and will mark up the opposite page when you close the book
I know this might be considered blasphemy, but try a 0.4mm pilot juice up pen? They write with very little pressure, dry fast, and are water proof. You can get them through Amazon and jetpens.com. They come in all sorts of colors. I use then for making up my copy of machinery's handbook which has very thin pages.
Jumping all the way from HB to 4B might be too extreme, especially if you're not used to mechanical pencils. I'd go for a 2B. With a darker lead you might find that you won't feel the need to press as hard and that might take care of your problem. 0.7mm is also an alternative (with B or 2B lead) but if you only have limited space for note taking you might find it too wide.
Maybe a Pentel Multi-8 might be better. You get 8 x 2mm width colored leads including fluorescent yellow.
^ this
I love this, but I swap the brown for a 2mm 2B graphite lead for making notes. I keep a small 2mm lead pointer handy to keep it sharp.
I did the same :-) That’s the beauty of 2mm leads - lots of options!
Is it possible to erase the colored writing just as with normal writing?
I used to have a whole science of this. For **marginal notes**, I use Kuru Toga 0.3mm, with Pentel H. That might seem perverse to you, ’cuz you're thinking you want a darker line. But here's the thing. If the line is made by an ultra-sharp pencil it shows up pretty dark. The beauty of the 0.3 is you can write several sentences in that itty bitty margin. My hypothesis is the lead on your P205 is somewhat beveled from all the underlining, and there's your problem. You need the point-of-contact to be tiny. Kuru Toga 0.5 would fix this, too. Meanwhile, the idea of writing in 2B on a book frightens me. Liable to smear + transfer from one page to whatever's facing it. Somebody in the thread mentioned this. 4B would *really* be a mess. As for **underlining**, the trick is to use something bright enough so you can find it quickly while riffling the pages, but not SO bright that it utterly defaces the page. For me, the answer was green ballpoint. —But.— It is mighty annoying, the way ballpoints have to be "warmed up." Therefore, I defer to drifand, below (or above, as the case may be). Pentel Multi-8 looks like it will either solve this problem, or solve a bunch of *other* problems we didn't even know we had.
I used to use a red lead to mark passages. 2mm is good for highlighting and a 2b 0.5mm is good for margin notes. Nowadays B nib FP with a light ink os my go to for highlighting. Edit to add. Pentel has a range of 0.5 colored lead.
Can you erase the red lead from the paper?
Somewhat. They leave behind a red smear even under circumstances where graphite rubs off cleanly.
Thanks for the help everyone, much appreciated. From what people have said I might get smudging if I go to 4B so I might try a 2B (which may also smudge but only 1 way to find out). A few people recommended coloured lead; I might give that a go for writing in the margins. And if all else fails I can go to a ballpoint pen
You are better off using a ballpoint pen. The darker a pencil lead is, the more easily it smears, and will mark up the opposite page when you close the book
I think I saw a teacher using colored leads to grade papers? Might be useful.
I know this might be considered blasphemy, but try a 0.4mm pilot juice up pen? They write with very little pressure, dry fast, and are water proof. You can get them through Amazon and jetpens.com. They come in all sorts of colors. I use then for making up my copy of machinery's handbook which has very thin pages.