The white barrel every workshop, art room and hardware shelf recognises. It is printed uni PAINT MARKER with the model PX-20 and Medium Line beside it, and the two lines that define what it does: MARKS ON MOST SURFACES! and OPAQUE, OIL-BASE PAINT MARKER.

Opaque is the word that matters. An ordinary marker is a dye that stains what it touches, so a yellow line on a black surface disappears and a white one never existed. This lays down paint that sits on top, which is why the white pen writes on a black bag, the gold writes on brown card, and every colour reads the same on dark ground as on light.

Oil base is the second half of it. Water-based ink beads on anything that is not paper — glass, glazed tile, metal, plastic — and wipes off with a thumb. Oil-based paint grips those surfaces and dries there. Our photographs show the range against wood, stone, glass and plastic, which is exactly the list of things people actually want to write on and cannot.

That makes it the pen for jobs a normal marker fails at: naming a cricket bat or a helmet, labelling glass masala jars in a kitchen, marking a bicycle frame or a toolbox, writing on a terracotta pot, decorating stones, addressing a dark gift box, or signing a canvas along the edge.

Eleven colours are stocked — brown, black, blue, gold, green, orange, pink, red, silver, white and yellow — and every one of them is Rs. 360, so the metallics cost no more than the primaries. Medium Line is the tip width, which is the size that fills a letter without turning it into a blob.

Two working habits, both worth knowing before the first use. A paint marker has to be shaken and then primed by pressing the tip down a few times until colour reaches it, and it must be capped tightly and stored flat. Tell us the colour you want on WhatsApp when you order. Cash on Delivery is available across Pakistan.

Why this product is worth considering