Best Erasers Guide: Vinyl, Ink, Colored Pencil, Pink Bevel Erasers, and More

What to Look for in an Eraser

Erasers come in all shapes and sizes, and the type you need depends on how you intend to use it, what you need to erase, and your own personal preferences.

Make sure you look for an eraser that is latex-free and nontoxic and ensure it doesn’t leave any residue behind. This is an issue that occurs mainly with pink rubber erasers, especially if you purchase cheap brands or if the eraser is many years old. If you are unsure of the quality of your eraser, test it on a separate piece of scrap paper first to ensure you don't make the problem worse by smearing pink residue all over your page.

Consider what you need to erase, as there are erasers designed specifically for pencil, colored pencil, as well as pen ink. You should also consider the amount of detail you need when erasing. Certain styles with beveled or pointed edges are better equipped for precision, which is required when filling out standardized tests or fine-tuning artwork.

Best Plastic/Vinyl Eraser

Plastic/vinyl erasers are used for precise erasing and can even erase certain inks, so they’re preferred by draftsmen for use on technical sketches. The STAEDTLER Mars Plastic Vinyl Eraser is one of the most durable and effective erasers on the market. It’s made from soft vinyl and is phthalate and latex-free. They cleanly and completely remove graphite marks from paper, vellum, drafting film, and more without leaving any discoloration on the paper, making them ideal for artists, too.

STAEDTLER Mars Plastic Vinyl erasers are each individually packaged in a protective cellophane wrapper with a tear-and-open strip to ensure the eraser stays fresh and clean until you’re ready to put it to use.

Best Pink Bevel Eraser

The bevel eraser is one of the most common erasers out there. Odds are that when you think of an eraser, you’re thinking of a pink bevel eraser. Made from rubber, these erasers are often also known simply as rubber erasers. They’re usually pink and they come in a wedge shape. The eraser is designed to remove pencil (graphite) from paper by shedding itself as it lifts color from the surface of the page.

Our Blue Summit Supplies Pink Erasers are latex-free and nontoxic and are designed with the classroom in mind. That said, they’re also perfect for use at home as well as in the garage to remove pencil marks from wood, as our hi polymer eraser ensures durability.

If you go through a lot of pink erasers, bulk buying them will save you money, and you won’t have to worry about restocking them as often. Our 100 Pack of Blue Summit Supplies pink erasers is cost-effective and simple to purchase along with your other office, classroom, or home supplies.

Best Pencil Cap Eraser

Ever finish a pencil eraser well before you wear out the pencil? Don’t throw the pencil out with the eraser! Extend your pencil’s usefulness with a pencil cap eraser.

Pencil cap erasers fit over top of the end of a pencil to give you more eraser and more precision. They are often shaped like an arrowhead and cup right over top of the end of a regular pencil—whether your current eraser end is intact or fully worn away.

Paper Mate Pink Cap Erasers are made with premium rubber and are latex-free and smudge-resistant. They have sharp corners to help you erase precise details as well as flat surfaces for erasing larger areas. The precision they offer makes them ideal for filling out standardized tests, exams, and essays.

Best Colored Pencil Eraser

As every artist and student knows, not every eraser is perfect for every job. While a standard rubber eraser will remove pencil easily, they can struggle to remove colored pencil from the surface of the page. Enter the Tombow 67304 MONO Sand Eraser, the best eraser for colored pencils.

The Tombow Sand Eraser is a natural rubber latex and silica grit eraser that removes colored pencil, watercolor, ink marks (including ballpoint and rollerball), and some markers, which makes it the best pencil eraser for artists and calligraphers.

The eraser removes lines without leaving color residue behind, but its ability to remove ink also makes it a perfect companion when taking notes or journaling.

Keep in mind that this is a powerful eraser, so make sure that you don’t press it down too hard, as it could damage or tear the paper.

Best Mechanical Pencil Eraser

Do you prefer to use mechanical pencils over the standard pencil you need to sharpen regularly? Unfortunately, even these convenient pencils run out of eraser frequently.

The BIC Velocity Mechanical Pencil comes with a refill tube of 12 leads and 5 erasers. This means you don’t have to use a separate eraser when the original eraser wears out—all you need to do is replace the eraser just as you would the lead to make your mechanical pencil last longer.

Bic mechanical pencil erasers also include a cap that covers the eraser. This will prevent it from collecting dirt and becoming discolored when not in use, especially when stored in a pencil case around other pencils and writing supplies.

Best Mechanical Eraser

A mechanical, retractable eraser is an eraser housed in a pen-style body. Think of it like a mechanical pencil, only instead of lead, it holds an eraser. You can easily control the length of the eraser depending on your needs, and its plastic housing means you can store it in a pencil case or drawer with other pencils, pencil crayons, and pens without the eraser becoming marked by ink or graphite.

The Mr. Pen Retractable Mechanical Eraser Pen comes in a pack of six with different assorted colors on the outside and six latex-free retractable erasers that fit inside. You can purchase refill erasers at a low cost, which means less plastic waste! ♻️

The small surface area of the eraser makes it perfect for precision, such as when erasing a few details in a piece of art or erasing an answer on a test.

Best Ink Eraser

Even the best eraser in the world can’t get rid of every type of ink, but there are erasers designed to erase ballpoint pen ink. Sometimes called a pink and ink or pink and blue eraser, ink erasers are generally a combination of a regular eraser on one side and a coarser one that erases ballpoint pen ink on the other.

The Tombow Mono Sand and Rubber Eraser is excellent at removing both pencil and ink, which makes it ideal for those who work with both pencil and pen. It’s made with natural rubber and silicon dioxide (SiO₂), which is also known as silica. It is a natural compound made of silicon (Si) and oxygen (O₂). In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand—hence the ‘sand and rubber’ title.

The silica part of the eraser is the one designed to remove ink, which it does by gently scraping off the surface of the paper the ink was written on. This means the eraser should not be used on thin pieces of paper, as it will likely sand off too much of the paper, thereby ruining what you were trying to correct in the first place.