Glide is a fun word artists use to describe how smoothly a colored pencil moves across the paper as we color.
A pencil with good glide moves easily, with little to no drag or resistance.
A pencil with poor glide can feel dry, scratchy, sandy, or resistant as it moves across the surface.
Glide is influenced by the pencil's binder formulation. Some colored pencils (like Holbein) have been deliberately designed for excellent glide while other pencils (like some Luminance) can feel like nails across a chalkboard.
IMPORTANT: Glide is about how a pencil feels during application, it’s not related to how much material it deposits (laydown) or the pigment load.
A pencil can glide extremely smoothly yet apply very little color, while another may have noticeable drag (Luminance) but excellent color payoff.