Review : Antalis Communiqué 120Gsm Paper

[DanielCoffey]

PAPER REVIEW ; antalis Communiqué 120gsm

 

Maker : antalis

Type : Communiqué

Size : A4 loose

Weight : 120gsm / 32#

Colour : white

Finish : smooth

Coating : uncoated

Grade : 3 - Presentation

Pack Size : 250 sheets

Cost : £6.95

Location : Newington Stationers, 29 South Clerk Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9JD, 0131 667 4967

 

 

Apologies for the colour shift but my camera was confused by the large expanse of white...

 

 

 

Antalis (or antalis without the capital A as they call themselves) mainly market their papers at commercial printers but I found that my local stationers stocked both the 100gsm and 120gsm versions of this paper in their "quality papers" section. I bought a sealed 250-sheet pack on the off-chance that it would be Fountain pen friendly. I can say that it is, but with certain reservations relating to ink/nib wetness.

 

The paper has the typical hand feel of 120gsm / 32# paper and is a pure white colour which it probably has optical brighteners to achieve. It has a very smooth texture not dissimilar to Clairefontaine Triomphe. It is uncoated and has been machine rolled to have a very smooth, slightly shiny surface. There are no watermarks and no visible grain on the paper on either side. It claims to be from well-managed forests and to have an archival life of 200 years.

 

The intended use of this paper is for very high quality mono laser and inkjet printing to give a very crisp finish to the printing. Colour laser and inkjet use is supported.

 

So, how does it react to Fountain Pen inks?

 

Well, the first thing I noticed with the pen and ink I tried on it was while there was almost no feathering, there was some bleed through on the most heavily inked downstrokes. I was using my Pelikan M800 Medium nib which is a rather wet writer. It was loaded with Noodler's Ottoman Azure which is a saturated, wet ink with strong shading. For the large majority of the writing there was no feathering, no bleed through and no show through but the paper seemed to "draw" at the ink in the nib resulting in occasions where the paper would saturate with the ink if the pen rested. These areas would then bleed through to the reverse.

 

The edges of the strokes with this wet pen were fairly crisp and the colour showed strongly and exhibited the expected shading. Because the paper was so smooth, the pen moved nicely when writing with no evidence of drag or toothiness.

 

 

Drying times were a little extended because of the smoothness of the paper but this is to be expected from papers with this finish and smoothness. The Ottoman Azure dried in 10-20 seconds.

 

Having seen how it reacted with this wet pen and ink, I decided to switch to a dip pen and try my Noodler's Bulletproof Black. This next shot is with a dip pen using an Iridinoid 777M nib and is displayed at the same magnification as the shot above. No matter how much I loaded the pen, the Bulletproof Black behaved extremely well on this paper with absolutely NO sign of bleed through even in very heavily inked areas. You can see that the lines are very fine and crisp...

 

 

Now for the important warning - THIS PAPER IS NOT SUITABLE FOR USE WITH DRAWING INKS. Pelikan Drawing Ink A - Burnt Sienna on the same Iridinoid nib spread way beyond the pen stroke, dropped straight through the paper, caused very extensive bleed through and dried to a washed-out appearance. Again, this pic is the same nib, same magnification...

 

 

 

CONCLUSION : a beautiful, smooth paper that can give clean, sharp results given the correct nib and ink. Any Fine nib or any "dry" fountain pen ink should work exceptionally well on this paper. Consider this paper to be "wet".Article Type: Paper or Paraphernalia Review

 

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[Ondina]

Great review. And interesting price. Thank you for sharing it.

[jniforat]

great review, thanks!

[DanielCoffey]

If anyone is living in or just passing through Edinburgh and wants to pick up some of this paper, Newington Stationers is a small family-run shop in the South Bridge area on the east side of Edinburgh. It mainly caters for the Edinburgh Student trade but has a reasonable selection of mainstream fountain pens - Parker, Sheaffer and Waterman for example. I have not looked to see if they have anything unusual in there but that corner is where they hide the good papers. The Antalis Communiqué comes in 100gsm and 120gsm packs so check which one you are picking up.

[Ipno Tizer]

So it seems this paper is OK with writing inks but not drawing inks. Do you know how it performs with calligraphy inks at all?

 

Chris B.

[DanielCoffey]

I don't have any, I am afraid, but if you PM me your address I will put a few sheets in the post to you and you can find out.