Tesco Finest 100Gsm Printer Paper

January 13, 2013

Good afternoon all,

At the moment I am trying to ignore the urge to buy a packet of Tesco's Finest 100gsm paper because at this stage my flat is overcrowded with good quality paper. My over active imagination wants to print my own dot paper, cut it to size and bind it in one of my favourite covers. If I remember correctly it is €5.75 in my nearest Tesco for 250 sheets. Has anyone any experience of this paper? I'm assuming it will be FP friendly given the gsm but I know that's not always the case.

Any opinions greatly appreciated

January 13, 2013

It is not guaranteed to be FP-friendly I am afraid. I have sone Antalis Communiqué 120gsm that bleeds heavily with a wet writer.

I would suggest going prepared with one of your own broad and wet pens and asking the store manager if you may test a sheet before buying. Explain that you need to see how it will perform with a fountain pen and ask if they will open a pack for you to test. Explain what you will be doing and will be looking for with the ink behaviour. They almost certainly will and may be interested in the result too.

My local Sainsburys was happy to do this with some Pukka A4 printer paper they were discounting since they had no idea how it would behave either. Rymans usually have a Sales Rep folder with test pages for customers to try and any real stationery shop will allow tests too especially if you ask first.

The worst Tesco can say is no and in that case you walk away and look elsewhere. You deserve good paper. Don't skimp.

January 13, 2013

Hi. I've used this paper often and it's been good, though a bit variable from pack to pack.

My job involves my writing on paper which has been 'cooked' through a laser printer twice, once foe each side. This dries it out to a great extent in my experience since a laser printer heats the paper quite a bit, thus encouraging some papers to suck up the ink horribly. The Tesco Finest hasn't done badly under these conditions which, presumably, are similar to those your dotted paper would be subjected to, unless you use an inkjet printer.

Someone wiser in he physics of papermaking and finishing would be able to tell us what's going on, but presumably he heat affects the dressing of the paper surface.

To return to the point: the paper is good. I usually use a Pilot Bamboo or Vanishing point with Pilot's Brillant ( sic) blue ink, both fine nibs. Hope this helps.