Tilibra Académie A4 90 g/m² - Brazilian notebook

[Azulado]

Tilibra is a very popular brand in Brazil, owned by the multinational ACCO. It produces mainly notebooks for school and university use. In general, it is a paper that accepts blue royal inks, but in terms of quality it is far from brands such as Rhodia or Oxford Optik.
It recently launched two A4 90 g/m² notebooks that surprised me by being fountain pen friendly. They are the Tilibra Happy and the Tilibra Adadémie.
The paper is the same in both notebooks. The writing experience is pleasant, the surface is smooth and the nib glides easily. It is somewhat more absorbent than other more "plasticized" papers, the ink dries only a little earlier than on the Rhodia.
Its weak point compared to the best papers is its lower resistance to bleeding and that the inks do not express the same vividness. But the results in both parameters are quite acceptable. In normal writing, it holds up quite well, even with thick and wet nibs. If we pass some tweezers with ink, after a few seconds the ink leaks. But I think that's an excusable flaw, especially if you use the nibs for writing. It can only present some problems with some very invasive ink, such as Herbin Violette Pensée, but only a few points that do not prevent the use of the back.
The notebooks are ruled, 7 mm between lines. It's a bit inconvenient if your handwriting is large. I wish there were also 9 mm line spacing.
In summary, given the scarcity of fountain pen friendly paper in Brazil, this Tilibra notebook is a good option to the few brands that are imported in the country, which are also very expensive. Its price in Brazil is equivalent to that of an Oxford Optik in Europe. According to the information on the label, it is exported to Mexico and Chile.  

 

 

 

 

Bleed-through: 3.5/5

Show-through: 5/5

Feathering: 5/5

Smoothness: 5/5

Sheen: 4/5

Shading: 4/5

 

Edited April 28, 2022 by Azulado
I forgot to point out some characteristics of the paper.

[txomsy]

Interesting.

 

That being 90g it still can show through (even a little) I find telling. It is a pity that they go out to the extent of using 90g and not to getting a better pulp/process.

[Azulado]

As a curious note, Tilibra has cheap 56 g/m² papers that are more resistant to bleed-through. These are ordinary notebooks used by school children.
You have to use a magnifying glass to see a tiny amount of ink on the other side. Logically, the opacity is poor.

 

[txomsy]

Yep! I do also find that, generally -at least in countries where kids still write- school children notebooks tend to behave fairly well.

 

That is why I think that European paper mills like Rhodia, Oxford, Liderpapel, and the like, and even many small and artisan paper makers, still keep a good standard in paper quality: most probably, their major target customer base are school children and students who still write a lot every day, and would complain to their parents if the paper didn't hold up.

 

[Azulado]

4 hours ago, txomsy said:

Yep! I do also find that, generally -at least in countries where kids still write- school children notebooks tend to behave fairly well.

 

That is why I think that European paper mills like Rhodia, Oxford, Liderpapel, and the like, and even many small and artisan paper makers, still keep a good standard in paper quality: most probably, their major target customer base are school children and students who still write a lot every day, and would complain to their parents if the paper didn't hold up.

As far as Europe is concerned, I think the only country where it is compulsory to write with a fountain pen is Germany. I suppose there is a lobby that tries to perpetuate that situation. I have read comments from Germans who judged that situation anachronistically. Obviously, the German situation is enviable. I recently saw a German film, "Mr. Bachmann and his class", by Maria Speth, offered by Mubi, and I could see how at least half of the children still use a fountain pen on a regular basis.  In my opinion, it's impossible for any local brand to malfunction with pens for obvious reasons. I have seen various German papers on Ebay and I intend to try them out little by little. For the moment I already bought a Pelikan notebook and was pleasantly surprised by its quality.
I am Spanish. In the 1980s, I used the fountain pen occasionally at school, but I don't remember seeing anyone else. At that time there were still quite a few fountain pens being sold, but they were mainly used in the professional field. Over time, the situation worsened and today only enthusiasts, among whom there are also young people, write. I have read that in Fine Arts there are people using pens. On paper, there was a mythical one, Galgo Parchemin, but the company was acquired by a multinational and the quality worsened. I've read in forums comments of people who were looking for stocks of the old paper in stationers. However, other brands appeared, such as Cervantes, which manufactures in China, is cheap and has a reasonable quality. Another brand that also makes good paper is Miquel Rius, a long-established company.
Brands such as the French Rhodia and Clairefontaine or the Italian Fabriano have been around for a long time and maintain a worldwide prestige. I don't know if they produce paper with pens in mind or in a more generic way. In the end, there're other writing instruments that demand quality paper, such as felt-tip pens.
As for Brazil, the fountain pen went into decline decades ago. It is seen as a status symbol. Pens are chic. Crown, a national manufacturer, has very apparent, but cheap models, something like the Ferrero Rocher of pens. In the city where I live, with a population of three million, it is almost impossible to find a fountain pen in the stores. Everything I need I order online. But you have the entire range of Montblanc, including the special series, in a jewelry store.

[Azulado]

After the good impression that the Tilibra Happy notebook had made on me, I asked the company if they had any paper with 9 mm line spacing. They replied that they did not, but that they did have another notebook with similar specifications, the Académie. So, I bought a Happy and an Académie. I was surprised that this one had bleed-through problems. This had not happened with the Happy.
Yesterday I tested a new Happy and it showed no bleeding problems. Visually, the Happy and Académie papers are similar. The lines are subtly clearer on one than the other. But only that.
Trying to find an explanation, I looked at the papers with a magnifying glass. Surprisingly, the Happy had a smoother and more homogeneous texture. The microgrooves of the Academie were more pronounced and numerous than those of the Happy. I don't know if this influences the bleeding. I also don't know if this is a quality control issue or if Tilibra simply decided to produce two different specifications. I wonder what the motive for doing this would be.
In summary, although both Happy and Académie offer a good writing experience, the Happy has a somewhat superior quality, especially in the bleed aspect.

 

[Distaff]

Since you say they export, I'll look for the brand next time I'm in Mexico.   

 

As a kid, I had a cheap (and never used) calligraphy pen, and didn't even know the difference between that dip pen and a fountain pen.   Penmanship was briefly taught, but not given ANY cultural value, other than the teachers harassing us because they couldn't read our homework.   Sad and decrepit state for public education in the state of Massachusetts - I started elementary school in the 1970's, and graduated high school in '86, by which time most of us were turning in essays written on our home computers.

[txomsy]

I do not think FP use being compulsory is relevant. It is not compulsory in most EU countries and still they do keep many quality paper brands and products. But learning has still relied heavily on writing until relatively recently and that means that kids needed paper, and that the parents would prefer friendly writing papers for their kids. And, as far as a I know, many teachers would advice using it too.

 

A paper that is too thin or has see-through or other pitfalls means you write only on one side, may need to repeat the work several times, and need to spend more on notebooks. A kid may need to use an FP, but needs to use felt-tip pens, crayons, temperas, watercolors, play, doodle, scratch and sketch, erase, and use a number of tools that demand a not so bad paper if they do not want to get bad grades in such a system.

 

What is sad is when modern teachers are so blind as not to realize their own contradictions: that a teacher considers penmanship unnecessary and at the same time complains about not understanding students handwriting means the teachers are more driven by their prejudices than by common sense or their own daily experience.