Ivory color notebooks

[ibrahim]

I appreciate the color and the feel of Midori MD notebooks. Are there other notebooks like it?

Also I was intrigued by the writing experience on my Maruman Mnemonsyne notebooks even using a Pilot G2. It felt so smooth. 
Feel free to share about your favorite notebooks in journaling and share why please. Thank you so much. 

[arcfide]

If you like the textured paper of the MD notebooks, the Kokuyo Perpanep notebooks have a textured version that is quite nice, and even more textured than the MD paper. It's thicker paper with less ghosting and white, though. Masuya makes their Monokaki notebooks with a deep Ivory/Cream paper that feels harder and thinner than MD paper but has a wonderful texture as well. The notebooks are very well done and feel a little more lux than the MD notebooks, but they have a very stiff binding. 

 

If you're looking for the *external* color to be ivory, one direction you might take is to get one of the Midori MD covers and use that for your notebooks inside. I believe Laconic and LIFE also make booklets that have an ivory style look. 

 

The ivory paper in the Lamy notebooks, with paper sourced from Italy, are also very nice, and I think are a bit of a sleeper pick among stationery fans. They're better than the Leuchtterm1917 options and IMO the grid pattern Lamy uses is among the more practical. 

 

Tsubame has a slightly textured laid paper Cream notebook line, and I'm a bit fan of that paper. It's among the best paper in my testing with regards to bleedthrough, feathering, and ghosting. 

 

[ibrahim]

Arcfide, thank you so much, very much. Your answer is beautifully detailed and I have been enjoying looking things up and learning. 

[arcfide]

Oh, and thinking about the Maruman paper, there are a lot of comparisons between Maruman and the Rhodia/Clairefontaine papers, so if you like Cream, there is a soft, slightly absorbent variety of Rhodia paper called their Premium 90gsm Ivory/Cream paper. That paper is intentionally meant to be a little smoother and softer than their standard line, at the expense of being a bit more absorbent and thus more likely to exhibit bleedthrough. Personally, it's probably one of my more favorite papers from Rhodia. When I'm in the mood for exceptionally soft and smooth, cloud-like paper, I look to Apica's A.Silky 865 Premium paper, which can have excessive spot bleeding with wet inks, but which has a feel unlike most any other, and can be had in very luxuriously appointed threadbound notebooks with French sparkle paper and metallic embossed covers which a very nice if the paper handles your inks well enough. LIFE Noble notes also have a terrific laid style cream paper much like that of Tsubame, but with a slightly more upscale cover. 

 

Jetpens has a number of articles that you can search up on paper for fountain pens in notebooks and loose leaf forms that I can highly recommend, and they talk about texture in those articles, so you can see which ones will give you more MD style feedback and which ones will not. 

[ibrahim]

yes, I do like cream, soft, slightly absorbent paper. What is the name of the notebook that had Premium 90gsm Ivory/Cream paper? Where can I buy it best from? I like the fact that while it’s Rhodia it’s more absorbent. That would be a favorite of mine. I do have an apica notebook by the way. The maruman feels better to me as it is more absorbent. 

[arcfide]

46 minutes ago, ibrahim said:

yes, I do like cream, soft, slightly absorbent paper. What is the name of the notebook that had Premium 90gsm Ivory/Cream paper? Where can I buy it best from? I like the fact that while it’s Rhodia it’s more absorbent. That would be a favorite of mine. I do have an apica notebook by the way. The maruman feels better to me as it is more absorbent. 

 

If you want Rhodia's Premium 90g Ivory paper, you'll want to look for that paper in their product listings, such as these:

 

Rhodia A5 Webnotebook - Orange, Dot Grid (gouletpens.com)

Rhodia No. 16 Premium A5 Notepad - Orange, Lined (gouletpens.com)

 

Rhodia has a large distribution network, so any Rhodia retailers should be able to source at least some of the products. 

 

For Apica, you probably have an Apica C.D. notebook, which uses their "Medium" paper. This is a harder paper that is thinner and less absorbent. If you want softer, absorbent paper from Apica, you want their A.Silky 865 Premium paper, such as what you can get here:

 

Apica Premium CD A5 Notebook - Blue, Lined (gouletpens.com)

 

I haven't seen any US distributors carrying the cream model of that notebook, but it is available, so you might be able to find it through international resellers:

 

CDノート/プレミアムCDノート | 日本ノート株式会社 (nippon-note.co.jp)

 

 

[ibrahim]

Thank you so much. 

[alkman]

I have only seen it one time at Nanami Paper, but Dave stocked some Apica premium notebooks in A5 that had cream/ivory paper. It was never clear if these were a one off or just something not seen US markets. You might check in with him and see what he could do. Next time I head up to NYC, I'll take a gander at Kinokuniya.

 

https://www.nanamipaper.com/products/apica-premium-cd-notebooks-cream-paper-a5.html

[XYZZY]

1 hour ago, alkman said:

I have only seen it one time at Nanami Paper, but Dave stocked some Apica premium notebooks in A5 that had cream/ivory paper. It was never clear if these were a one off or just something not seen US markets. You might check in with him and see what he could do. Next time I head up to NYC, I'll take a gander at Kinokuniya.

 

https://www.nanamipaper.com/products/apica-premium-cd-notebooks-cream-paper-a5.html

 

"Premium CD notebook" is a regular Apica production item.  I first discovered them at Kinokuniya.  I have also ordered them at Amazon so availability is not a problem for U.S. Amazon customers.  And if you like the paper these are also available in A4.  

 

I like the paper, but it's not great.  It sometimes has pinprick bleedthrough which bothers me when it happens.  I do not recall how it compares to Midori MD in that regard, though.  But the feel of the paper is very different from Midori's MD paper.  It is quite smooth, but there is a lot of drag on the pen; a weird sensation that is hard to describe.  Somebody on a different thread said that there is a Japanese word that describes this feeling, which he thought poorly translates as "waxy"; I wouldn't call that adjective spot-on, but I don't have a better suggestion.

I don't regret purchasing the notebook, and filled it from front to back, but my journey of experimenting with paper won't stop with this.  I think it's worth the $16.00 or so that you can get them for on Amazon to see if you like them.  A bit after using the A5 I had need of an A4 notebook, a size which severely constrains your options, and bought one of these without hesitation; and then a second for my sister when she was looking for A4 notebooks.

 

To be clear, I'm talking about the Premium CD Notebook, not the normal Apica paper.  Look for the notebooks whose belly band has the dude with the hat, as you can see in the link posted by @alkman

[arcfide]

7 hours ago, XYZZY said:

It sometimes has pinprick bleedthrough which bothers me when it happens.  I do not recall how it compares to Midori MD in that regard, though. 

 

This is definitely the Achille's heel of Apica's paper (even the standard medium weight CD paper, but especially the premium paper). Midori MD is much harder paper and more resistant to spot bleed (it's extremely bleed resistant as far as fountain pen friendly papers go), but I think papers that go for the very soft touch are more susceptible to this issue. Apica's papers seem to rely a lot on surface sizing (my guess), and I suspect that minute imperfections or hand oils or abrasion just hits that paper the wrong way, and the softness of the paper translates into more absorbency without the extra surface protection. On the other hand, if you like soft, "fluffy" paper, these are quite good. Kokuyo's MIO paper has the same basic issue as a soft, thin paper (much thinner than the Apica Premium). IME, the feeling of the premium paper (I haven't tried the Cream, and it could be quite different) is not as uncoated as the Italian paper sourced by Lamy or the Leuchtterm1917 papers, but it doesn't feel as intensely sized as Tsubame, LIFE, or Clairefontaine. With my Platinum and Lamy nibs I get more drag with Clairefontaine or LIFE papers than with Apica Premium, but I get less drag with Midori MD or Masuya's writing paper compared to the Premium. I would say there is more drag from the Premium paper than Tomoe River or Graphilo.