Beautiful

The little spec of dust is killing me lol.

if I am not mistaken and I very well could be, isn't Rhodia paper made by Clairfontaine? the advantage of the Triomphe blank pads is the first page is a line guide.

Try Iroful (my current favourite) and Nakabayashi Yu Sari. Not sure if they are available as pads, but you can get loose sheets. You can also try your papers in combination with a nib that gives more pleasant feedback, such as a Sailor 14k fine in a 1911.

I would recommend b7 Natural paper - It’s 75 gsm and comes in a pack of 100 sheets for 7 dollars. I got mine from JetPens and I really like it! It is definitely more of a cream tone and has a lovely texture. I think it is made by Yamamoto (who made Cosmo Air Light) and JetPens also has a Cosmo Air Snow option that is more white.

I really enjoy Crown Mill letter pads. They come with a guide sheet and the A5 size has corresponding envelopes that fit an A5 sheet folded exactly in half.  https://cultpens.com/products/original-crown-mill-pure-cotton-writing-pad-a5

Oxford OPTIK paper.

Available in one million different formats, from lose sheets to binded etc.

Regalia or Cosmo Air Snow with a bright blue is amazing. Any VERY white or cool paper tends to make blues “pop” more, especially so with a fountain-pen friendly paper with the right sizing/finish/coating like those two.

Now, if only I could get more Cosmo Air Snow, or get Regalia in a TN notebook format.

Oxford Optik paper

Thick, smooth, brilliant, white. Perfect.

like it much more the the Yellow Midori (why yellow... don't they like nice ink colors?).

https://www.my-oxford.com/en/optik-paper/

Coincidentally, I have this order of 33 different paper samples being delivered today. I’ll spend the weekend testing them all out, looking forward to finding a few new favorites

I've noticed the same thing. I have about a dozen different writing pads from 60 to 100 gsm, most of which are from rather unknown brands. I specialize in finding reasonably priced fountain pen-friendly paper, and I've noticed that even within the same gsm, there can be big differences.

For example, I'm working on a major creative project at the moment, and I'm using some older 60 gsm pads for the first draft and newer 60 gsm pads for brainstorming. On the older pads, the pen glides easily, and the colours are richer, while the newer pads feel much drier to write on, and the colours are vaguer.

This proves that gsm is a bad attribute alone to go by when it comes to finding good fountain pen-friendly paper.

Paper is maybe the biggest factor when it comes to appreciate your fountain pen to its best performance.

I have a personal preference for Clairefontaine paper as I live in Europe they are very easily available almost everywhere. Excellent baseline for all fountain pens and inks, they are a bit too smooth and doesn't really show case inks very well, but if you just need something that is "cheap" and can be used without too much consideration, this is just plain great.

When I am feeling slightly fancy, I go for Midori MD paper, coton based, really nice to showcase any kind of inks from shimmering to sheening, the ink can take a bit longer to dry on it, it is not the the paper to be used for quick note taking as some inks can easily smears if you touch the ink a bit too early.

And my most premium choice of all, Tomoe River paper, if I can get 68gsm, that's great, otherwise the 52 will work perfectly fine albeit a bit thin for my personal preferences. But this is is totally impractical for daily uses, some inks can take minutes to fully dry out but hot damn if this paper isn't the best paper to for any sheening inks, every single variation is put in a high pedestal for you to admire. Totally not worth the cost for day-to-day usage as it is also rather pricey.

Daily, I carry a pocket notebook with whatever notebook struck my fancy the last time I filled one up. Have used Clairefontaine, Franklin-Christoph, and Goulet with Tome River, like them all for different reasons. I have a few different journals for different purposes. I have a Black n' Red which is nice because it has an app you can "scan" the pages into with your phone. I also have a Nanami Seven Seas which is a dream to write in since it's Tome River. Finally I have a Leuchtturm which is nice because the paper is a little more absorbent and dries quicker. I have some various Rhodia pads around that I use for jotting down stuff if I need to tear a page out.

I've found Rhodia to be too slick. I prefer TR

Oxford campus optik paper. Easily available in Great Britain. Or clairefontaine.

HP Premium 32, Rhodia, and Tomoe Rivee

Midori MD Cotton, A5.

For me, Clairefontaine (essentially the same paper as Rhodia) for expensive, and Oxford Optik for cheaper. :)

I’d love to try Iroful - if it came in a proper size A5 notebook that would be great. Something along the lines of a Tomoe river would be nice.

Honestly I mostly use either kokuyo campus or muji loose leaf for regular stuff;

I use clairefontaine or Leuchtturm for notebooks bc I like the bindings and features

Tomoe if I’m writing a letter or something nice though. That’s the nicest feeling stuff, but I only use it one sided bc I find the ghosting a bit much

I am partial to Midori MD. I like the way it adds feedback when writing, I like the way it displays ink colour and properties, and I can find it relatively easily.

I’m in Europe so I get it from Papetterie Makura or from a store in Greece called Simbo.

Kind of obsessed with Mnemosyne lately. Very smooth, no feather, dries fast.

Leuchtturm notebooks are my favorite for showing off shading inks.

TGS has an extensive fountain pen friendly paper review: https://www.gentlemanstationer.com/blog/2021/3/10/hierarchies-of-fountain-pen-friendly-paper

Jet Pens sells sampler packs of different papers so you can try lots without investing in whole notebooks: https://www.jetpens.com/JetPens-Paper-Sampler-Pack-1/pd/37523

For me, Iroful is hands-down the best paper for showing off ink properties in a bright, vivid manner along with a sublime kinesthetic writing feel.

It is however somewhat sensitive to hand oils (oily areas on the page will mess with ink appearance) so it might not be suitable for a "working" notebook. Instead, I enjoy it for things like introspective journals, swatch books, etc.

Oh a planner person and a pen person! One of my peeps! So yes the paper makes a world of difference. I have been skirting around the fountain pen hole for years and just really went down it last year at a pen show. I learned so much about paper at the pen show while attending classes and discussions. My personal favorite paper is Tomoe River paper. The papers we like allows the ink to sit on the surface and dry showing off the beautiful inks. Your planner has what I call “normal” paper it will absorb the ink. Because you use a fine point pen you are not having issues with feathering or bleeding. I have switched over to a Hobonichi planner as it uses Tomoe River paper. I have a pencil board I use when I write because the paper this thinner. I also carry a smallish notebook that has my favorite paper for when I want to jot things down or pull a sheet out for a note for someone. I also recommend taking a small blotting paper to keep in your notebook/planner ( my blotter paper in the picture is a year old and still going strong).

https://preview.redd.it/28afdop5lshf1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=059ccfcd2cb023bdb9342a1e96c3bd8759488a51

Agree with Iroful. Currently have one notebook open right in front of me and the ink... My god, the sheen! Although I have been using fountain pens for some time now, this notebook is my first fp-friendly paper experience and I'm having a wonderful time with it. However, I agree with u/ProLevelFish about hand oils. My solution is putting a sheet of plain copy paper between my hand and the page. It prevents the ink not writing properly.

I have been writing with Diamine Polar Glow / Kaweco Liliput M for a few weeks in an Iroful plain notebook. I have to stop to watch the sheen with a stupid smile on my face every page or so!

Iroful is amazing but very sensitive to being touched with oily hands, more so than any other paper I’ve tried. It works best with Pilot and Sailor inks in my experience, as they seem to be less sensitive to oils.

If you want the ink to show all its properties, Iroful does a wonderful job, and typically less $ than Tomoe River. You’ll see all the sheening and shading an ink has to offer.

The paper-pen-ink trifecta is a fun quirk of fountain pens. You’ll find some inks don’t work well with some pens, but fine with others. Some paper show terrible properties of the ink (feathering, bleed), but not others. Some pens seem impossible to use on some other paper, but then are smooth as silk on others.

The two you started with typically work well with everything though 🙂

Clairefontaine is my favourite, especially the "age bag" range, though I don't recommend their recycled range.

If you like thin paper, Stalogy is decent (and probably better than the new Tomoe River).

It's absolutely amazing, definitely recommend trying some. Reminds me of old TR. It shows shading and sheening especially well. Shimmer perhaps a little less so, but still good. It's really great paper.

Have fun discovering all the lovely papers!

Leuchtturm 1917 A5 dot grid. I’m not a fan of coated paper and the ghosting doesn’t bother me terribly. I love everything about them down to the binding. I get them straight from the website.

I really enjoy my Maruman Mnemosyne A4, i think. Love that it opens flat and every ink I’ve tried on it writes like a dream. Got it from Goulet.

$0.50 composition note book to write in with my 50$ pens. If the notebook is any better I would never write in it... because it would be too precious.

I like midori md a5. I get them on amazon.

I use:

• Rhodiarama hardbound notebooks for my journal
• Rhodia dot pads for casual scribbling and ink reviews
• Clairefontaine Triomphe, Life! Writing Paper Bank Paper, and Oxford Optik (from Black n' Red or Hamelin spiral notebooks) for letter writing (also random stationery acquired over the years)
• Tomoe River in my Hobonichi and for sheer pleasure, and some 52gsm for letter writing and a 68gsm Hippo Noto for random scribbling. I also have some 68gsm TR notebooks to use as journals when I run out of Rhodiaramas.
• Cosmo Air Light, Pen & Gear (Walmart), Exceed (Walmart), Paperage (Amazon) and other random Amazon notebooks are waiting to find a purpose (one is a "happy stuff" journal).
• Midori MD for taking notes on what I read
• Clairefontaine French rule for practicing handwriting or temporary scribbles
• Staples ARC for handwritten replies to post to forums
• Kokuyo Campus and Top Flight Wired for project notes
• Maruman Mnemosyne landscape grid for meeting notes and a blank one for doodles
• Apica mini notebooks for taking notes on YT videos
• A Leuchtturm1917 (the lighter weight paper) was my first bullet journal, but I don't have any more from this brand.

:D In case it's not obvious, I like variety. (I don't like the paper in the Clairefontaine French rule notebooks - but I do like the French rule; otherwise, I like all these papers to varying degrees.)

My favorite is HP Premium32 Printer paper. It's FP-decent, if not stellar. It's cheap, compared to the fancy stuff, and I'm cheap, so that's a match.

Basic of me, but the Tomoe River in my Hobonichi journals 🥰. I know people aren’t a fan of the longer dry times or bleed through, but I just love how it feels to write on and how it brings out the character in my inks.

I also sort of like how it bleeds through, it makes my journals feel “loved”

Oxford Optik - not the best paper I use, but used for work and most general stuff as it is cheap, great, and available

Tomoe 52 and Cosmo air light!

I know the current trend is super smooth paper that barely absorbs the ink, and that can be nice for some stuff, but I've really taken to paper with a bit of texture, preferably with a good amount of cotton. Strathmore writing paper is an easy to find example, but there's a lot out there once you start looking.