50 Sheets A4 160gsm White Card - Premium Thick Printing Paper Suitable for All Printers

Product Information

Dye-based Ink – similar to the alcohol ink but there’s no alcohol in this version. It’s a water-based dye ink instead of being alcohol-based. Technical—a certain special technique such as a foil stamp or a die-cut won’t work with all papers, and some books may need heavier paper to suit the binding GSM paper is the common option for printing budget-friendly promotional campaigns in events like conventions and tradeshows because it is less prone to wrinkling I’m not surprised about the A&O. I tend to feel more pricier notebooks are overpriced. shrugs shoulders My research revealed that there were, in fact, many other notebook brands with 160gsm paper in a journal designed for the bullet journaling or art journaling community.

Besides reviewing the notebook itself, I also think it’s important to understand how the company behind the notebook works. Are they trustworthy? Are they reliable? Will they be around for a long time? How often are they going to change their product materials or will they stand the test of time and not change? You see these on average promotional posters such as product posters in stores and movie posters as well as on low-cost flyers. Have you ever bought something that you don’t need but you needed to have it because it was beautiful or cool? No? Just me? I’m a graphic designer as my day job – which extends to the rest of my life, of course. Design thinking is part of my DNA and I notice the way things are created, decorated, and presented So I notice the way notebooks are designed and also the design options of covers. Ahhh… art supplies! This is where things get real! You know that a major part of the marketing efforts from these companies claim that 160gsm paper in their notebooks stands up to the “no bleed” test with all sorts of pens and art supplies. Hold on there, cowboy! This nerd doesn’t believe your hype!

Bound Documents

Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink – this ink is not really designed to be used on paper, it’s more for non-porous surfaces. But why not try and see what happens? Thank you very much for your review. I just think that when making the photos for compare the feathering it should be comparisons of the same pen or ink, and with the same or very similar zoom in the photo. I was wondering if you’ve seen the Notebook Therapy Tsuki bujo? It’s also 160 gsm and they advertise that its safe for watercolor. I’m highly considering them and just wanted an experienced opinion. Thank you! So I dug through my craft room (remember the huge Craft Room Cleanup from last spring?) and pulled out art supplies that should work in these journals …. Along with a few supplies that I knew were going to likely fail. Needless to say, I was pretty surprised at the results.

Please be aware that this information should only be used as a guide because relative gsm/mic can vary from one brand of paper to another and there can even be some minor variation in different production batches of the same type of paper). Uncoated Paper (also referred to as Bond, Offset or Laser) Eclectic Scribbles– this notebook comes in three design options – Mandala (the one I bought), Zentangle, and Steampunk Cat – all of which were designed by Amanda. Her artwork is beautiful and being able to see it on a journal is a great bonus. There is also an option for PU leather covers with various emblems on the front – I haven’t tested the durability of this other style but I am going to assume it’s the same as the linen cover version.

Individual Notebook Reviews

Anger + Shopping = “Shopping Rage”– similar to Road Rage, but without cars, and involves credit cards, retail outlets, and excessive nerdy research. Gold Medal Winners – both QiHeng and Tekukor ended up with one art medium that bled through in addition to the two alcohol-based supplies. QiHeng failed with dye ink and Tekukor failed with a Sharpie Marker and both of them had a little bit of trouble with the swatch of fountain pen ink. I would give QiHeng a slight edge over Tekukor because of the way the paper performed with watercolor (Tekukor got more crinkled). Then there’s the one really tough fountain pen ink I threw into the testing mix that half of the notebooks failed. Except when I say “fail” I really just mean they got an A- instead of an A. The term ‘GSM’ simply stands for ‘Grams per Square Metre’ and is used for measuring paper weight. Put simply, if you were to take a 1m² piece of a certain type of paper, how much would it weigh in grams?

And this is where I get to play with toys! I dug out my magnifying glass, to begin with, but that just didn’t give me the amount of magnification I wanted to examine how the ink behaves on the paper. I’ve also got a jeweler’s loop that has 60x magnification. Wow! This thing is amazing and it lets me see clearly how the ink behaves with amazing detail. You should have seen me trying to finagle my camera to line up with that tiny eyepiece. But I did it! Anything for you guys! FOUNTAIN PEN & FEATHERING TEST WINNER In the next section, there’s a line on the chart that talks about the cover options, but I wanted to mention that in more detail here. Hey there. I wanted to add Notebook Therapy to the list of suggestions to consider if you do another round of these. Great job on this one! I know this was expensive, but I would love an updated version! Especially as I think some of these companies have updated their papers, and Chinese companies (especially direct to consumer) companies are a little notorious for getting good hype, then cheapening their products later. Jinhao x750 with Noodler’s 54th Massachusetts ink – this pen has a medium nib, except it seems to lay down a much heavier line than other medium nibs I have tried. So add that heavy ink flow with an extra wet ink (Noodler’s has a reputation for being very wet) and you’ve got a combination set for disaster. Yep, I did that on purpose.

Eclectic Scribbles– No feathering problems here on the Eclectic Scribbles paper and the surface is smooth to write on.

ColorLok® Technology is a true innovation which helps improve print results when using modern printing equipment. I look forward to any new additions to the review since at least one is no longer in circulation and I gather this is a couple of years old. I didn’t think about it like that in terms of manufacturing (I don’t know much about that process), but I have other cloth cover journals with a metallic debossed design (Baron Fig) that are not similar at all to A&O’s designs. For me personally, QiHeng’s designs just still seem just too similar to A&O for me to be comfortable with them.

Promotional

Even though I’m going to cover a lot of details about each of these journals and compare them to each other – you’ll probably want to head over to the more detailed review of each of these notebooks. I’ve done extensive testing and dug up as much information as I can about each. There are 10 different art supplies on the list. I will be grading each notebook on the pass or failure of each art media. We’ll look to see if the paper itself held and then evaluate how the paper performed. We’ll look at ghosting, bleeding, and feathering as well as the crinkliness of the paper (yes that’s a word, I just made it up!). There are a possible 100 points in this test – each art supply worth 10 points. In some instances, I’ve given partial points if that seemed fair.