There are a lot of paper weights you can choose from and each has its unique qualities to help ensure that your products stand out. Paper GSM also allows you to give the right message to your customers. Using paper with a higher GSM, like 300 GSM papers, gives an impression that your business is legitimate and professional. I chose the Pro version which means the PU leather cover does not have the all-over embossed doodle design of the other STM notebooks. The leatherette cover is soft to the touch – similar to the feeling of Buke’s notebook. For sure, you have often heard people saying that the higher the GSM, the better. However, let us tell you that this is NOT necessarily true. GSM is not used to measure quality. It is only used to measure paper weight and nothing more. I mean if I’m not wrong, the original few designs that A&O came out with are the bee, the moon and stars, and the Big Dipper, and the fact that QiHeng has an ant instead of a bee and a different constellation instead of the Big Dipper just seems to be getting into an intellectual/creative property grey area for me. QiHeng even has a squirrel design on a leather-like cover that is pretty close to the design of Dingbats notebooks.

Buke Notebooks– The paper in Buke is smooth and it’s a pleasure to write on. Plus it passes the feathering test. No problems at all here. GSM, also known as grammage, stands for ‘Grams per Square Meter’. It is used to measure the weight or heaviness of paper products and should not be disregarded when choosing papers regardless of your application.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). But you know me… I’m just a nerdy skeptic at heart. If too many people are all talking about the same brand of notebook, I tend to get very suspicious. Well, technically I first get annoyed, then I move into seriously pissed off… but then it usually settles down into suspicion. I’m a pretty even-tempered person but when I reach the end of my patience and I get fed up with the obsessive evangelizing, it usually results in a massive research project to uncover the truth. Dylusions Distress Ink – diluted with water – same as above, but this time I diluted it slightly with water to see if that made a difference. Not all printers can handle all paper GSM, so make sure that your printer can handle the paper GSM you want to use. For in-house printing, small printers and copiers will likely support only a few paper GSM.

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 Buke Notebooks– this is the only notebook brand in this review that has an option both hardcover and softcover versions. All of the covers have the embossed gold owl on the front and you have several color options to choose from.

I love my A&O, although I’m not hugely arty so don’t use watercolour or anything but it was expensive. I’ve been looking for a cheaper alternative for when my current journal is full and this has given me some great options tho think about! Thanks so much!!

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

I’ve brought all of the test results together in a single list. We’ve got some patterns emerging, right? Pen Test Standings This QiHeng has the same luxurious feeling of Archer & Olive and Tekukor with the linen cover and metal hot-stamped emblem. It’s a notebook that costs half the price of the most expensive options in this review but the quality is equal when it comes to the actual construction of the notebook. The hot-stamp emblem on the front is durable and holds up to my fingernail scratch test. There’s also no problem with the notebook lying flat when open. Paper weight has a huge impact on the overall look and feel of your print materials as well as the buying decisions of your customers. They help make a statement. For instance, you want your business cards to be professional, vibrant, impactful, and sturdy. Thus, you should use paper with a higher GSM to achieve this goal. The data below allows you to compare each brand side by side. I won’t bore you with written commentary about all these specs (hey! I heard that sigh of relief!).

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. So the only way I was able to rate these notebooks from best to worst in this category was to take into account the two alcohol markers and the Noodler’s 54th Massachusetts fountain pen ink. We’ll judge those markers again in the art supply section. PEN TEST WINNER 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.

I’ve just been getting into stationery and wanted to dabble in a bit of casual bujo myself. Thank you for such a comprehensive guide!