Fountain pen friendly notebooks that aren’t Rhodia or Tomoe River

Edit: Updated article from 2020. Removed Stalogy; added Cosmo Air Light

In the fountain pen world, Tomoe River and Rhodia are probably the paper brands that you would hear quite often. They have earned their place in the fountain pen network because of the high-quality paper and especially its ink resistance with fountain pen ink.

Tomoe River and Rhodia aren’t the only papers in the world that are “fountain pen friendly”. If you’re still unsure what this means, watch this video by Brian Goulet.

The “friendliness” of paper to fountain pen is relative to the one who is using it – so there might be a few items on this list that you (more experienced ones) out there would think don’t belong here. As Brian mentions in this video, “there is no fountain pen paper police out there”.

Tomoe River and Rhodia are perfect for fountain pens but the manufacturers aren’t capable of catering to all the needs of every user. If you are looking for alternatives to these fountain pen friendly papers/notebooks, then keep reading to see a list of what we think are good alternatives.

Yamamoto Cosmo Air Light 🆕

Best Tomoe River alternative

A few years ago, when changes of manufacturing of the Tomoe River was announced, there was a hunt for the *next* Tomoe River. While Tomoe River never truly left the scene, the Cosmo Air came into the market in such a good time. The fountain pen community raved about it as it handled ink as well and beautifully as the Tomoe River.

Bonus points for being a bit thicker (75gsm and 92gsm) than the Tomoe River.

I have this on hand but haven’t reviewed it yet (I took a quick photo earlier)!

In the meantime, check out Fountain Pen Love’s review of the Cosmo Air.

Midori MD Paper

Best for art and heavy fountain pen ink use

Midori paper is definitely top tier in paper quality. It’s bleed resistant, feather resistant, and it can bring out the best qualities of fountain pen ink such as shade, shimmer, and sheen – sometimes even better than the Tomoe River). If you don’t like the thickness (or the lack thereof) of the Tomoe River paper, Midori is a great alternative.

Read: Notebook Review: Midori MD Light

Kobeha Graphilo Notebook

Best Tomoe River alternative

Love the Tomoe River but hate the paper weight? The Graphilo might be the one for you. The Graphilo is Kobeha’s fountain pen friendly paper – which is what it’s marketed for as well. Want a Tomoe River in graph ruling then you should definitely give the Kobeha Graphilo a shot. It’s a bit pricey for a 94-sheet (188 pages) notebook because it retails for $37 (as of the time of writing) .

Get one from JetPens

Traveler’s Company Traveler’s Notebook

Best for travel and memory keeping

Did you know that the Traveler’s Notebook was branded as the Midori Traveler’s Notebook a few years ago? In 2016, Midori decided to launch a new brand under their umbrella, the Traveler’s Company. The Traveler’s Company focused on the Traveler’s Notebook product line up while Midori focused on paper products. Since Midori is the parent company, Traveler’s Notebook uses the Midori MD paper (as mentioned above).

While they share the same paper manufacturer – and basically the same paper, the Traveler’s Notebook still holds a place on this list because perhaps not all are aware of this organizational relationship. The TN inserts that come with the starter kit are made out of Midori MD paper and come in different varieties. They also offer refills that are made out of Midori MD paper.

They are the best one for traveling because of the passport size offering and the flexibility that the notebook can offer.

Clairefontaine

Best in value and best for students

It comes to no surprise that Clairefontaine has made this list. After all, Clairefontaine is the parent company of Rhodia (having acquired them in 1997). Take note that these brands do not share the same type of paper but are both fountain pen friendly. Another difference between the two is the aesthetics. Clairefontaine looks more like a composition notebook with their spiral and staple bound offerings. It is also cheaper than the Rhodia despite it having a heavier paper weight (at 90gsm) than Rhodia (80gsm).

Maruman Mnemosyne

Best in variety

Maruman manufactures fountain pen friendly notebooks of different varieties. Their Mnemosyne notebook product line consists of various sizes, orientation, and binding. Most (if not all) of their notebooks are also perforated so you can always tear a page neatly when you need it. Definitely a notebook that is great for note-taking.

Kokuyo Campus

Best for note-taking

Kokuyo is personally one of my favorite stationery brands because they have a lot of interesting and innovative stationery products. One of their unique products is the soft ring notebooks. These spiral bound notebooks are fountain-pen friendly and also do not interfere with your writing because of its design. These notebooks come in different size formats and also have other offerings aside from the soft-ring ones.

I don’t have a Kokuyo notebook (yet) but I do have co-workers who use these with fountain pens and haven’t heard complaints from them ever. However, just keep in mind that this doesn’t perform the same as the Midori (which is capable of bringing out all of the properties of the fountain pen ink).

Kokuyo Jibun Techo

Best planner

The Jibun Techo is by far one of the best planners out there. The paper is outstanding and uses Kokuyo Thin or MIO paper which resembles Tomoe River (because of its thinness). The Jibun techo is a modular planner system that can be customizable according to the user’s needs. I feel that this notebook is the perfect combination of the Traveler’s Notebook, Hobonichi, and the Bullet Journal method.

The complete planner system consists of three booklets – the Diary, Life, and Ideas. The Diary booklet is the weekly/daily planner which uses the Kokuyo Thin (or MIO for the biz version). Life is where you can record lists and memories (similar to how a Bullet Journal collection page works) and this booklet the acid-free MIO paper. Finally, the Idea notebook is basically the freeform notebook and uses the Kokuyo Thin paper.

Read a review on the Galen Leather blog here.

Life Noble Notebook

Best for long-form journaling

The vintage-looking Life Noble notebook is one of the few notebooks. The paper quality is amazing. It might be in between the Rhodia and the Tomoe River. It won’t be able to withstand wet inks and thick nibs like a Tomoe River would but it does show off sheen fairly well. This notebook is great for fountain pen enthusiasts who use fountain pens for long-form journaling. Life Noble has offerings of different rulings such as blank, lined, and graph.

Read more from JetPens

Lamy

Best in design

Lamy launched their own line of notebooks in 2019 and comes to no surprise that it is also fountain pen friendly. These notebooks aren’t at par with Tomoe River or Rhodia but they handle ink pretty well for average size nibs. The Lamy notebooks stand out quite a bit because of their unusual ruling – it’s a 4mm grid with horizontal solid lines (a bit reminiscent of the Hobonichi Techo ruling).

The overall design of Lamy is pretty intentional. It has a brush-steel cover that is reminiscent of Lamy 2000’s metal finish. It also includes ribbon bookmarks, pen loop, and also an elastic band.

Read the review from Pen Addict.

Leuchtturm1917

Best for Bullet Journaling

I was surprised to find out that the Leuchtturm1917 was fountain pen friendly. At first I thought it wouldn’t resist ink well because of grievances I’ve heard from the Bullet Journal community (mostly because of the 80gsm paper). It will ghost or show through just a little bit but the Leuchtturm1917 is fountain pen friendly. I didn’t even bother to use a Leuchtturm when I started getting really into fountain pens.

For some reason, when I tried out Morning Pages, I was pleasantly surprised with the performance of my inks on this paper! I enjoyed it so much that I was able to use an entire Leuchtturm for Morning Pages (written exclusively with fountain pens). The Leuchtturm’s ability to resist fountain pen ink has a threshold – using a broader nib would cause the ink to bleed and the lines to feather.

Apica CD

Best for fast writing and quick notes

While this resembles a standard composition notebook, this notebook is surprisingly fountain pen friendly. It’s quite similar to the design of the Life notebook. I find that notebooks like these are best for memory keeping and long-form journaling because of the book style binding. While visibly similar, the Apica paper doesn’t show off ink properties the way Life does.

Did we miss anything? Leave your favorite fountain pen friendly notebooks in the comments below!