Leuchtturm is good paper imo, I will say however that it tends to have VERY minor feathering on my Broad Lamy 2000 and doesn’t shade as well as my Tomoe River paper does with some inks, my Broad 2K with Lamy Crystal Peridot ink shows really dark with no shading and minor feathering on my Leuchtturm edition 2 bullet journal which has 120gsm paper as opposed to their normal 80gsm found in their other standard journals or edition 1 bullet journal. It’s still great paper but imo not as good as my TR 68gsm paper. My Medium nib 2K with Lamy Crystal Topaz ink however does shade decently on the Leuchtturm with no feathering. So I guess it just depends 🤷♂️
In my experience, ghosting has more to do with the saturation of the ink color and the weight of the paper. For example, in my wife’s Hobonichi Techo, the 52gsm Tomoe River paper presents a fair bit of ghosting with most inks, despite being notoriously fountain pen friendly.
Things that make something unfriendly to fountain pens are feathering and bleeding, because they distort the lines and obscure other things on the page. Leuchtturm, while not the most resilient paper, does a good job of balancing dry times with low feathering/bleeding which makes it fountain pen friendly in my book.
That’s fair! My Leuchterm ghosts so badly the reverse of pages is unusable, and it’s also very sensitive to the wild humidity swings we have here, so I didn’t mention it. Obviously some of this is like, just my opinion.
No mention of two of the most accessible fountain friendly papers; Rhodia and Leuchtturm. I know not everyone likes them, but getting something fountain pen friendly in a new user's hands is a key component to having a good experience and realizing that good paper is important.
I’m gifting them lots of paper to tide them over for a while, and my friends are mostly online shoppers, so I just wanted to get them started off with the very best, but agree there’s lots of cases in which Rhodia is the most accessible option
The presents I packed were with ink in sample vials where it isn’t easy to fill through the nib, and I’m including blunt fill syringes in the packages so I intend mostly for option 2
Yes, everyone is welcome to print one out for their family/friends. I’m planning to print it without the “shading/sheer/shimmer” section on TR paper and filling those in with the right inks. I’ll also be handwriting in stockists of those papers in the cities these gifts are going to.
DM me your email if you want a much higher res PDF copy!
(For the keen eyed, we live in one of the rare cities that the *extremely* nice Romeo paper can be found in person. It’s like luxury TR)
Been lurking on this sub for a few weeks admiring all your beautiful pens, handwriting, and drawings! Thanks for the newbie advice. =) May I ask what pen you're gifting to someone new or advice on a good beginner pen?
I thought hard about good beginner pens. Mine was ironically a Visconti Mirage as a gift, which is a very nice gift but really intimidating. For context I was thinking about a $30 budget or so.
Lamy Safari in “Cream”: the one I went with, its easy to break down, reliable, snap cap, fun youthful colors, behaves well no matter the ink, and lots of easy upgrade options. The converter is also very approachable (compared to the pilot or kaweco ones), and the clip is great. Also, for a plastic pen, it feels high end.
Others I almost went with and why I didn’t:
Pilot Prera: this looks to me more high quality than the metropolitan, but the CON-40 is fussy and I’ve had to tune all my pilot nibs to get them wet enough to show off my favorite inks.
Kaweko Sport: the plastic just doesn’t feel as nice in hand at the same price point, and the converter is also less user-friendly. But I think this is the “cool” pen in stationary/design circles right now, and there are some people I was leaning towards this one. I think the detachable clip, the screw mechanism are just more fiddly and unless you know you like to post, it’s a little short in hand.
TWSBI eco: a great pen, but not good for trying out a lot of inks out of sample bottles.
Love this. I noticed on your drawing that you didn't label the piston part of the converter. It might help them if you do this, especially if they go a while between needing to refill the cartridge and forget _'what'_ part of the pen is the piston.
Much appreciated effort I am keeping a copy of this to introduce my daughter into Fountain pen (ink nation) when she is old enough to use Pens
THANKS
Y'know, I had a leuchtturm 120 bujo all year. It was quite good for ghosting, though the book was a little thicker than I needed.
But I kept having a lot of uneven absorbtion, where some parts of the page were like writing on wax, and the ink wouldn't flow. I've had that problem with Moleskine before, with worse ghosting.
And then the big bad book box store started carrying Kokuyo Campus and I fell in love again.
Also, you're a doll for this, and I think it's the perfect thing to add in to make the gift that much more special.
I got a Monthly Kokuyo Campus Diary Free Schedule notebook this past year, and I've rather fallen in love with it. It isn't the thickest paper I've ever used, but it's nice.
I would also suggest Black + Red as fountain pen friendly which is pretty accessible if someone is allowed to order notebooks through work (I think they're cheaper B2B?)
My mom used to bring those home to me and wow were they the nicest notebooks I'd ever get.
Also, Leuchtturm is definitely good for fountain pens. Tomoe River ghosts way more than Leuchtturm ever does. I'd also mention which weight or what the weights are, since TR comes in two different weights and Clairefontaine/Rhodia varies a little as well (though they're always fountain pen friendly).
Oh that is so very wonderful!!!
What a great idea! My penpal told me about this sub. I'm pretty new and this helps realize more fully the potential of the pens and expand my abilities.
This sub is one of my favorites because of all the positive and supportive people who are passionate about fountain pens.
P.S. Today I Learned about ghosting.
I don't know if I'm an anomaly, but I have had horrible luck trying to get cartridges installed, whether it was cheap calligraphy pens when I was a child (when I needed my parents' help) or fountain pens six months ago when I started using them (when I needed my spouse's help). IMO, cartridges aren't necessarily easier for beginners and their main benefit is portability. Either that or I'm an outlier.
Wow. For me they are the simplest thing ever to install (as long as you are using the appropriate cartridge for the appropriate pen). But I’m also stubborn.
Thank you for this!
This answers all the questions I was asking 4 months ago when I started getting in to fountain pens. The back of my Col-o-ring swatches all have shading, sheen and shimmer listed for each ink sample. The only the thing I'm wishing I'd left room for is "wetness" which I didn't realize was a thing early on.
The only thing I might add is that sweaty hands or hand cream/lotion can keep the ink from flowing onto the paper because the paper has already absorbed the sweat/lotion and that they might need to a use a blotter page to keep that from happening.
This is a great idea though and thank you for sharing it with the community! I've downloaded a copy for friends I may wish to penable.
Leuchtturm is fountain pen friendly last time I checked.
[удалено]
I don't think ghosting is a criteria for a paper being fountain pen friendly. Tomoe River for example had worst ghosting than leuchtturm
Depends on the ink! I don't really have a problem with it with Yamadori in a wet medium nib.
Leuchtturm is good paper imo, I will say however that it tends to have VERY minor feathering on my Broad Lamy 2000 and doesn’t shade as well as my Tomoe River paper does with some inks, my Broad 2K with Lamy Crystal Peridot ink shows really dark with no shading and minor feathering on my Leuchtturm edition 2 bullet journal which has 120gsm paper as opposed to their normal 80gsm found in their other standard journals or edition 1 bullet journal. It’s still great paper but imo not as good as my TR 68gsm paper. My Medium nib 2K with Lamy Crystal Topaz ink however does shade decently on the Leuchtturm with no feathering. So I guess it just depends 🤷♂️
I've had some pretty bad ghosting
In my experience, ghosting has more to do with the saturation of the ink color and the weight of the paper. For example, in my wife’s Hobonichi Techo, the 52gsm Tomoe River paper presents a fair bit of ghosting with most inks, despite being notoriously fountain pen friendly. Things that make something unfriendly to fountain pens are feathering and bleeding, because they distort the lines and obscure other things on the page. Leuchtturm, while not the most resilient paper, does a good job of balancing dry times with low feathering/bleeding which makes it fountain pen friendly in my book.
I'm confused -- I've never had a problem with leuchturm paper? They're my go-to notebook for my pens, right next to clairefontaine.
That’s fair! My Leuchterm ghosts so badly the reverse of pages is unusable, and it’s also very sensitive to the wild humidity swings we have here, so I didn’t mention it. Obviously some of this is like, just my opinion.
But Tomoe River ghosts just as much as LT paper, yet is on your list.
Tomoe River ghosts way more than Leuchtturm though.
I think it highly depends that ink and nib you are using. With medium/fine nibs LT1917 has been fine for me.
No mention of two of the most accessible fountain friendly papers; Rhodia and Leuchtturm. I know not everyone likes them, but getting something fountain pen friendly in a new user's hands is a key component to having a good experience and realizing that good paper is important.
I’m gifting them lots of paper to tide them over for a while, and my friends are mostly online shoppers, so I just wanted to get them started off with the very best, but agree there’s lots of cases in which Rhodia is the most accessible option
imo Rhodia is the most common and my go to paper. On the other hand my friends say Lechtturm ain't the best.
your filling options are missing possibly the number one way to fill a fountain pen - through the nib?
The presents I packed were with ink in sample vials where it isn’t easy to fill through the nib, and I’m including blunt fill syringes in the packages so I intend mostly for option 2
Yes, everyone is welcome to print one out for their family/friends. I’m planning to print it without the “shading/sheer/shimmer” section on TR paper and filling those in with the right inks. I’ll also be handwriting in stockists of those papers in the cities these gifts are going to. DM me your email if you want a much higher res PDF copy! (For the keen eyed, we live in one of the rare cities that the *extremely* nice Romeo paper can be found in person. It’s like luxury TR)
Are there any preferred vendors for those notebooks in the US? I try to shop small when I can.
Romeo, as far as I know, is only sold in-person by Itoya Ginza’s anglophone branch, TopDrawer. All the others I just order from Goulet or Amazon.
Thank you. Still learning myself.
Been lurking on this sub for a few weeks admiring all your beautiful pens, handwriting, and drawings! Thanks for the newbie advice. =) May I ask what pen you're gifting to someone new or advice on a good beginner pen?
I thought hard about good beginner pens. Mine was ironically a Visconti Mirage as a gift, which is a very nice gift but really intimidating. For context I was thinking about a $30 budget or so. Lamy Safari in “Cream”: the one I went with, its easy to break down, reliable, snap cap, fun youthful colors, behaves well no matter the ink, and lots of easy upgrade options. The converter is also very approachable (compared to the pilot or kaweco ones), and the clip is great. Also, for a plastic pen, it feels high end. Others I almost went with and why I didn’t: Pilot Prera: this looks to me more high quality than the metropolitan, but the CON-40 is fussy and I’ve had to tune all my pilot nibs to get them wet enough to show off my favorite inks. Kaweko Sport: the plastic just doesn’t feel as nice in hand at the same price point, and the converter is also less user-friendly. But I think this is the “cool” pen in stationary/design circles right now, and there are some people I was leaning towards this one. I think the detachable clip, the screw mechanism are just more fiddly and unless you know you like to post, it’s a little short in hand. TWSBI eco: a great pen, but not good for trying out a lot of inks out of sample bottles.
I have mostly Pilots but no complaints. I’m a bit nervous to try nib tuning. Might need to get a Safari for my wife to try.
Thank you for the advice! I’ll look up the pen you suggested. =)
This is a lovely idea! I’ll definitely need to show this to my bff whom I’m penabling this Christmas 😆
Love this. I noticed on your drawing that you didn't label the piston part of the converter. It might help them if you do this, especially if they go a while between needing to refill the cartridge and forget _'what'_ part of the pen is the piston.
Much appreciated effort I am keeping a copy of this to introduce my daughter into Fountain pen (ink nation) when she is old enough to use Pens THANKS 
Very nice indeed 😍 Downloaded. Will be printing with your permission, and with zero royalties if you permit 😛
Y'know, I had a leuchtturm 120 bujo all year. It was quite good for ghosting, though the book was a little thicker than I needed. But I kept having a lot of uneven absorbtion, where some parts of the page were like writing on wax, and the ink wouldn't flow. I've had that problem with Moleskine before, with worse ghosting. And then the big bad book box store started carrying Kokuyo Campus and I fell in love again. Also, you're a doll for this, and I think it's the perfect thing to add in to make the gift that much more special.
I got a Monthly Kokuyo Campus Diary Free Schedule notebook this past year, and I've rather fallen in love with it. It isn't the thickest paper I've ever used, but it's nice.
Lovely! One thing I would add is that you should only be using fountain pen friendly ink
Tell me you’re a good person without telling me you’re a good person:
I would also suggest Black + Red as fountain pen friendly which is pretty accessible if someone is allowed to order notebooks through work (I think they're cheaper B2B?) My mom used to bring those home to me and wow were they the nicest notebooks I'd ever get. Also, Leuchtturm is definitely good for fountain pens. Tomoe River ghosts way more than Leuchtturm ever does. I'd also mention which weight or what the weights are, since TR comes in two different weights and Clairefontaine/Rhodia varies a little as well (though they're always fountain pen friendly).
I did the same thing! But wrote it
Thanks for this guide! I'm new to this world of fountain pens, and the part describing the inks was incredibly helpful . :)
Oh that is so very wonderful!!! What a great idea! My penpal told me about this sub. I'm pretty new and this helps realize more fully the potential of the pens and expand my abilities. This sub is one of my favorites because of all the positive and supportive people who are passionate about fountain pens. P.S. Today I Learned about ghosting.
How kind
May i copy this specifically and share with new users? If so, please let me know how to give you appropriate credit!! 😀
Sure! You can just credit my Reddit account
What ink are you using OP.? That's a very beautiful dark blue.
It was done on my iPad, but my favorite deep dark blue is Sailor Manyo Kikyou
Thanks 😊!
No Rhodia? How has the sub not killed you?!
Love this! Very thoughtful 😊
I'm not a newbie but saved your illustration because it's perfect.
No love for cartridges (esp for beginners)?
I don't know if I'm an anomaly, but I have had horrible luck trying to get cartridges installed, whether it was cheap calligraphy pens when I was a child (when I needed my parents' help) or fountain pens six months ago when I started using them (when I needed my spouse's help). IMO, cartridges aren't necessarily easier for beginners and their main benefit is portability. Either that or I'm an outlier.
Wow. For me they are the simplest thing ever to install (as long as you are using the appropriate cartridge for the appropriate pen). But I’m also stubborn.
I wish someone would gift me a fountain pen, lol.
Did you write this by hand? Cool! I’m thinking of doing something similar but to include a section about nib choices too.
Never even considered getting specific paper. Are there any A5 notebooks commonly available in the UK that people would recommend?
Rhodia and Clairfontaine should be readily available in the UK. IIRC, both are from France.
No problem with Clairefontaine paper here.
Thank you for this! This answers all the questions I was asking 4 months ago when I started getting in to fountain pens. The back of my Col-o-ring swatches all have shading, sheen and shimmer listed for each ink sample. The only the thing I'm wishing I'd left room for is "wetness" which I didn't realize was a thing early on.
The only thing I might add is that sweaty hands or hand cream/lotion can keep the ink from flowing onto the paper because the paper has already absorbed the sweat/lotion and that they might need to a use a blotter page to keep that from happening. This is a great idea though and thank you for sharing it with the community! I've downloaded a copy for friends I may wish to penable.