Will it ghost? 7 Notebooks, 30+ pens, inks, watercolor

Update: now the test features 3 more notebooks to a total of 7 major brands, 12 more pen types to the 20 we had already tested plus 4 stamp inks and watercolors.
No matter if you use a Moleskine, a Leuchtturm 1917 or a Hobonichi, a Tomoe River Paper Midori insert (or a generic spiralbound notebook) you may have encountered something called ghosting or bleeding.

Ghosting: the effect of pens shining through to the reverse side of the paper. Sometimes severe (you are able to read the text from the back side of the paper) and sometimes just a little bit (like a shadow of the print on the other side)
Bleeding: the ink of the pen penetrates the paper so much that it comes through on the other side.

Depending on your willingness to tolerate some ghosting (I don’t think anyone can tolerate bleeding!!) you are asking yourself maybe „will I like this pen or is it a waste of money?“.
For me this happens a lot when I see someone raving about pens on some social network which shall be unnamed and therefore will be nicknamed „Wishbook“ by me (seriously, I can’t count the times I wanted to have this or that so badly because it looked beautiful on someones photo – I am looking at you, Bullet Journal Junkies Group!)
So to save you some money, tears and torn out hair I gathered all my pens (ok, some of them) and sheets of paper of the major notebook brands and put pen to paper. Usually I blog in German, but to help out all my international friends I made this blogpost available both in German and English 🙂
I also tested some stamp inks this time. All of those are from Tsukineko.

• StazOn Permanent ink – used for metal, glas, plastic. Usually not used on thin paper.
• Memento Fade-resistent dye-ink – waterproof after drying, therefore ideal for watercoloring.
• VersaCraft Water-based ink. Works also on wood or fabric (needs to be ironed afterwards)
• VersaMagic Chalk ink. Perfect for planners or other paper where you want to use the back side. It sticks to the surface of the paper instead of going in.

The watercolors I’ve tested are pepeo aquarell colors.
First a short description of the results. For the pictures scroll a little bit further down – I made a gallery of the pictures front/back of each paper. Click on them for maximum size.

Moleskine Cahier, plain

Moleskine is the worst of the four notebooks I’ve tested when it comes to ghosting and bleeding. The paper is smooth, the notebook ist beautiful and I know there are lots of fans of the Moleskine range. But the plain cahier isn’t something I could use for a bullet journal.
It wasn’t great with watercolors, either. The paper wrinkles a lot. I love the sketchbook from the moleskine range for watercoloring, though.
The stamp inks bleed through (except the Versa Magic Chalk, which only ghosts)
I found an old hardcover moleskine in the back of my notebook-drawer (who hasn’t one of those ;)) and amazingly enough the paper was completely different. Like it was from another brand. I haven’t taken it to the full test, but I wrote with some pens on it and there was no bleeding, very little ghosting, even fountain pens were ok. The reason I didn’t make the full test with it? You wouldn’t have gained anything by knowing that an 15 years old moleskine was better quality, would you?

Leuchtturm 1917

The  Leuchtturm 1917 is the declared favorite of some Bullet Journal Groups I am in. It is a bit better when it comes to ghosting (and a lot better in regard to bleeding) than the Moleskine, but still it is too much for my taste.
It took the watercolors beautifully. Close to no wrinkling the page.
The stamp inks ghost and even bleed a bit.
If you can accept a bit of ghosting and if you avoid the bleeding pens you may be ok with this notebook. The paper is smooth and great to write on and the covers are just gorgeous.

Tomoe River Paper (Hobonichi  or Insert for Midori)

The Tomoe river paper used for the 128 pages Midori Insert is legendary. It is the same paper used for the Hobonichi – just in case you rock a hobonichi and are interested how the pen would look like in your hobo.
As you can see there is close to none bleeding, not even with fountain pens and a lot less ghosting compared to a Moleskine. The paper is very, very thin so it is natural that it shows some ghosting. But it isn’t very distracting. If you aren’t a Midori or Hobonichi user you can get Tomoe paper in A4 sheets and make your own journal if you are crafty.
The watercolors show through to a point that I wouldn’t use the back side of a watercolor drawing for writing. As you can see from the pictures the colors are very vibrant, so I kind of recommend to use it nevertheless. This and the Rhodia is my favorite notebook-paper for watercoloring.
The stamp inks bleed through, which surprised me. I can’t recommend any of them for the Tomoe River Paper if you want to use the back side.

Cheap spiralbound notebook with 80 gsm paper

This is the cheapest one of the notebooks I’ve tested. I bought it from a discount store. It has no brand on it. You can get notebooks like this very easily in Austria. It is spiralbound and stays open on my desk, but I like it also because there is no ghosting and no bleeding except from my fountain pens.
Watercolors don’t wrinkle the page and don’t shine through. I would be perfectly fine with using the back side of a watercolor drawing.
The stamp inks surprised me. Where there is heavy bleeding on nearly every other paper (Staz on, Memento inks) they only ghost a bit on this notebook. The other inks aren’t even visible on the back side.

New to the test

Thanks to Lisa R. who contacted me on Facebook and sent me the Rhodia, Pukka and Wilkinson’s paper I have now even more notebooks to test!

Rhodia Webnotebook

Wow. What a great paper. The pens are running so smooth it is a pleasure to write on. It shows no ghosting and doesn’t even bleed with my fountain pens. This is my absolute favorite of all the papers I’ve tested. And it even comes dotted, which is my favorite. I ordered a rhodia pad as soon as I finished the test on it.
It took the watercolors with ease. They look vibrant on the paper, don’t bleed through and show no ghosting.
The stamp inks fared very well, too. The Staz on ink bled through a little (as suspected from an ink like this) but even the memento ink (which is prone to bleeding) only ghosts a bit. The Versa inks aren’t visible on the back side.

Wilkinson’s

Very popular in the UK, but I haven’t seen this one before in Austria. It has a strong grid (which I find a bit distracting) but it shows very little ghosting and only bleeds through when I write with fountain pens. If you don’t mind the grid it is a good choice for writing.
Watercolors were ok. The paper is a bit rough, so they don’t look as vibrant as they do on the Tomoe River or the Rhodia, but they don’t wrinkle the page and they don’t bleed through. A bit of ghosting.
The stamp inks ghost (Versa) and bleed (Staz on, Memento) – I can’t recommend it for stamping.

Pukka Pad

Another new one for me. And, I am afraid to say, not one I will likely buy. There is bleeding from pens that are a surprise (Sakura Gelly Roll? Staedtler Triplus Fineliners??) and a lot of bleeding from the usual suspects (fountain pens)
Watercolors were ok. A bit of wrinkling the page, but not too bad.
The stamp inks reacted like expected. The Versa inks were fine, the Staz on bled and the Memento ghosted.
Too bad it has a lot of bleeding with many pens. This would otherwise be a nice white paper.

My offer

If you have a notebook I haven’t tested and want to know how the pens behave before you buy then just send my one sheet and I will try it out for you. I can’t test any pens I don’t own, obviously. But as I am a stationary addict anyways chances are that the comparison will grow 😉 This article will be updated as soon as there a new pens or new notebooks.
If this blogpost was helpful for you it may also be for other. Please share the link (not only the pics, because those will be updated regularly)
I want to reach as many fellow stationary lovers as possible. I know the terrible feeling if you finally have the pens you wanted so badly only to find out you can’t use them in your notebook.
The Gallery
(please click on the picture to see it full size – very large)