Review by Laura Cameron.
A few months ago I saw that Amazon was having a sale on the Ghost Paper Notebook. I forwarded the link to Ana, and she let me know she already had one on the way. Of course!
I wasn’t entirely surprised when she put the Ghost in my bag of goodies to try and asked me for a review.
The Ghost Paper Notebook is an A5, 6” x 8” (15.24cm x 20.32cm) notebook that has faintly embossed and debossed lines that you can just barely feel on the pages. In the right light, you can see the lines and use them as guides, but in many lights the pages appear blank.
The notebook itself comes with a faux leather cover in Steel Grey that is soft to the touch and quite flexible. It has 96 pages and an elastic pen loop and closure. The front and end pages are plain, but provide a clean start and finish to the book.There isn’t a back pocket in this version, but a little birdie told me that there might be in future version. The paper is wood-free and a weight 100lb, which means it is super absorbent and nice and thick. The notebook has a white ribbon bookmark, and the only thing I can find fault with is that it doesn’t seemed to be finished so it might fray with use.
The feature of the Ghost Paper Notebook that I was most intrigued with is the embossed/debossed lines on the paper.
First I tried my Retro 51 Tornado fountain pen with my Robert Oster Fire & Ice ink. While I enjoyed the look of the ink on the paper, there was some bleed through, so I’m not sure this book is best suited to fountain pen inks.
Next I tried my Marvy Le Pens and found that those worked quite a bit better. I also went to my local office supply store and bought a set of Papermate Ink Joy gel pens (0.7mm) and those wrote super smoothly. I found the paper itself fairly smooth to the touch, but it also felt a little toothy under the pens.
Overall, I think this would make a fun journal, or a place to take daily notes. Its clean lines and simple format lend themselves well to doing anything from writing poetry or prose to making lists or bullet journaling.
The Ghost Paper Notebook retails for $25.00 and is available on Amazon.
Laura is a tech editor, podcaster, knitter, spinner and recent pen addict. You can learn more about her knitting and tea adventures on her website, The Corner of Knit & Tea and can find her on Instagram as Fluffykira.
How did you like the lines? Did you find them helpful?
I did! I liked having them there and not having to use a guide underneath the page. It might make the book less useful for sketching but I liked the lines.
Did you try pencil? Would you recommend for drawing?
I suspect that the lines might interfere with drawing or at least become more apparent. Imagine doing a rubbing over a textured surface?
THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEW!!! Use for Fountain Pens is my #1 question. I appreciate the review. I may see if I can do a more fountain pen friendly version in the future.
I think the “tree-free” paper might be the biggest issue. That usually means cotton and cotton tends to be more absorbent. Fountain pen inks are more liquidy so they tend to spread more. So the combination of more absorbent paper and wetter ink might be the issue.