The Well-Appointed Desk

Originally, my plan was too include THREE different Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks in one post but it was going to be way too much for one post.  So, this will be part two of three. Part 1 & 2 are available here.

The last in our Leuchtturm 1917 “other notebooks” series is the new 120gsm version of the classic A5 notebook ($24.50USD). If you’ve been looking for notebooks or Bullet Journals on Amazon or other online shops in the past year or so, you may have noticed a lot of people making or promoting 100gsm or 120gsm paper notebooks. The appeal of this thicker, heavier paper is less showthrough when using markers and other decorative pen tools. the question, however, is how do these papers work with fountain pens?

I was wiling to try out the new Leuchtturm 1917 with 120gsm paper over a lesser known brand found on Amazon. For one, I suspect that the paper quality will remain more consistent over time over a lesser known product. Also, Leuchtturm 1917 is often easy to find in bookstores and larger brick-and-mortar stores.

Overall, the 120gsm Edition of the Leuchtturm1917 features everything we have come to love about their products: two  ribbon bookmarks, elastic closure, gusseted back pocket, archiving stickers, and an array of promotional booklets about the history of the brand and its users. It lays flat easily and the overall cream color and pale grey dots are consistent with the standard Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks.

A couple notable differences, the 120gsm books are thicker but have fewer pages (203 pages compared to 251 in regular A5 Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks) and there are no perforated pages in the back of the book. In the photo at the top of the review, the 120gsm notebook is pictured in the middle of the stack to see the variation in thickness of the notebooks.

(Once again, the beautiful creamy ivory paper photographed terribly — please forgive me and my camera, we might be breaking up soon!)

But let’s talk about the most important aspect of the 120gsm Edition Notebooks: the paper performance.

Most notably, the paper is the smoothest of any of the Leuchtturm paper I’ve used thus far. I would say its almost comparable to Rhodia in terms of smoothness. That’s both a plus and a minus. I sometimes find Rhodia paper to be glass-like so consider yourself warned f you like toothier paper.

There was also no show through or bleed through of any of the pens I tested. I certainly could have pushed the boundaries with a Sharpie marker and gotten some bleed through potentially but in daily use, with an array of pens most people would use in a Bullet Journal or Commonplace book, I had no issues.

As you can see on the reverse, you could easily utilize both sides of the paper without the distraction of show through. Huge bonus, IMHO.

So, thus far, besides the tried-and-true Leuchtturm 1917 standard notebook, I recommend this new 120gsm version. Particularly to fountain pen users, I think the smoothness and thicker paper will be much appreciated. I didn’t fully test the paper for ink color fidelity — potential for sheen and the like, since the creamier color might affect ink color accuracy anyway.

Just having a reasonably priced, readily available notebook that can stand up against fountain pens, brush pens and other BuJo supplies and survive is enough for me. Add to that number pages, light-enough but visible-enough dot grid, index pages, elastic closure, two ribbon bookmarks and a gusset pock in the back and I’m hard pressed to have any complaints.

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DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.

Originally, my plan was too include THREE different Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks in one post but it was going to be way too much for one post.  So, this will be part two of three. Part 1 is available here.

The Leuchtturm 1917 100 Years Bauhaus Edition (A5-sized, $25.95) is available in the appropriately primary colors of Red, Yellow, and Blue as well as Black. Each edition features different colored edge painting and printed dots inside.

The cover features a quote from Vasily Kandinsky, former deputy director of the Bauhaus, “Everything begins with a dot” which I find inspiring.

I purchased the Black edition which featured blue edge painting and blue printed dots on the pages. It is a little unclear if the Yellow cover with black edge painting has yellow dots or black dots, either might be challenging to use. Leuchtturm 1917 had previously released a Red Dots Edition so the Blue cover with red dots is an option available elsewhere in their product line. If anyone has purchased the Yellow cover, let me know in the comments if the interior is black or yellow dots.

The photo above, showing the blue edge painting on the pages and the two ribbon bookmarks also most accurately show the color of the standard Leuchtturm 1917 paper. I don’t understand how or why, even in my studio, the subtly of color of the Leuchtturm 1917 ivory paper is so hard to capture accurately. The photos that follow are considerably too yellow to be considered color accurate but the photos do show the behavior of the inks on the paper which I deemed as important as capturing the paper color.

The Bauhaus Edition notebooks have all the same features as the traditional Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks: two ribbon bookmarks, gusseted pocket and perforated pages in the back, elastic closure, archiving stickers and promotional pamphlets inside. The sewn binding can easily be opened to lay flat and the numbered pages and index in the front of the notebook make it easy to use for bullet journaling or just general organization.

The paper quality is good. It’s a bit toothy and a warm ivory color. Unlike the Whitelines Link notebook, I had minimal issues with showthrough or bleedthrough with average use. The color fidelity is more consistent with the results I’ve had on other non-Tomoe paper. Shading in the fountain pen inks is visible.

There was no real issue with other water-based pens or pencils on the standard Leuchtturm 1917 paper. My only issue was with the blue dots. They are a bit darker than I would have expected them to be especially when compared with the light grey dots on regular Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks. If you regularly use Rhodia dot paper or ruled, it might not be bothersome to you as they seem to be similar in brightness but if you prefer your dot grid to be light and nearly un-noticable, then the blue dots might be as distracting to you as they were to me.

Overall, I still feel that the Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks (be they standard or special editions like the Bauhaus edition) are good products. They are a step up from Moleskine in terms of ink handling and they are well constructed. They feel durable and provide a good middle ground between the wafer-thin Tomoe notebooks (often with astronomical numbers of pages) and thick, chunky 120gsm or thicker notebooks — both of which can feel like a considerable commitment to your notebook life. If you are looking for a “gateway drug” notebook for a new pen fan or you want a quality notebook for everyday notes, Leuchtturm 1917 really is the best standard to choose. Now, if they would just offer more B6-sized notebooks, I would be a very happy pen nerd.

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DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.