Papier Tigre Notebook Review : A5 Tellus Ruled Notebook

August 1, 2017 solespen

The brand new range of Papier Tigre products have arrived in the NoteMaker office, all the way from Paris! Below, we try out the A5 ruled notebook with card cover, in the ‘Tellus’ print, using some of our favourite pens and pencils. We hope you enjoy our Papier Tigre notebook review.

In a narrow street in the heart of Paris’ Marais distinct exists a quaint little store called Papier Tigre. Originally established by a group of creatives as an online store, Papier Tigre developed a cult following before setting up a bricks-and-mortar boutique in 2011. (Read our interview with the founders of Papier Tigre here.)

NoteMaker is excited to offer a large range of beautiful Papier Tigre products– from organisational tools, to calendars and desk blotters, all with a modern, quintessentially French style (and the sweet, trademark origami tiger logo!).

Papier Tigre Notebook Review

Papier Tigre’s new collection of A5 ruled notebooks are particularly gorgeous, so I thought I’d give one a test run with a range of different pens and pencils. The paper is 100 percent recycled, so I was interested to see how my inky rollerball and fountain pens would fare.

I chose the Tellus print, simply because it is my favourite of the range. I love the radiant yellow of the clothbound spine, and the print on the front cover instantly reminded me this stunning series of aerial landscape photographs by Alexander Heilner.

Intrepid potash mine, near Moab, Utah by Alexander Heilner

The binding of the notebook is perfectly neat and precise, and the cover is made of thick card that is smooth but subtly textured. The back cover is plain, although the card is lightly speckled, as is typical with unbleached recycled paper. I really like this effect– it looks sweet with the gold foil Papier Tigre logo stamped in the centre.

(Check out this video from Papier Tigre to see how Papier Tigre notebooks are constructed.)

The notebook contains 96 pages, and has been divided into thirds– the first 33 lined pages are a creamy, off-white paper; the next 33 lined pages are a light grey paper; and the final 33 plain pages are unbleached, recycled paper. This clever design will be a useful aid for organising notes for work or study, with plenty of blank pages for sketching and doodling at the back!

I’m often torn between my love of fine paper, and my desire to be an environmentally conscious consumer– sometimes I find recycled paper a little rough and uneven, and I have problems with smudging, feathering or bleeding when using my beloved Lamy Safari rollerball. However, I’m delighted to report that the Papier Tigre stock is surprisingly smooth for recycled paper.

As you can see below, my Lamy Safari Rollerball writes flawlessly! The Platinum Preppy Fountain Pen has a light ink-flow and a fine nib, and it too writes well, with no feathering or bleeding at all. The Delfonics wooden ballpoint is perfect for this recycled stock, as is my trusty Palomino Blackwing pencil. Predictably, because the Kaweco Ice Sport fountain pen has a heavy ink-flow and is really wet, I noticed some feathering. I also found the Kaweko nib too sensitive for the Papier Tigre paper– it was a little scratchy to write with, and skipped a couple of times.

I scribbled some little circles on the left hand side of the page to test the paper’s limits in terms of bleed-through, and only noticed issues with the two fountain pens.

As I regularly use the Lamy rollerball, I’ll be able to write in this notebook every day of the week. At $19.95, it isn’t the cheapest notebook I’ve owned, but the quality and design definitely warrant the price. Slimline, flexible and beautiful–I adore this notebook!

What’s your favourite type of recycled paper?

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