50 Sheets A4 160gsm White Card - Premium Thick Printing Paper Suitable for All Printers

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I’m not surprised about the A&O. I tend to feel more pricier notebooks are overpriced. shrugs shoulders Take note, though, that the GSM you should choose will highly depend on your application while the paper’s finish will greatly affect the design. Again, there are paper weights that are more suitable for photocopying or office printing. You should not use the same GSM for printing marketing materials like booklets and posters if you want to achieve the best quality. OMG this is hilarious, you’re killing me! I do the same thing – stages of rage, rage shopping, RESEARCH. and avoiding hype in an ultra suspicious fashion. i too have seen stuff get hyped that doesn’t deserve it and it squarely pisses me off. Again, note that paper GSM is not directly related to print quality. It is more on what you are going to use it for because some paper weights are more suitable for certain applications. Hopefully, this guide was able to help you better understand what GSM is. I almost didn’t include this section because it’s more subjective than it is information based on hard-hitting research. But I’m going to chatter on anyway. Archer & Olive

Buke Notebooks– this is the only notebook brand in this review that has an option both hardcover and softcover versions. All of the covers have the embossed gold owl on the front and you have several color options to choose from.

Based on all the chatter, you’d think there were only two notebooks in the whole wide world that have 160gsm dotted paper designed specifically for bullet journal enthusiasts. Those two would be Archer & Olive and Scribbles That Matter. But I was convinced that there had to be more than just those two. You know … brands without a massive marketing budget. Ahhh… art supplies! This is where things get real! You know that a major part of the marketing efforts from these companies claim that 160gsm paper in their notebooks stands up to the “no bleed” test with all sorts of pens and art supplies. Hold on there, cowboy! This nerd doesn’t believe your hype! Here is where we begin the rating portion of this comparison. In each notebook, I tested 16 different writing pens. These are the types of brands you’d expect to use in a normal bullet journal or standard long-form journaling notebook. Fineliners, gel pens, ballpoint, fountain pen inks, highlighters, and calligraphy brush markers. Here’s the list. SUPPLY LIST So I dug through my craft room (remember the huge Craft Room Cleanup from last spring?) and pulled out art supplies that should work in these journals …. Along with a few supplies that I knew were going to likely fail. Needless to say, I was pretty surprised at the results. Dye-based Ink – similar to the alcohol ink but there’s no alcohol in this version. It’s a water-based dye ink instead of being alcohol-based.

Jinhao x750 with Noodler’s 54th Massachusetts ink – this pen has a medium nib, except it seems to lay down a much heavier line than other medium nibs I have tried. So add that heavy ink flow with an extra wet ink (Noodler’s has a reputation for being very wet) and you’ve got a combination set for disaster. Yep, I did that on purpose. But you know me… I’m just a nerdy skeptic at heart. If too many people are all talking about the same brand of notebook, I tend to get very suspicious. Well, technically I first get annoyed, then I move into seriously pissed off… but then it usually settles down into suspicion. I’m a pretty even-tempered person but when I reach the end of my patience and I get fed up with the obsessive evangelizing, it usually results in a massive research project to uncover the truth. Once I had those two art supply results covered up, the judging was a lot easier. What I came up with was Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners. Two equal winners in Gold and SIlver, one winner in Bronze. I chose the Pro version which means the PU leather cover does not have the all-over embossed doodle design of the other STM notebooks. The leatherette cover is soft to the touch – similar to the feeling of Buke’s notebook.

Whew! We’ve made it to the end. This review was a monster to complete and took me months longer than I first thought it would take.