Clairefontaine Triomphe A5 Blank Notebook Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

Clairefontaine is a paper brand from France that you'll be hard-pressed to miss if you spend any time at all in the stationery community. Their paper products are top-notch and fairly priced, making them great entry points for trying out exceptional paper that handle all sorts of writing instruments with relative ease.

The Triomphe A5 notebook features the great 90gsm paper on the inside with a stark, classy white and gold-leaf cover. The notebook has 50 sheets of paper inside with zero additional front or end matter. The front inside cover is blank outside of a small logo that is just a shade or two different than the color of the cover, making it blend in. The back inside cover has some information about the brand and notebook specifications, but that's all. No organization blocks or admin folders in this notebook — just glorious, beautiful bright white paper.

The front cover of the notebook is really quite pretty. The Triomphe name is bold, debossed and inlayed with gold-leaf foil, along with a rectangle that outlines the outer edges of the cover. It definitely grabs your attention because it's bold and not something you see on notebooks often. There's also a smaller Clairefontaine logo on the front, but the color is faded so that it takes a distant back-seat to the gold-leaf design. The back cover has a single Clairefontaine logo, debossed and inlayed with gold-leaf foil, along with a standard name and barcode block, which is printed on the notebook directly. This isn't a sticker that you can peel off after you unwrap the notebook.

The notebook is thread-bound and feels great to open and close. I have no doubts that this binding will still be in good shape after spending the time with it to fill all 50 pages. The notebook doesn't like to lay open when it's new, but some gentle breaking-in solves that problem quickly. After using the first few pages, the notebook easily lays flat on its own.

The paper is Clairefontaine's standard fare — 90gsm acid-free bright white paper. The corners are rounded off on both the covers and the pages, making it less likely to get caught on things when taking it in or out of bags or pockets. The version of the notebook I have is a blank paper, which is somewhat rare for Clairefontaine. In most cases, Clairefontaine is only available in lined paper, with only a few blank or grid options in only some of their product lines. The blank paper is a nice change of pace, and I've taken to keeping a sheet of lined paper tucked into the notebook so I have a line guide when writing. Or, if I want to do something more free-form, I can put the guide away and just use the blank page as I see fit.

The paper in this notebook (and any Clairefontaine paper product) is so nice to use. It may not be the best or the favorite paper of everyone, but it's a good, solid option that handles many kinds of writing instruments without any hiccups. For fountain pens, rollerballs, gel pens, ballpoints, and pencils, it's a fantastic experience. The paper is silky smooth with just a small amount of feedback to make handling your writing instrument easier. The paper is also really consistent, meaning there aren't random spots where ink behaves differently. It's just a really good paper, and you should absolutely try some if you haven't had the pleasure.

Being 90gsm, it's a tiny bit thicker than comparable brands, but it doesn't feel any thicker in use. Inks don't show through easily, so using both sides of the sheet is easy unless you're using excessively wet or wide nibs that lay down ink like a wet mop.

Using Clairefontaine paper, and this particular notebook, is a great sensory experience, and it really makes your writing instruments shine. It offers an ideal environment for using the pens and pencils that are so special to us. And, at $12 for a notebook (or cheaper if they're on sale), it doesn't break the bank either.

My only complaint about this notebook applies to Clairefontaine in general: give us more options for the ruling! If Clairefontaine had blank, lined, graph, dot options for all of their most popular notebook lines, they'd be so much more popular. Since they mostly standardize on wide lined ruling, that instantly turns some people away, and that's a shame. I'm hoping some day they'll see the light and add more options to their lineup! Until then, I'll make due with what they already have since lined isn't that bad and blank is also fun to use from time to time.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Sutenai Recycled Washi Paper Note Pad Review

The opportunity to attend pen and stationery shows is important for many reasons. Meeting and making new friends, getting to handle products in person, and stumbling across new and interesting makers. Especially - as was the case at Stationery Fest with Soichi Yoshikawa of Yoshikawa Paper Co. - getting to speak in person with someone who is unbelievably passionate about their products, AND that travelled halfway around the world to be there.

My goal on Thursday morning of the Fest was to visit the Cute Things From Japan table first thing. It was swarmed most of Wednesday - and would be most of Thursday, too - but getting there early afforded me two things: one, time to shop, and two, to learn about the paper products that Soichi had brought to display in conjunction with Cute Things.

Soichi’s passion came through in our short time together. The way he talks about paper, his desire to get you involved in touching and testing the products, the care that goes into each offering - you can see more here in Inky Rocks’ video - is contagious. So contagious that I came home with one of the most expensive dollar per sheet notepads I have ever bought, and was happy I did!

The Sutenai Recycled Washi Paper Note Pad was not the only product I came home with from Yoshikawa Paper, but is the one I am discussing today. It is a recycled washi paper, produced from discarded washi paper and paper garbage. Normally, paper products with the word “recycled” in the description are instantly avoided by fountain pen users, but that wasn’t exactly the case with this A5 note pad. In fact, it was their fountain pen ink writing sample at the table that sold me, which is also seen on the product page at Cute Things.

I went right into this recycled washi paper page with my cadre of Extra Fine nibs. They performed well, but not perfectly. There is some feathering, and a little bleed and ghosting, but not through to the page behind. The page was smooth, which was unexpected given the visibility of the different fibers in the paper. I had no issue with the nib grabbing anything on the surface while writing. The back side of the page does have slightly more texture than the front, but the nib and ink performance was essentially the same, but not as smooth.

What stood out to me the most was how well the widest, wettest nib I used handled this paper. My Harmonic nib is ground into a soft cursive italic, and loaded with Pilot Blue Back - possibly my perfect combination for this paper. No feathering, no bleeding or ghosting, and there is even the slightest shading and sheen that appears at the correct angle. This is what I had hoped for when purchasing this note pad, which - again - mimics the sample I saw.

Awesome string binding and a clean perforation.

Other pens and pencils work well. The 0.5 mm Ohto Flash Gel had no feathering, but the slightest ghosting. Ballpoint ink and pencil graphite were both great, as expected. Sharpie LOL. Watching the ink spread as I wrote was kind of fun, but no, not an option here.

Interestingly, given the tan-ish base color of the page, ink colors look nice on the page. I’ve always liked how colors look on good kraft paper, and this output is along those lines. Blues are especially nice, and the deep Pink looks almost as it does on a lighter background page.

Sutenai Recycled Washi Paper falls into the specialty paper category for me. I love and enjoy using it, but there are a couple of things that would prevent me from wanting to build a 200-page A5 hardbound notebook with it as my primary notebook. Firstly, given my preference for Extra Fine nibs, the feathering could get to me after a while. It’s not that bad, but I also don’t want to have to think about when I’m writing. Secondly, it is expensive. I paid $40 for a 50 page pad, which works out to 80 cents per page. I’m fine with the price for such an interesting, different, and unique product, but it couldn’t be my one and only paper. But on special occasions - letter writing, for example - it is a fantastic option to stand out from the crowd.

While I did pick up other paper from Yoshikawa Paper Co., I forgot to pick up a standard washi paper to compare this one to. That just gives me something to look forward to the next time I get to talk with Soichi. Hopefully that’s sooner, not later!

(I paid regular retail price for this product at Stationery Fest 2024 from Yoshikawa Paper Co./Cute Things From Japan.)

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Midori MD Diary Stickers Review

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

It’s apparently planner season and since I don’t use a traditional planner, I decided to get these Midori MD Diary Stickers from Vanness Pens when I was at their shop back in late March (thank you to them for providing these items for review.) These stickers from Midori are meant to be used in notebooks (or really anything) where you need monthly layouts. They come in three sizes (Small, Medium, and Large), but I am only reviewing the Small and Medium ones.

D Diary Stickers in M (left) and S.

Both sticker sets come with the following:

• 16 monthly calendar stickers (starting with December of the prior year and going through January of the following year). The sets I got were for 2024, so the monthly stickers went from December 2023 to January 2025.
• 2 yearly calendar stickers for the current year and next year (in my case, 2024 and 2025).

Small (top) and Medium monthly and year stickers.

The Small stickers measure roughly 5.5” x 3.75” (or 14 cm x 9.5 cm), while the Medium Stickers are 6.75” x 4.5” (17.2 cm x 11.8 cm). The Large set is 8” x 5.5” (20 cm x 13.8 cm).

The monthly calendar stickers are Monday - Sunday and also have the year in the bottom right corner, which is very handy as there are 2 December and 2 January stickers. They also have Sundays and Japanese public holidays circled. Japanese and international holidays are noted in Japanese as well. Other than Christmas Eve & Christmas and New Year’s Eve & New Year’s Day, the holidays aren’t particularly useful for most folks.

Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve (as confirmed by Google translate) both fell on Sundays last year.

Since I don’t use A6 for my bullet journal, I decided to use the Small monthly sticker as a tracker for dental hygiene and skincare. I didn’t want to adhere the sticker to my bathroom mirror, so I used washi tape to put it on, where I tracked my skincare routine (A = AM, P=PM, and checkmark for evening flossing/brushing - I know, I know, I need to floss more, lol). I kept a Zebra Sarasa 03 handy to mark it up. I often forget what I did by the time I update my habit tracker, so this was a handy way to keep track.

I’m sure this wasn’t the intended use case but I kinda liked tracking things on the mirror.

The Small stickers fit nicely in an A6 notebook, and the Medium stickers are good for an A5 notebook. It could also fit on B6, but with very little margin on the sides.

The Small Diary sticker in a B6 notebook (I did not affix it to the notebook because this “The Little Prince” notebook is my only B6 notebook.)

The Medium Diary sticker in a B6 notebook - this would be more difficult to put in place due to the minimal margins and the curling (see below.)

The stickers are fairly thick and the sticker release/backing paper is much thicker than what you’d typically get with regular stickers. Midori recommends peeling just one side of the release paper, positioning the sticker onto your page, and then removing the other side. I didn’t follow this recommendation for the A6 monthly sticker. Even though the release paper is scored down the back, peeling the stickers took a bit of effort and the resulting curling made it a bit annoying to deal with. It was mostly fine once I got it on the page and was able to close the notebook and have it weighed down by another book for a few minutes.

This is what it looks like when I peeled both backing papers off of the sticker.

This is how the Small sticker looked when I first affixed it to the page. I quickly removed it and decided to move it to another Hobonichi.

Moved to another notebook and squished it down for a while and the sticker page is now behaving. You can also see the text underneath that I was covering up (more on that below.)

I used the Medium sticker in my A5 Leuchtturm and it fit just fine with some margins to spare on the top and bottom (I like to use washi tape to give it a little bit of flare and so I’m not just hoarding washi tape, lol). Following Midori’s recommendation to only peel and stick one half at a time did not make a difference in the curling but it did make placement a little easier. It was almost impossible not to bend it backwards when removing the backing paper so there is a bit of a crease in the middle after peeling. The creases are more noticeable in some angles than others.

You can just make out the horizontal crease in the middle of the Medium stickers.

The crease is much more prominent on the Small sticker in the Hobonichi. Not sure if it’s because I removed both backing papers or not.

I decided to follow instructions (for a change) and only peeled one side. It’s still very curly.

Because my current A5 Leuchtturm has 120gsm paper, you don’t really see much ghosting, so you don’t see any writing below the sticker from the other side. With the Hobonichi though, you can see what’s underneath, although the writing is “extra” visible because I put the sticker on top of the writing, whereas the A5 had writing on the other side of the page. You can get an idea as to how “see through” the stickers are, if you are going to put it on top of an already-written-on page.

The Medium sticker in the A5 Leuchtturm.

The stickers are fountain pen friendly, which is great because I only use FPs in my bullet journal. There was some slight smearing when I smoothed the Small sticker onto the sheet because I wrote on the sticker before sticking it in the notebook. It is the same paper that is in the Midori MD notebooks (but not MD Cotton), which means it is cream-colored and not white. The paper is fairly smooth but slightly toothier than Tomoe River. It was nice to write on and I didn’t have issues with the few FPs I used on them.

Overall, aside from the not-super-easy peeling and the resulting curling of the sticker, I liked the convenience of having the monthly sticker for my undated notebook. I used to print out monthly calendars and tape them to my bujo and now I don’t have to. I also liked that there are stickers for 14 months. I think the only thing I could do without is the holiday text since it isn’t useful for non-Japanese customers and it takes up room in an already limited space. I don’t know if I would use the yearly stickers but it’s nice to have for reference.

You can find the Midori Diary Sticker Small 2025, Midori Diary Sticker Large, as well as the day free/undated Midori Diary Sticker (same size as the Small), on the Vanness website. The Medium Diary Stickers have been ordered but are still making their way to the shop, so that’s what I’m going to be ordering when it arrives in the next week or so.

(Disclaimer: The Midori Diary Stickers were provided for review by Vanness Pens at no charge. The notebooks pictured are my own.)

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Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!