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The Paper Plane – Kobeha GRAPHILO A5 paper I've been enjoying this little corner of the web for some time now, mainly focusing on inks and pens. But these are more or less useless without the humble paper or notebook that will let you capture your thoughts. So here comes the "Paper Plane", where I review some of the paper and notebooks that I've enjoyed using over the years. Today's guest: Kobeha GRAPHILO A5 loose-sheet paper. A short while ago, Catherine from Sakura brought this paper to my attention. Since I’m always on the lookout for the “perfect” paper, I got me a 50-sheet pack to try it out. The packaging doesn’t mention the paper’s gsm, and online searches give contradictory information: it seems to be somewhere in the 80-85 gsm range. Also, not a cheap paper: at 11 EUR for a 50-sheet pack of A5 paper, it sits squarely in the high-price range. GRAPHILO paper is produced by Kobeha (www.kobeha.com), a Japanese company that – like many – was searching for the perfect fountain pen paper. They developed GRAPHILO paper as a cooperation between paper makers and fountain pen lovers. According to Kobeha’s website, the paper satisfies the following requirements (I used Google Translate to go from Japanese to English): Wet and abundant ink flow: This feeling is expressed by the word “Nurunura”. By using a filler that covers the surface firmly even if it is applied thinly, GRAPHILO paper succeeds in reducing the occurrence of bleeding and thickening of characters. Reducing strike-through: by adjusting the composition of the filler, it is difficult for the ink to strike-through even if you use a bold nib. Reducing the difference between the front and back of the paper: there is always a difference between front/back of the paper, due to manufacturing constraints. With some paper, this can result in a very different writing experience. With GRAPHILO paper, special attention was given to suppress the difference between front and back. Above is a photo from a writing sample on GRAPHILO paper. I used a couple of different inks, with a variety of nib sizes. The ink names beneath the swatches were written with a glass dip pen. From this writing test, I can confirm that Kobeha’s statements are not merely a marketing blur. This really is excellent paper. With normal use there is no see-through or bleed-through. At one spot on the paper, I did my best to add ink to a single point until it bled through the paper. I finally succeeded, but it takes effort. I also enjoyed the feeling of the pen gliding across the paper. It writes very smoothly, while still maintaining feedback, so that you can still “touch” the paper with your pen. Really nicely done, and something that has to be experienced. Your writing looks crisp and clear – no feathering at all, and the lines are really well defined (with sharp edges). Colours look more vibrant on GRAPHILO paper: my impression is that they look a bit lighter/brighter on GRAPHILO, when compared with other paper brands. The scan above shows the front and back side of my writing test. Here the one weakness of the paper is clearly evident: drying times are slow… Kobeha mentions this on their website: “GRAPHILO tends to have a slightly slower penetration of ink because it gives a wet writing taste”. And this is definitely an understatement. With normal writing, drying times are on the long side, but there will always be areas of the paper where the ink pooled a bit more, and these take ages to dry completely. I marked some areas on the page where smudging occurred even after 30 minutes of dry-time. What’s happening (I think) is that the ink’s dyes don’t penetrate and get bound to the paper in these places, and as such remain prone to smudging. When you use this paper in a journal, it’s best to put a piece of blotting paper at the last written page – I’m sure this will help. Below is a photo comparing GRAPHILO paper with two reference papers: Rhodia N°16 80 gsm and Tomoe River 52 gsm. Conclusion Kobeha GRAPHILO paper is definitely worth the try. It feels high-quality and luxurious, and gives that nice soft feedback while writing that I really appreciate. Technical characteristics are top-notch: no feathering, no see-through & bleed-through, sharp & well-defined lines. The one drawback are the long dry-times, and the smudge-proneness – you really need a sheet of blotting paper with this one. Overall, a nice addition to my set of test papers. I will definitely add it to the papers I use in my ink reviews.