Rhodia Dotpad And Fabriano Ecoqua Dot Notebook Comparison

March 1, 2016

Wow!! An excellent, in-depth review. You obviously take paper and notebooks/pads seriously.

I lucked into a number of Rhodia A5 dotPads a while back and so far, haven't seen any reason to change. Fabriano may have slightly better paper but the Clairfontaine paper in the Rhodias is so good I still think I'll stick with it.

August 16, 2017

Dug up this old review of Fabriano EcoQua Bioprima notebooks with 85g paper. I LOVE these. I have them in both medium and large size in dot grid variety.

The things I love about this paper over ClaireFontaine and Rhodia:

- Beautiful pale ivory color of the paper

- Something about the way the ink rests on the pages gives a bit thicker lines and more beautiful shading. My Waterman's Absolute Brown looks Amazing on Fabriano paper, just okay on ClaireFontaine. Every ink I've tried so far just looks better on the Fabriano paper, with more character.

- The dot grid is of Gray color! I actually really dislike the purple dots on the Rhodia variety. Gray is very neutral, nonintrusive, and goes well with every ink color.

Things I don't like as much:

- The Dot Grid variety only comes in glue-bound notebooks with the cover that lifts over the glued edge, so you can neatly rip off pages (there are staple-bound tiny size ones, but I have no use for those generally). However if you just want to keep the notebook whole, have to be careful about turning pages.

- The paper is more textured/toothy on microscale compared to the glassy glide on Clairefontaine, which I sometimes like, sometimes don't. Makes my hand more tired to write, though smoother nibs / good ink flow do help.

I'll see about making comparison photos.

I really like dot notebooks, and a Leuchtturm dot grid notebook is on my list to try at some point, it's just fairly expensive compared to downright budget Fabriano notebooks (excellent prices at some on-line vendors).

Basically if Fabriano made medium and/or large sized notebooks with their dot paper and wire spiral binding, as well as a harder cover, that would be my ultimate notebook for everything!

Edited August 16, 2017 by Intensity