Ink
The best fountain pen inks for a LEUCHTTURM1917
Buyer reports on this notebook split almost evenly on bleed-through. That is not a contradiction - it is a sign that the answer depends on what you put in the pen.
How this page is funded. Buying through a link here earns us a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change what we recommend or the order we recommend it in, and we have not hands-on tested these products — see how we choose and the full disclosure.
Read the buyer feedback on LEUCHTTURM1917's own listing and it divides almost down the middle: one group reports no bleed-through at all, another reports ink coming through the pages. Both groups are describing the same notebook honestly, which is the tell.
A split like that does not mean the paper is bad or that half the reviewers are wrong. It means the paper sits close to a threshold, and which side of it you land on is decided by what you are writing with. The notebook is the constant; the pen and the ink are the variables.
What we actually know about the paper
Less than you would expect, and being straight about that is the honest starting point for this page.
- The US listing for the A5 dotted hardcover does not state a paper weight. No figure in grams per square meter appears on it, so we do not print one. Comparison charts on other listings are not the maker's specification.
- The maker does claim the paper is acid-free and ink-proof. That is its wording, and it is a claim rather than a measurement.
- Buyer reports genuinely conflict, in roughly equal numbers, on that same listing.
So this page cannot tell you the paper will hold a given ink, and any page that promises otherwise is estimating. What it can do is work the lever that is actually in your hands. The full picture on the notebook itself is on the LEUCHTTURM1917 profile.
How we ranked these
By how little liquid the ink puts on the page, because that is the entire mechanism. Bleed-through happens when more ink arrives than the paper can hold at its surface, and feathering happens when it wicks sideways along the fibers. Both get better with less ink.
- Does the maker say anything about feathering or flow? Almost none do. One ink here does, and it leads the list because of it.
- Is the ink dry-writing? A dry ink delivers less per centimeter of line, which is the cheapest available fix.
- Does it sit on the surface rather than soak in? Pigment inks do, which changes the failure mode entirely.
- Will it flush out easily when you want to change your mind? The most ignored property, and it matters more when you are experimenting.
Quick picks
Ranked for the beginner buying their first setup. Every pick names who it is wrong for.
| # | Product | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No image Noodler's X-Feather, 3 oz The one ink on this site whose maker states outright that it was formulated to resist feathering on cheap paper. | Paper that feathers | Check price on Amazon #ad No live price right now. How this is funded |
| 2 | No image Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue, 62.5 ml A dry-writing classic that lays down less ink than most, which is exactly what cheap paper needs. | Thin, absorbent paper | Check price on Amazon #ad No live price right now. How this is funded |
| 3 | No image J. Herbin Perle Noire, 30 ml A dry-writing black in a bottle small enough that a wrong guess costs almost nothing. | A small bottle to try before committing | Check price on Amazon #ad No live price right now. How this is funded |
| 4 | No image Waterman Serenity Blue, 50 ml The ink most often recommended as a first bottle because it is well behaved on ordinary paper and washes out of a pen easily. | The safest first bottle | Check price on Amazon #ad No live price right now. How this is funded |
| 5 | No image Platinum Carbon Black, 60 ml A true pigment ink: the blackest line you can get out of a fountain pen, and permanent once dry. | Line work and archival notes | Check price on Amazon #ad No live price right now. How this is funded |
| 6 | No image Diamine Sherwood Green, 80 ml A large bottle of well-mannered dye ink from the range that makes color experimentation affordable. | The cheapest way into interesting color | Check price on Amazon #ad No live price right now. How this is funded |
1. Paper that feathers
Noodler's X-Feather, 3 oz
The one ink on this site whose maker states outright that it was formulated to resist feathering on cheap paper.
#ad No live price right now. How this is funded
Almost every ink is sold on color. This one is sold on a behavior, and the behavior is the exact problem thin uncoated paper creates: ink wicking sideways along exposed fibers into a fuzzy line.
That makes it unusual enough to be worth knowing about. Where our advice elsewhere is to reach for a dry ink and accept a compromise, X-Feather is a maker deliberately targeting the failure rather than sidestepping it.
The trade-off it does not hide is drying time. An ink built to sit rather than spread is an ink that takes longer to dry, and Noodler's publishes no figure for it — so on a page you turn quickly, or under a left hand, expect smudging.
| Format | 3 oz bottleSource: Noodler's X-Feather Black (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
|---|---|
| Maker's claim | Designed to resist feathering, especially on cheap papersThe maker's own product description, quoted from its listing. We have not tested it.Source: Noodler's X-Feather Black (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
| Also offered | X-Feather Blue, in a separate bottleSource: Noodler's X-Feather Blue (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
| Published drying time | Not published |
What it does well
- The maker states the anti-feathering purpose explicitly, which is rare
- Large 3 oz bottle
- A properly dark black rather than a washed-out one
What it does not
- Slow drying is the well-known cost of the formulation
- No published drying time, despite that being the main trade-off
- Like other Noodler's inks, harder to flush than a plain dye
Skip this if you write left-handed or turn pages quickly. An ink formulated to stay put on the surface is an ink that takes its time drying.
2. Thin, absorbent paper
Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue, 62.5 ml
A dry-writing classic that lays down less ink than most, which is exactly what cheap paper needs.
#ad No live price right now. How this is funded
A dry ink is not a defect. Less ink leaving the nib per centimeter of line means less ink for absorbent paper to wick sideways, which is why a dry ink on bad paper often looks sharper than a wet ink on good paper.
4001 is the reference point for that behavior. If you are stuck writing on photocopier paper or a school notebook, this is the pairing that has the best chance of staying crisp.
The trade is on good paper, where a dry ink can feel scratchy and looks thin next to something more saturated.
| Format | 62.5 ml bottleSource: Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
|---|---|
| Range | 4001, Pelikan's long-running everyday ink lineSource: Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
| Published drying time | Not published |
| Published water resistance | Not published |
What it does well
- Runs dry, which suits thin and absorbent paper
- Large bottle for the money
- Long-established formula that is easy to replace anywhere
What it does not
- Can feel scratchy in an already-dry pen
- Color is pale next to modern saturated inks
- No published figures for drying or water resistance
Skip this if your pen already writes dry — pairing a dry ink with a dry nib is how people conclude they hate fountain pens.
3. A small bottle to try before committing
J. Herbin Perle Noire, 30 ml
A dry-writing black in a bottle small enough that a wrong guess costs almost nothing.
#ad No live price right now. How this is funded
Thirty milliliters is a sensible amount of ink for someone with one pen. It is months of writing, and it does not commit you to a color for years.
Perle Noire runs on the dry side for a black, which makes it a better companion for wet nibs and thin paper than most blacks are.
The same ink is available in cartridges, which is unusually convenient if you want to carry the color rather than only use it at a desk.
| Format | 30 ml bottleSource: J. Herbin Perle Noire 30 ml (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
|---|---|
| Also sold as | A tin of six international standard cartridgesSource: J. Herbin Perle Noire cartridges (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
| Published drying time | Not published |
| Published water resistance | Not published |
What it does well
- Small bottle, small commitment
- Runs dry, which helps on thin paper
- Available in international standard cartridges too
What it does not
- Not water resistant
- Less saturated than a pigment black
- No published figures
Skip this if you want maximum blackness on the page — a pigment ink is a different order of dark.
4. The safest first bottle
Waterman Serenity Blue, 50 ml
The ink most often recommended as a first bottle because it is well behaved on ordinary paper and washes out of a pen easily.
#ad No live price right now. How this is funded
A first bottle should be forgiving in two ways: it should behave on the cheap paper you already own, and it should rinse out without a fight when you want to change color. Serenity Blue is chosen for both.
It is a straightforward dye ink with no shimmer, no pigment and no unusual additives. That is exactly what you want while you are still learning which problems are the pen, which are the ink and which are the paper.
Waterman does not publish a drying time or a water-resistance figure for it, and neither does anyone else selling it, so we do not quote one.
| Format | 50 ml bottleSource: Waterman Serenity Blue (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
|---|---|
| Type | Dye-based, for refillable fountain pensSource: Waterman Serenity Blue (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
| Published drying time | Not published |
| Published water resistance | Not published |
What it does well
- Easy to flush out of a pen when changing colors
- Standard dye ink with no unusual additives to complicate diagnosis
- Widely stocked, so it is easy to replace
What it does not
- Not water resistant — a wet page is a lost page
- The color is deliberately unremarkable
- No published performance figures of any kind
Skip this if you need writing that survives water, or if you want the ink itself to be the interesting part of the setup.
5. Line work and archival notes
Platinum Carbon Black, 60 ml
A true pigment ink: the blackest line you can get out of a fountain pen, and permanent once dry.
#ad No live price right now. How this is funded
Pigment ink suspends solid particles rather than dissolving a dye, which is why it is opaque, why it is permanent, and why it will clog a pen left to dry out.
For drawing, for signatures, and for anything you want legible in twenty years, nothing else in a fountain pen comes close.
It demands discipline. Do not leave it in a pen you are not using, and flush thoroughly when you change ink.
| Format | 60 ml bottleSource: Platinum Carbon Black (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
|---|---|
| Type | Pigment ink (carbon), not a dyeSource: Platinum Carbon Black (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
| Also sold as | Platinum Carbon cartridges, for pens that take themSource: Platinum Carbon ink cartridges (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
| Published drying time | Not published |
What it does well
- Genuinely black and genuinely permanent
- Excellent for ink drawing over watercolor
- Available as cartridges as well as a bottle
What it does not
- Will clog a pen that is left to dry
- Needs more frequent cleaning than any dye ink
- Not a good match for a pen you use once a fortnight
Skip this if your pen sits unused for weeks at a time — a dried pigment ink is a much bigger problem than a dried dye ink.
6. The cheapest way into interesting color
Diamine Sherwood Green, 80 ml
A large bottle of well-mannered dye ink from the range that makes color experimentation affordable.
#ad No live price right now. How this is funded
Diamine's proposition is volume for money. An 80 ml bottle is enough ink to fill a pen every week for a couple of years, at a price closer to a small bottle from a premium brand.
The range behaves like a standard dye ink should: reasonable flow, reasonable drying, no shimmer particles or pigment to complicate cleaning.
Sherwood Green is a dark, readable green rather than a bright one, which makes it usable for actual work rather than only for decoration.
| Format | 80 ml bottleSource: Diamine Sherwood Green 80 ml (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
|---|---|
| Range | Diamine's standard dye range, sold in dozens of colors at the same sizeSource: Diamine Ancient Copper 80 ml (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
| Published drying time | Not published |
| Published water resistance | Not published |
What it does well
- Large bottle at a low price
- Huge color range at the same size and price
- Standard dye behavior — nothing unusual to manage
What it does not
- No published performance data at all
- Not water resistant
- Color consistency across the range varies more than premium brands
Skip this if you want your first bottle to be a safe, conventional blue or black — start there and come back for color.
What to avoid in this notebook specifically
| Property | Effect here | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Dry flow | Less ink per centimeter of line | The single best lever you have |
| Pigment | Particles stay at the surface rather than penetrating | Good, at the cost of cleaning discipline |
| Wet, saturated flow | More liquid than the paper can hold | The most common cause of a bad experience — see Iroshizuku, which is excellent and wrong for this |
| Shimmer particles | Settle in the feed, and add nothing here | Avoid |
| Very broad nib | Multiplies everything above | Change this before you change the ink |
That third row is worth dwelling on, because it is where most disappointment comes from. A premium shading ink is not a better ink in this notebook — it is a wetter one, and wetter is precisely the wrong direction. Save it for Rhodia or Clairefontaine where it belongs.
Ghosting is not bleeding, and you cannot fix it with ink
Worth separating before you spend money. If you can see the writing from the reverse but there is no ink to touch, that is ghosting — an opacity property of the sheet. No ink change will meaningfully reduce it.
If there is ink you can feel on the back, that is bleeding, and everything on this page applies. The difference and the fixes for each are set out in full, and it is worth two minutes before you buy a bottle to solve the wrong problem.
The order to change things in
- Nib width first. Moving from a Medium to a Fine puts down noticeably less ink and costs nothing if you own more than one pen. On a LAMY the nib unit pulls off by hand.
- Then the ink, using this page. A bottle is cheaper than a notebook you stop using.
- Then write on one side only. Unsatisfying, and it works. A ghosted reverse is usable; a bled one is not.
- Then change the notebook. If you have done the first three and it still bleeds, the honest answer is that this paper is not for your pen — Dingbats publishes 100 gsm with the same structured-journal features.
If you are buying the notebook and the ink together
Buy the ink first and test it on whatever you already own. That sounds backwards and it is the cheapest possible way to find out whether your handwriting and your pen put down a lot of ink or a little.
And if the structure is what you want — numbered pages, a printed index — but you would rather not gamble on the paper at all, the Rhodia Goalbook comparison covers the alternative that publishes 90 gsm outright.
A note on cartridges
Everything above assumes bottled ink, because that is where the choice is. If you are on cartridges your options are whatever your pen's brand makes — Pilot, LAMY and Platinum each use their own, and only the international standard has a real third-party market.
Pilot's blue-black and LAMY's black are both reasonable in this notebook. The cartridge guide covers which fits what, and cartridge vs converter covers whether to move to a bottle at all.
Questions people actually ask
What is the best fountain pen ink for a LEUCHTTURM1917?
A dry-writing ink. Noodler's X-Feather is the only one whose maker states it was formulated to resist feathering on cheap paper; Pelikan 4001 and J. Herbin Perle Noire are the classic dry choices. Avoid wet, saturated inks in this notebook.
Does fountain pen ink bleed through a LEUCHTTURM1917?
It depends on your pen and ink. Buyer reports on the maker's own listing split roughly evenly, which is what happens when paper sits close to a threshold. A fine nib and a dry ink keep most people on the right side of it.
What GSM is LEUCHTTURM1917 paper?
The US listing for the A5 dotted hardcover does not state a weight, so we do not publish one. It claims acid-free, ink-proof paper, which is a claim rather than a measurement.
Can I use Iroshizuku ink in a LEUCHTTURM1917?
You can, and it is not the ink we would choose. Iroshizuku runs wet, and wet flow is the direction that causes show-through on paper near the threshold. It is excellent on coated 90 gsm paper instead.
Why can I see my writing through the page even though nothing bled?
That is ghosting, an opacity property of the sheet rather than an ink problem, and no ink change will meaningfully reduce it. Only bleeding — ink you can feel on the reverse — responds to what this page recommends.
Should I change the ink or the notebook?
The ink, then the nib, then the notebook. A bottle is cheaper than replacing a journal, and a narrower nib is often free. If all three fail, a notebook that publishes 90 or 100 gsm removes the guesswork.
Sources
- Noodler's X-Feather Black (retail listing, read 2026-09-01)
- Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue (retail listing, read 2026-09-01)
- J. Herbin Perle Noire 30 ml (retail listing, read 2026-09-01)
- Waterman Serenity Blue (retail listing, read 2026-09-01)
- Platinum Carbon Black (retail listing, read 2026-09-01)
- Diamine Sherwood Green 80 ml (retail listing, read 2026-09-01)
- LEUCHTTURM1917 A5, dotted (retail listing, read 2026-09-01)