Paper
Tomoe River vs Rhodia
Buy Rhodia if you want one notebook that behaves - 90 g coated paper, no bleed, nothing to learn. Buy Tomoe River if you want to see what your ink can actually do, and accept that 52 gsm shows through to the other side.
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.
These are the two papers fountain pen users name most often, and they are famous for opposite achievements. Rhodia is coated Clairefontaine stock - published at 90 g Ivory Brushed Vellum - and it is the paper that makes any pen look crisp. Tomoe River is published at 52 g/m2, less than half that, and it is the paper that makes ink look interesting.
If you want one notebook and no project, buy the Rhodia. If you own more than one bottle of ink and want to know what is in them, buy the Tomoe River. That is the decision, and the rest of this page is the evidence.
The published figures
| Rhodia Goalbook A5 | Tomoe River A5 | Rhodia No. 16 pad | Tomoe River B6 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper weight | 90 g Ivory Brushed Vellum | 52 g/m2 | 80 g Superfine Vellum | 68 gsm |
| Paper maker | Clairefontaine | SANZEN, Japan | Clairefontaine | SANZEN, Japan |
| Maker's ink claim | Fountain pen friendly, no bleed-through, minimal ghosting | Resistant to bleeding through and feathering | Not published | Not published |
| Sheets | 120 numbered | 80 (160 pages) | 80, detachable | 80 (160 pages) |
| Ruling | Dot grid | 5 mm dot grid, 'New Sub Dot Grid' sub-dots | Dot grid | 5 mm square grid in light indigo, printed as sub-dots |
| Binding | Soft Italian leatherette, elastic strap | Soft cover | Head-stapled with a tear line | Thread-sewn, stated to lay flat |
| Extras | 6-page index, perpetual calendar, ribbon, back pocket | None stated | Micro-perforated pages | None stated |
| Price band | The most expensive here | The cheapest here | Cheap | Middle |
Two things in that table are worth noticing before anything else. First, both makers publish the same claim - that the paper resists bleeding - which is unusual, because most notebook makers publish no ink claim at all. Second, the weights are not close: 52 against 90 is not a refinement, it is a different kind of sheet.
The pad row holds the surprise. Rhodia publishes 80 g Superfine Vellum for the No. 16 dot pad and 90 g Ivory Brushed Vellum for its bound books, so the pads are a genuinely lighter sheet - the common belief that Rhodia is 90 g throughout is wrong. Both figures were read on 2026-10-17, and the Rhodia profile now records the same split.
The notebooks
Quick picks
Ranked for the beginner buying their first setup. Every pick names who it is wrong for.
| # | Product | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Rhodia Goalbook A5, dotted 90 gsm paper, numbered pages and an index, built specifically for the bullet-journal method. | Bullet journaling with a fountain pen | |
| 2 |  Tomoe River FP Notebook A5, dotted 52 g/m2 paper that is half the thickness of copy paper and still resists bleeding, which should not be possible and is. | Ink that shades, sheens and shows off | $11.00 · View on Amazon #ad Price as of October 18, 2026. How this is funded |
| 3 |  Rhodia No. 16 dot pad, A5 A stapled pad of the same paper as the notebooks, cheap enough that ruining a page costs nothing. | Drafting, testing inks and throwing pages away | $7.96 · View on Amazon #ad Price as of October 18, 2026. How this is funded |
| 4 |  Tomoe River FP Notebook B6, square grid 68 gsm Tomoe River FP paper, thread-sewn to lie flat, with every figure that matters published on the listing. | The best-documented B6 notebook we found | $19.10 · View on Amazon #ad Price as of October 18, 2026. How this is funded |
1. Bullet journaling with a fountain pen
Rhodia Goalbook A5, dotted
90 gsm paper, numbered pages and an index, built specifically for the bullet-journal method.
The Goalbook is the one Rhodia book that publishes its paper weight, which is why it anchors our GSM guide. 90 gsm coated is comfortably enough for a wet fountain pen.
Numbered pages and a blank index are the structural half of the bullet-journal method, and having them printed saves an hour of setup.
It is a large, heavy book. That is fine on a desk and less fine in a jacket pocket.
| Paper weight | 90 gsmSource: Rhodia Goalbook A5 (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
|---|---|
| Maker's claim | Fountain pen friendly, with no bleed-through and minimal ghostingThe maker's own wording on its listing. We have not tested it.Source: Rhodia Goalbook A5 (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
| Size and ruling | A5, dottedSource: Rhodia Goalbook A5 (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
| Designed for | Bullet-style journalingSource: Rhodia Goalbook A5 (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
What it does well
- Weight is published, and it is enough for a wet nib
- Numbered pages and index printed in
- Coated Clairefontaine-group paper
What it does not
- Heavy
- Slow drying
- Costs more than an unbranded dotted notebook
Skip this if you do not use a page-numbered system — you are paying for structure you will not use.
2. Ink that shades, sheens and shows off
Tomoe River FP Notebook A5, dotted
52 g/m2 paper that is half the thickness of copy paper and still resists bleeding, which should not be possible and is.
#ad Price as of October 18, 2026. How this is funded
Tomoe River breaks the rule the rest of this page runs on. Weight normally predicts bleed resistance, and at 52 g/m2 this paper should be hopeless. It is not, because it is extremely hard-sized: the ink cannot penetrate, so it sits on top and dries there.
That is also why it shows sheen and shading better than anything else. Ink that stays on the surface pools and dries unevenly, and uneven drying is what shading is.
It is not a general-purpose notebook. The paper is nearly translucent, ghosting is severe by definition, and drying times are long.
| Paper weight | 52 g/m2Source: Tomoe River FP Notebook A5 (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
|---|---|
| Maker's claim | Super lightweight at 52 gsm, half the thickness of copy paper, resistant to bleedingThe maker's own wording on its listing.Source: Tomoe River FP Notebook A5 (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
| Extent | A5 (5.83" x 8.27"), 160 pages, 80 sheetsSource: Tomoe River FP Notebook A5 (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
| Produced by | Sanzen, for Sakae Technical PaperSource: Tomoe River FP Notebook A5 (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
What it does well
- Published weight, and an explicit maker claim about bleeding
- Shows ink properties nothing else does
- 160 pages in a book barely thicker than a magazine
What it does not
- Severe ghosting — you will see the other side of every page
- Very slow drying
- Feels alarmingly thin to write on at first
Skip this if you write on both sides of the page, or if you smudge — this is the slowest-drying paper here.
3. Drafting, testing inks and throwing pages away
Rhodia No. 16 dot pad, A5
A stapled pad of the same paper as the notebooks, cheap enough that ruining a page costs nothing.
#ad Price as of October 18, 2026. How this is funded
A pad is the right first purchase for testing. You can write the same sentence with four inks, compare the show-through on the back, and bin the page without guilt.
It is the same paper family as the hardcover books, so what you learn on the pad transfers.
Perforated pages tear out cleanly, which makes it the natural notepad for anything you intend to hand to somebody.
| Size | A5, 6" x 8 1/4"Source: Rhodia No16 A5 dot pad (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
|---|---|
| Ruling | Dot gridSource: Rhodia No16 A5 dot pad (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
| Paper weight | Clairefontaine 80 g Superfine VellumPublished on the listing as of the 2026-10-17 read, and lighter than the 90 g vellum in Rhodia's bound books - this is not the same paper.Source: Rhodia Notepad, No16 A5, Dot (16558C) (retail listing, read 2026-10-17) |
| Extent | 80 detachable micro-perforated sheetsSource: Rhodia Notepad, No16 A5, Dot (16558C) (retail listing, read 2026-10-17) |
| Binding | Head-stapled pad with a micro-perforated tear lineSource: Rhodia No16 A5 dot pad, black (retail listing, read 2026-09-01) |
What it does well
- Cheapest way to try good paper
- Micro-perforated for clean tear-out
- Same coated paper family as the books
What it does not
- Not a permanent record — pages come loose
- No published paper weight
- The orange cover is not to everyone's taste
Skip this if you want a journal you will keep — a stapled pad is a working surface, not an archive.
4. The best-documented B6 notebook we found
Tomoe River FP Notebook B6, square grid
68 gsm Tomoe River FP paper, thread-sewn to lie flat, with every figure that matters published on the listing.
#ad Price as of October 18, 2026. How this is funded
Almost nothing about this notebook is left to trust. The listing states the paper, the grade, the exact dimensions, the sheet count, the ruling and the binding, which puts it ahead of every other B6 we looked at.
It is worth reading the weight carefully: 68 gsm. The Tomoe River FP notebook this site covers at A5 publishes 52 g/m2, so this is a heavier grade of the same paper family rather than the famously thin one. The maker does not explain the difference, and we are not going to guess at it - the Tomoe River profile covers what the thin grade does.
The sub-dot grid is a detail with a stated purpose: the maker says printing lines as dots evens out ink absorption where the nib crosses them. That is a claim rather than a measurement, and we are recording it as one.
| Paper | 68 gsm SANZEN Tomoe River FP paper, whiteSource: Tomoe River FP Notebook B6, square grid (retail listing, read 2026-09-16) |
|---|---|
| Size | 182 x 128 mm (7.17" x 5.04")Source: Tomoe River FP Notebook B6, square grid (retail listing, read 2026-09-16) |
| Extent | 160 pages (80 sheets)Source: Tomoe River FP Notebook B6, square grid (retail listing, read 2026-09-16) |
| Ruling | 5 mm square grid in light indigo, printed as microscopic sub-dotsSource: Tomoe River FP Notebook B6, square grid (retail listing, read 2026-09-16) |
| Binding | Thread-sewn, lays flatSource: Tomoe River FP Notebook B6, square grid (retail listing, read 2026-09-16) |
| Cover | Flexible matte black soft coverSource: Tomoe River FP Notebook B6, square grid (retail listing, read 2026-09-16) |
| Made by | SANZEN, in Japan; described by the listing as successor to Tomoegawa's original Tomoe River FP paperSource: Tomoe River FP Notebook B6, square grid (retail listing, read 2026-09-16) |
What it does well
- Paper, dimensions, extent and binding all published
- Thread-sewn, and stated to lie flat
- Paper designed specifically for fountain pens, per the maker
What it does not
- Soft cover offers little protection in a bag
- Grid only on this listing; the unruled version publishes almost nothing
- 68 gsm, not the 52 g/m2 grade the Tomoe River name is best known for
Skip this if you specifically want the famously thin 52 g/m2 Tomoe River. This listing states 68 gsm, and the A5 FP notebook is the one that publishes the thin grade.
Why both resist bleeding at such different weights
Because weight is not the property that stops ink going through a sheet. Sizing is - a treatment applied during manufacture that makes paper resist liquid. Heavily sized paper holds ink at the surface; lightly sized paper lets it into the fiber structure, where it spreads sideways and then through.
Rhodia gets there by being coated: a thin sealed layer on top of the fibers, which is sizing taken to its conclusion. Tomoe River gets there by being extraordinarily well sized for its weight. Both answers work, and this is why a 52 g/m2 Tomoe River sheet resists bleeding better than a 70 gsm office pad. The GSM guide is the long version of that argument, and it is the single most-read page on this site for a reason.
The distinction that matters here is between bleeding and ghosting. Bleeding is ink passing through to the other side; ghosting is seeing the writing from the other side without any ink having traveled. Tomoe River does not bleed and it ghosts heavily, because at 52 gsm there is simply not enough paper to hide a line. The bleed, ghosting and feathering guide separates the three failures, and this comparison is the clearest real-world case of the difference.
What Tomoe River does that Rhodia cannot
Thin, well-sized paper keeps ink sitting on the surface in a thicker film, and it dries slowly. Both of those are the conditions under which the optical behavior of an ink becomes visible:
- Shading - the same ink appearing darker where the nib laid down more of it, so a single stroke varies in depth.
- Sheen - a secondary color appearing at the edges of a stroke where the dye concentrates as it dries. This is the effect that makes people buy specific bottles.
- Shimmer - suspended metallic flake staying on the surface instead of soaking in, which is the whole point of a shimmer ink.
On Rhodia the same inks look clean and comparatively flat. Coated paper gives up the show in exchange for a sharper line. If you have bought an ink because of how it looks in someone else's photograph, the photograph was almost certainly taken on Tomoe River, and the Tomoe River profile is blunt about what that means for your expectations.
What Rhodia does that Tomoe River cannot
It gives you a page you can use both sides of without thinking about it, and a line with sharper edges. At 90 g with a coating, show-through is not a consideration - which sounds minor until you have filled a Tomoe River notebook and realized you have 80 sheets rather than 160 usable pages.
It is also a more durable object. The Goalbook publishes a leatherette cover, an elastic strap, a ribbon and a back pocket, plus 120 numbered sheets, a six-page index and a perpetual calendar - it is built as a journal rather than as a paper sample. The Tomoe River notebooks publish a soft cover and nothing else.
And it is the safer recommendation for a beginner for one unglamorous reason: nothing about it needs explaining. Thin paper is a choice you make after you know what you want from a sheet, not before.
The drying-time problem, which applies to both
Neither of these is a fast-drying paper, and for anyone who smudges, that is the most important sentence on this page. Paper that holds ink at the surface holds it wet. A broad or wet nib on either of these can stay wet for ten seconds or more, and on coated Rhodia that is a well-documented property rather than a defect.
If you are left-handed and write with your hand following the line, this is the wrong pair of notebooks to choose between. Absorbent paper is the one case where cheaper paper is genuinely better for you - the left-handers ink page covers the full set of fixes, and the first one is paper rather than ink.
Cost per page, which inverts the price order
The Tomoe River A5 is the cheapest item on this page and publishes 160 pages, which makes it the cheapest paper here per page by a wide margin. The Goalbook is the most expensive and publishes 120 sheets with an index and a calendar - you are buying a journal system as well as paper.
The cheap entry to Rhodia is not a notebook at all. A stapled No. 16 pad costs a fraction of a bound book and tears off cleanly, which makes it the right thing to buy to find out whether you like coated paper at all. Be precise about what you are testing, though: the pad publishes 80 g Superfine Vellum against the books' 90 g Brushed Vellum, so it is the same coated tradition on a lighter sheet rather than the identical paper.
A note on the Rhodia Webnotebook
The Webnotebook is the Rhodia that gets compared with Tomoe River most often - a hardcover A5 published as 90 g Ivory Brushed Vellum with 96 sheets, a leatherette cover and an elasticated strap. It is not a pick here because at the time of writing its listing is not in a shipping state, and this site does not put a buy row on a listing that cannot be bought today. The Rhodia profile and Rhodia against LEUCHTTURM1917 both cover it.
Which to buy
First fountain pen notebook, or you want one book that works: the Rhodia Goalbook. It is the most expensive thing here and it is the one that will not surprise you.
You own several inks and want to see them properly: the Tomoe River A5. Accept the ghosting, write on one side, and understand that you have bought a display surface rather than a notebook.
You want to test one of these before buying a bound book: the Rhodia No. 16 pad for coated paper, or the Tomoe River B6 if you would rather have the thread-sewn binding and the slightly heavier 68 gsm sheet. Both are cheap enough to be an experiment.
If neither is quite it, the notebooks for fountain pens roundup places both traditions against the middle ground - and Clairefontaine, which is the same mill as Rhodia in a plainer binding, is usually the cheapest way to get this paper at all.
Questions people actually ask
Is Tomoe River or Rhodia better for fountain pens?
Rhodia if you want one notebook that behaves: 90 g coated paper, crisp lines and no show-through. Tomoe River if you want to see shading, sheen and shimmer in your ink, and will accept that 52 g/m2 paper ghosts heavily.
Does Tomoe River paper bleed?
SANZEN publishes that the paper resists bleeding through and feathering, and it is famous for doing so at 52 g/m2. What it does do is ghost - you see the writing from the other side of the sheet, because there is not enough paper to hide it.
How can 52 gsm paper resist bleeding better than 70 gsm office paper?
Because sizing, not weight, is what stops ink passing through. Tomoe River is very heavily sized for its weight, and Rhodia is coated, which is sizing taken further. Office paper is lightly sized, so ink enters the fiber and spreads.
What is the difference between bleeding and ghosting?
Bleeding is ink physically reaching the other side of the sheet. Ghosting is seeing the writing through the paper with no ink having traveled. Thin paper ghosts; badly sized paper bleeds. They are different problems with different fixes.
Can you write on both sides of Tomoe River paper?
Physically yes, since it does not bleed. Practically, many people do not, because the ghosting from the reverse makes the page busy. Treat an 80-sheet Tomoe River notebook as 80 usable pages rather than 160.
Is Rhodia the same paper as Clairefontaine?
The Goalbook's listing states its paper is made from Clairefontaine 90 g Ivory Brushed Vellum, so for that notebook the answer is yes. Clairefontaine-branded notebooks are usually cheaper for the same paper in a plainer binding.
Which of these dries faster?
Neither is fast. Both hold ink at the surface, which is exactly why they produce a crisp line and why a wet nib can stay wet for ten seconds or more. If you smudge, more absorbent paper is the better choice.
Sources
- Rhodia Goalbook Journal, A5, Dotted (117742C) (retail listing, read 2026-10-17)
- Sakae Technical Paper, Tomoe River FP Notebook, A5, 5 mm Dotted (SR-A5NB-DW) (retail listing, read 2026-10-17)
- Rhodia A5 Webnotebook, Dot (47391EX) (retail listing, read 2026-10-17)
- Rhodia No. 16 dot pad, A5 (retail listing, read 2026-10-17)