Despite having access to about as wide a range of stationery products as humanly possible, there are still certain things I’ve been looking for over the years that remain elusive. Chief among these is a reliably fountain-pen-friendly blue writing paper. Smythson of Bond Street seems to be the gold standard for many, and their notebooks are indeed gorgeous, but I’ve had trouble locating reviews of their paper from the perspective of a fountain pen user, and in any event the price point makes the paper hard to justify for everyday writing outside of formal correspondence.

G. Lalo Paper comes in 50-sheet tablets. As shown from the picture at the top of the page, shading won’t look the same, but the blue doesn’t distort the ink color as much as I expected. In fact, it gives it a nice vintage look. G. Lalo paper has a laid texture (meaning that it’s not smooth), so if you prefer super-smooth paper you should be aware of this.

Since the past few years saw a steep drop off in my work travel, depriving me of regular opportunities to loot hotel rooms of “low cost” light blue stationery, I’ve been on the lookout for a replacement and have found two options that I enjoy. The first, G. Lalo Vergé de France writing paper, is typically recommended for written correspondence, but I’ve also enjoyed using it as a standard writing tablet, similar to the Midori MD Cotton Paper. While a touch darker than what I originally expected, I’ve been enjoying this as a solid general purpose writing paper, especially since the price point ($14 for a 50-sheet A5 tablet) is fairly reasonable for paper of this quality and the paper is easy to get a hold of, especially now that we stock G. Lalo Paper in our own shop.

The Midori Soft Color A5 Notebooks come in four shades (grey + three pastels) that aren’t so loud they overwhelm your writing. Some people match the notebook to their ink color, but I prefer a bit of contrast.

I discovered the second blue paper option when I was in New York City last week and found myself browsing the back wall at Kinokuniya bookstore off Bryant Park. (For those of you who haven’t visited Kinokuniya, it’s the NYC outpost of the Japanese bookstore that has a massive stationery section in the basement, and the back wall contains nothing but notebooks.) I noticed that they had a couple piles of Midori A5 “Soft Color” notebooks in blue, grey, green, and yellow, priced at $4 each. Seeing that they contained dot grid paper, I figured that was a no-brainer purchase at that price and grabbed one in blue and one in grey. I spent ten minutes jotting in these notebooks in a coffee shop, realized the paper lost none of the excellent qualities of the standard Midori MD Paper, and promptly contacted my distributor to stock all four colors for the shop.

Midori Soft Color Notebook in blue, with dot grid paper. Testing inks are three of my favorite colors from the Laban Greek Mythology series.

Midori Soft Color Grey — Midori Soft Color Notebook in Grey (shown with the blue notebook for contrast). These notebooks are standard A5 so they fit covers like the Lochby Field Journal.

Many people have requested recommendations for colored paper options in the past, but it’s a tricky thing to get right. Often, companies will apply a coating to give the paper its color, which works fine as long as you’re not trying to write with a fountain pen, rollerball, or other liquid ink, since most coated paper isn’t particularly absorbent and the ink tends to never dry. That’s not an issue with either of the two papers shown here. Both G. Lalo and Midori Soft Color dry fairly quickly, and behave essentially like standard white or ivory writing papers. There is a third option - Original Crown Mill - that makes a light blue laid paper I want to try, and yes, I probably will eventually splurge on some Smythson. (“For science.”)