PSA: I dropped $28 on a pack of 5 fineliners and they ghosted through every single page | Bullet Journaling - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
PSA: I dropped $28 on a pack of 5 fineliners and they ghosted through every single page
I grabbed a 5 pack of a popular pen brand at a shop in Austin for $28 thinking it would fix my smearing problem, and it made things worse. The ink bleeds through my 120gsm notebook so bad that I can only write on the right side of each page now. My old $9 pack from the grocery store actually held up better, which stings a little. Has anyone found a pen under $15 that stays put on thinner paper, or am I stuck buying thick notebooks forever?
Paper weight gets all the blame but nobody talks about the finish on the paper. A 120gsm sheet with a slick coating will let ink sit on top and smear, while a cheap 90gsm sheet with more tooth soaks it in and dries fast. So you might not need thicker paper at all, you might need rougher paper. Before you drop cash on a new pen, grab a cheap dollar store notebook and test your $28 pens in it, you may be surprised. Half the battle is matching the pen to the surface, not just the thickness.