Clairefontaine Exacompta Index Cards Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)

I have lately found myself in the position of having to find a new favorite notecard, for REASONS, but I'm happy to say that I think I have done so. I picked up this pack of Clairefontaine Exacompta Notecards with blue grid when I attended Anderson Pens' grand reopening a few months ago, and they've been a permanent part of my day ever since.

Being Clairefontaine, it goes without saying that they are very fountain pen friendly. I have had no bleeding or feathering with any types of ink or nibs, and they do just as well with a variety of pens and pencils. The one paper issue I did notice is that the surface definitely absorbs hand oils, making it more difficult to write across areas that have been handled. That's trickier with a card than with a notebook, as these loose sheets have to be held--there's no cover to grip, and using a hand guide isn't practical on such a small rectangle. The whole purpose of cards is handheld notes. Still, while there was a small effect on the ink's interaction with the paper, it wasn't a deal-breaker.

The cardstock is pure white, so all writing appears very crisp, and the blue grid is faint enough that it doesn't get in the way, but bold enough to provide structure. Blank and lined cards are also available, as are pre-hole-punched versions for use on rings or rolodexes. You can also get different ink colors or multi-colored cards. The cards are obviously printed before they're cut, as the grid pattern is not identical across cards. Some have a full square at the edge, some a partial. I'm trying not to let it bother me. Trying.

Despite this small nitpick, the cards are endlessly useful. I've used them for plotting stories, for making notes for a speech and presentation, For to-do lists or shopping lists, as bookmarks, or for leaving love notes. They're ideal for when you need something that's just a step above scratch paper, but can be tossed when you're done with it.

The standard white grid cards are only $7 for a pack of 100, which is amazingly good value. At that price, I don't feel shy about burning through a pack in a few months. These will continue to feature in my daily use, hopefully for a very long time.

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Foglietto Memo Cards and Archive Box Review

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

I saw these cool Foglietto Memo Cards on Brad’s Twitch stream a while back and bugged the Bossman to send these to me for review. Even though I’m not a big index card user, I’ve embarked on a mission, albeit a very slow one, to find fountain pen-friendly index cards since our beloved Nock Co. index cards aren’t available anymore (sniff sniff).

Despite its Italian name (Foglietto means leaflet in Italian), Foglietto is actually a French stationery company that started in 2019 and their products are now sold in many European countries as well as North America. Up for review today is a pack of the Foglietto A7 Memo Cards and the Archive Box in Terracotta.

Each pack of A7 note cards contains 120 cards (this pack has 40 each in yellow, pink, and blue). They also come in a variety of styles like dot grid, grid, to do, blank, mixed, etc. The pack I have is the Organizzazione (which means Organization in Italian). The tops of each of the cards says “Titolo” (Title) and each color has a different layout. The yellow card is a to-do list, pink is plain with metric measurements on the side/bottom and blue is dot grid.

The cards are 260 gsm so they have a nice heft to them; slightly thicker than the typical index card, thinner than a playing card. There is a slight texture to them which I noticed with my finer nibs (like the Sailor 21k Fine). Overall, the cards held up moderately well to fountain pens, though the notoriously wet Diamine Writers Blood feathered quite a bit. Shimmer and shading were pretty much unaffected but the sheen of Diamine Jack Frost was diminished on all the cards (and Rhodia too). I was surprised to see a little of the chromashading properties from Sailor Manyo Fuji, especially on the yellow card. There was also zero ghosting or bleedthrough, not even from a Sharpie.

It really did not like the wet Diamine Writers Blood, but look at the purple and blue shading of the Sailor Manyo Fuji!

Standard pens and markers did fine on the cards. Even the pencil was readable.

The pink held up to the Diamine Writers Blood better than the yellow.

My least favorite color card to write on was the blue because the colors are much flatter and my 2H pencil was almost impossible to read on it. While FP inks did pretty well, none of them had problems with other writing implements either. And while FPs are my preferred instrument of choice, I was surprised to find that I enjoyed using the Lamy Tipo and Retro 51 rollerballs the most on these cards.

I didn’t love the inks on the blue cards.

And the pencil is almost unreadable.

Color comparison against Rhodia 80 gsm DotPad.

The Archive Box is made from cardboard, measures 118mm x 80mm x 200mm (~4.75”x 3.5” x 8.5”) and stores about 4 packs of A7 note cards. It comes in other colors including grey and green and costs 10GBP (~$12 USD).

Different sides of the Archive Box.

It is a lightweight box; you can see where it was dinged from mild usage.

Pros:

• Fairly FP-friendly
• No ghosting or bleedthrough
• Good variety of card options
• Box is fairly sturdy for being lightweight

Cons:

• Finer nibs (especially anything finer than Japanese Medium) may catch on the cards
• Wetter inks will likely bleed
• Blue cards made ink colors look duller and pencil was harder to read
• Price is a bit steep for 120 cards (18GBP or ~$22USD). For context, a pack of 80 larger Hamelin cards costs ~$7 and a 100 pack of 5x3” index cards from Exacompta costs ~$4.

Neutral:

• Card sets seem to be sold in multi-colored packs. This may be good if you like a mix of colors or an annoyance if you only like or want certain colors.

Overall, these cards work well, and while they are pricey, they have a neat aesthetic to them, especially when paired with the Archive Box.

(Disclaimer: The Foglietto cards and archive box were purchased from Nero’s Notes at regular price for review. All other products used are my own.)

Hamelin Flash 2.0 Index Cards Review

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

Back in August of last year, I won a pack of flash cards in an Instagram giveaway from Hamelin, a French paper company. I was familiar with Hamelin as I have been a fan of their OPTIK PAPER TM in both their Black n Red notebooks for letter-writing (I only wish it came in dot grid and not only lined), as well as Oxford Paper (the one with the 2 lions in their logo), but I don’t really use index cards very much so I wasn’t aware that they even had them.

My prize was a pack of Flash 2.0 Index Cards - 80 - 4 x 6”/10 x 15 cm, lined and in Fuchsia. They are available in 12 colors and 2 sizes (the other size being 3 x 5”/7.5 x 12.5 cm). You can find them on Amazon and Walmart for $8-10/pack depending on size and color. They are also available from Hamelin’s online store, where they also have a buy 3 get 1 free bundle for $21. Other than that, I didn’t know of any of the usual fountain pen/stationery stores that carry them.

There is no information on the pack or on their website about the paper, other than it is “heavyweight card stock”. Going purely by feel, the Hamelin felt a wee bit thicker than the Exacompta index cards that I reviewed a few months ago and busting out the scale proves it: the Hamelin weighs in at 0.13 ounces/3.78 grams, while the Exacompta 4x6 card weighs in at 0.11/3.12 grams. But yeah, this is barely anything worth noting, unless you’re carrying hundreds of them, in which case that may add up. They feel like what an index card should feel like, not too smooth, scratchy, nor too thick or thin.

The index cards have a nice colored border around all edges and on both sides. The colored edges make it easy to sort based on topics etc, while still having a white background to write/draw on. One side is lined and the other is blank. On the corners of the cards are little markers which their Scribzee app (available on the App Store and Google Play) uses to align and capture index cards. (As an aside, the asterisk in the Flash 2.0 name refers to “Super Powers Included”, which I think is a silly marketing way of saying that you get both the analog and digital flashcards experience.) The corners are also rounded which I think is a nice touch. The lined side has the colored border (less than 1/8 “ / 3 mm), then 9/16”/15 mm gap, followed by lines that have ¼”/7mm spacing.

The index cards are lined on one side and blank on the other, with its signature.

I picked out some of the wetter and broader inks/pens from my currently inked pens as well as some flex pens too. For the most part, the cards performed really well with a variety of pens and inks. The one major exception was from the Waterman 52, which is a vintage flex pen and lays down a lot of ink. There was some bleed through to the other side, but otherwise there was zero ghosting or bleedthrough from any of the other pens.

Overall, fountain pens of varying nib sizes and ink wetness worked great.

Shimmer is unaffected by the card.

A little bit of feathering on the broadest of nibs.

You can see some feathering from the Waterman, but considering how the ink was pooling up, I’m not surprised.

No ghosting and no bleedthrough on either of the cards except for a wee bit from the Waterman flex. If the ink was wetter, it probably would’ve been more visible.

I used the same non-FPs as I did last time and as expected, they worked just fine with all of them.

I wasn’t sure how the Scribzee app worked, so I used a variety of handwriting styles to get varying amounts of ink to lay down and also to see if I could trip up any handwriting recognition. Spoiler alert, there is none in the app - it just takes pictures of your index card and gives you options to sort them in folders. I didn’t spend a lot of time with the app but it felt a little kludgey to use, but I also don’t use index card apps either, so maybe it’s just me and not the app.

Like with the Exacompta index cards, the Hameline Flash 2.0 cards doesn’t necessarily show off the ink colors as well as typical fountain-pen friendly paper like Tomoe River. If you’re hoping to see chromashader/multishading properties or sheen, you’re not really going to see much. Shimmer inks do work just fine though. Except for some of the inks in the flex pens, most of the inks didn’t really shade much.

Pros:

• Somewhat easier to find in the US at a decent price than Exacompta cards
• Comes in two sizes
• Blank and lined on the same card
• Colored edges are fun and make sorting easy (and yes, white is available too)
• Generally works well with fountain pens and other writing implements

Neutral

• Scribzee app is available to digitize your index cards but many flash card apps already exist.

Cons:

• Some feathering with wetter nibs, broader nibs and wetter inks.
• Fun ink properties not really visible
• No grid/graph option
• Price - Yes, I said it’s a decent price above, but if you’re using them for study, $8-10 for 80 cards is still a lot to spend, especially since you’re likely to be using hundreds of them.

Overall, I think these were really good as long as I don’t go crazy with flex or really broad nibs. I probably won’t use them as index cards, but I think they’d make a great note card or recipe card.

(Disclaimer: I did not purchase these index cards. I won them in a giveaway and I was not asked to review them in exchange for winning them. I was not compensated by anyone or any company for inclusion of any of these products or links in this article.)