Musubi Cosmo Air Light Folio Notebook (A5): A Review

The Musubi Cosmo Air Light Folio Notebook is a beautiful minimalist notebook with 208 pages of Cosmo Air Light paper. Simple white cotton adorns the cardstock covers of the notebook. The cotton has a lovely texture to it, and the only branding is the barely-visible Musubi logo embossed on the bottom right corner.

The end pages are made of a thicker, water-color-like paper. There's no printing, branding, or decoration whatsoever. The outside corners of the notebook are rounded.

Inside, the pages are Smyth-sewn, so they lie completely flat when the book is open. Cosmo Air Light is 83gsm, so it is thicker than Tomoe River Paper, but lighter than Bank Paper. My notebook is the lined version. The lines are printed in a light sage ink and are spaced 7mm apart. In addition, there are small marks at the top and bottom of each page which divide the page up into halves, thirds, and fourths.

I first discovered Cosmo Air Light paper when I did a review of the Yamamoto Fountain Pen Friendly Paper Collection (part 1 and part 2). It was one of my favorites in the collection.

The paper is smooth and lacks any texture. Its smoothness derives from a coating that is put on the paper (originally for book printing). The coating enhances any ink's sheen or shading properties. The thickness of the paper means that there's very little ghosting and no bleed through, which makes Cosmo Air Light more user friendly, in my opinion, than the popular Tomoe River Paper.

I tested the paper with eleven fountain pens with varying nib sizes and different inks. The paper handled all the inks with ease--no feathering, no bleeding, and only slight ghosting (so little it doesn't show up in photos). Several inks shaded well, and sheen was evident in Iroshizuku Take-Sumi, Robert Oster Tranquility, and Iroshizuku Yama-Budo. The only negative was a lengthy dry time for the wetter inks.

Swabs on this paper look fantastic. The ink colors are vibrant and true, and shading and sheen are pronounced. On the reverse side there's no bleed through and only mild ghosting.

I tested the paper with a dip calligraphy pen inked with Taccia Sabimidori (reviewed here). I discovered that Cosmo Air Light is not the best paper for calligraphy. Because of the coating, the ink does not settle into the paper well, resulting in thick lines and uneven lettering. Compared with Ayush Paper (reviewed here), Ayush wins hands down for calligraphy--the paper absorbs the ink more quickly, allowing for good results with flex. Although the ink doesn't sheen as much as Cosmo Air Light, I think the trade-off is worth it if you're doing calligraphy.

I did longer writing samples with three pens: a Santini stub (reviewed here), inked with Robert Oster Tranquility; a Lamy 2000 fine, inked with Iroshizuku Take-sumi; and a Leonardo stub (reviewed here), inked with Monteverde Mulberry Noir. Cosmo Air Light really shines as a journaling paper because it handles different pens and inks so well. There's a pleasant sensation as you write on this smooth paper. Once again, I noted no feathering or bleed-through and only slight ghosting.

Cosmo Air Light remains one of my favorite papers. It outshines Tomoe River Paper in many ways: it is thicker and therefore does not suffer from ghosting; it has a smooth surface and is pleasant to write on, much like Tomoe; and it enhances sheen and shading even better than Tomoe (although that can mean longer dry times). I realize that one of the things people (me included) love about Tomoe River Paper is how thin and light it is. That's a great quality for planners, because it keeps them thinner overall. But for journaling, I think Cosmo Air Light is a better choice because you can write front and back without your writing showing through.

The Musubi Cosmo Air Light Folio Notebook retails for approximately $25.00 (35 Singapore dollars). You can get it with plain pages, lined pages, or cross grid with page numbers. It doesn't have many bells and whistles--no ribbon bookmark or pockets or elastic closure, but I love its minimalist design. I've never seen a notebook with so little branding. It's elegant, beautiful, and functional. And, sometime in 2021, Musubi is planning to release covers for their Folio Notebooks in the beautiful materials they use for their handmade notebooks. I can hardly wait!

(Musubi provided the Cosmo Air Light Folio Notebook to Pen Addict free of charge for review purposes.)

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Maruman Glyphy B6 Notebook Review

The Maruman Glyphy notebook line is a new offering that hasn't quite hit US shelves yet, but you should see it arriving soon. Like all new notebook options, everyone's first question is usually something along the lines of "what kind of paper does it have, and does it work well with all types of pens and pencils?" Maruman might be most known in the US for producing the luxurious Mnemosyne notebooks — which are incredibly well-made and perform quite admirably. Does the new Glyphy match up to the high bar that Maruman have set?

The Glyphy comes in two sizes, but I have the B6 size (175x144mm) with 60 gsm art (blank) paper (the other size options is A6). There are 88 pages in the glue-bound, hard-cover notebook, and they are fairly thin. There's a prominent texture on the page that reminds me how fancy cotton resume paper looks, except this paper is incredibly thin and doesn't behave like thick absorbent paper. Unfortunately, this paper suffers from a pretty significant amount of feathering and show-through. It's certainly not unusable due to this, but you do have to be careful about which pens/inks you use with the notebook. As you can see in the writing samples, similar pen/ink combos work better than others. I attribute this to the ink characteristics more than anything, but I'd certainly test a pen with this notebook before writing for any significant amount of time. With many pen/ink combos, the back of the page is unusable (for me, anyway).

Does that mean you should avoid this notebook? I don't think so. It works great for gel and ballpoint pens, and I've really enjoyed using it with pencils. The paper texture reminds me of sketchbooks, and I think that's really how it's going to be marketed when it hits the shelves in the North American region. It takes graphite marks really well and provides a satisfying amount of feedback due to the paper texture. This is mostly due to the paper being uncoated (and also why it suffers from feathering).

The cover of the notebook is nicely done. It's a fabric cover that has a nice tactile feel, a solid binding, and opens and closes easily. The only branding is on the top right corner of the notebook — a bold white "Glyphy" to announce the name, but it's also quite helpful in determining which way is right-side up before opening it. I love it when manufacturers decide to take a minimal route when it comes to branding their products. They Maruman Glyphy does an excellent job at producing a strong aesthetic appeal without needless and excessive graphic art additions.

The B6 size isn't one that I use very often. Every time I do, I feel foolish for not using it more often. It really is a perfect size for a lot of what I do. It fits into places easier than an A5, but you really aren't sacrificing much in the way of paper real estate. If it were just 30mm shorter, it would be square. It's a fantastic size, and the hard cover will protect the pages from a lot of abuse.

Once the Maruman Glyphy notebooks are widely available, I encourage you to try them out. I'm really interested to try out the other paper type options to see if they handle fountain pens inks differently than this particular variant. According to the Maruman product catalog, the other versions have either 90 gsm or 126 gsm paper, with blank or grid formatting, so it should be interesting to compare all of the options.

(Maruman provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Ayush Paper in A5 and A4 Sizes: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

The past few years have been interesting for fountain pen users who demand a great deal from their paper. The variety and availability of fountain-pen-friendly paper seems to have exploded exponentially. Yet, at the same time, many were dismayed by the fact that Tomoe River Paper (a favorite) was changed. And recently there have been rumors that some or all Tomoe River Paper will be discontinued (see the discussion here, for example).

Consequently, it's reassuring to come across new brands that offer fountain-pen-friendly paper with unique characteristics. One such brand is Ayush Paper from India. Founded in 2012, but only recently made available outside India, Ayush Paper sells various kinds of paper and art products. Today, I'm reviewing two fountain-pen-friendly notebooks in A5 and A4 sizes.

Both notebooks are wire bound at the top which allows you to fold the pages over completely. The pages are perforated at the top so you can tear them out neatly. The A5 notebook has rounded corners but the A4 corners are left square.

The notebooks' card stock covers provide support if you don't have a writing surface. The front cover is adorned with a simple square or scrolled lines and the Ayush Paper logo. The white brush strokes (?) on the letters look like pieces of stray paper to me, and I swipe my hand across the covers trying to remove them every single time. Maybe that's just OCD me, but I find them distracting. Nevertheless, their motto, "Your fountain pen will love this paper" is absolutely true--spoiler alert!

On the back cover, the company offers reasons why you will love the notebook. I'll discuss whether or not I agree with all of the claims in my review.

The notebooks each contain 50 pages (100 front and back) of 100 gsm natural-colored paper. I could not find any information on the website discussing the paper's composition, so it's unclear whether it's made from wood pulp, cotton, hemp, or some other material. Regardless, the paper feels substantive between the fingers. In addition, it has the perfect amount of texture which gives you gentle feedback when you write. Writing on this paper is pure pleasure.

I started with the A5 notebook which has grey lines 9mm apart. I normally prefer narrower lines, but I found myself enjoying the 9mm spacing, especially with broader nibs.

The first pen I used is my brand new Santini Italia Libra with a flexy stub nib (review coming soon) inked with Robert Oster Tranquility. I started writing, and the nib and ink created an alchemy with the paper that is hard to explain. Writing is smooth, but the texture helps you sense where the nib is. I felt completely in control of each stroke. The ink displayed both shading and sheen. Although there's a little bit of show through (compared to Tomoe, it's virtually invisible), there was no feathering or bleed through. I was thoroughly impressed.

I also tested the paper with a variety of fountain pens and inks. It handled every single one beautifully. The ink colors are vibrant. Both wide nibs and fine nibs write smoothly. That texture works well with all the nibs I tested. Once again, I experienced no feathering and no bleed through. Show through was minimal.

Next I conducted a swab test with eight different inks, using mostly vibrant colors. Shading, sheen, and shimmer were all visible in the swabs, and none of the inks bled through.

I wrote a page using my Aurora 88 Anniversario Flex with Waterman Serenity Blue ink. Once again, the combination of the nib, ink, and paper texture made the experience pleasurable. There's just something about this paper that gives me more control over the nib. The show through was so minimal that I decided not to include a photo.

Next I worked with the A4 notebook, which has blank pages. I began with a calligraphy dip pen because calligraphy nibs tend to have sharp, delicate points. I wanted to see if the paper would catch on the nib. Nope. Not at all. In fact, I think I've discovered my favorite calligraphy paper. Once again, nib, ink, and paper worked flawlessly together. Granted, I'm a pretty terrible calligrapher, but this paper handled the wet ink and delicate nib perfectly. As before, there was no feathering or bleed through and just a shadow of show through even with ultra-saturated, wet Montblanc Corn Poppy ink.

I experimented with two inks using my ultra wide ruling pen. First, I used Troublemaker Milky Ocean. The paper took the wet, wide nib with grace, resulting in beautiful shading and pooling. Because the ink was wet, the paper buckled slightly, but there was no bleed through. Show through was a bit more obvious.

Last, I used my ruling pen and Lamy Dark Lilac. This ink is like liquid velvet. It came out vibrant and beautiful, with tons of sheen. However, the ink feathered and bled through the paper. Even so, none of the bleed through affected the paper beneath.

So, do I love Ayush Notebooks? You bet I do. I am completely thrilled with the paper. I agree with the reasons Ayush lists on the back of the notebooks. The natural shade of the paper is easy on the eyes but allows the vibrance and colors of the inks to display accurately. I did not experience any feathering or bleeding (except with Lamy Dark Lilac). The paper worked well with my Santini flexy stub and with my calligraphy dip pen (also a flex nib). Although some of the wetter inks in wide nibs took time to dry, overall the drying time was negligible--there's not one smear in any of my tests. Show through was indeed minimal and I could easily use both sides of the paper (with the exception of the page with Lamy Dark Lilac).

The A4 notebook costs ₹300.00 (=$4.13) and the A5 costs ₹180.00 (=$2.48). That's a steal, for sure! Be aware, however, that shipping is expensive. I put one A4 and one A5 notebook in my cart, and shipping to Texas via FedEx was ₹1870.00 (=$25.72). Still, when you consider that one Tomoe River Paper notebook can cost you between $20 and $25 without shipping, you're still getting a great deal.

I hope Ayush Paper keeps selling notebooks forever, because I am a huge fan. I did not expect to be won over by these notebooks at all. In fact, I was much more excited about the Cosmo Air Light notebook that Brad sent me (review coming soon). But I will definitely buy Ayush Notebooks in the future, especially for calligraphy.

(Ayush Paper sent these notebooks free of charge to Pen Addict for review.)

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!