Yamamoto Canopus Paper Review

Us pen addicts are particular about our paper. It’s the engine that makes the pens and inks go, and it’s as important as any singular piece of the writing experience. So why does BIG PAPER keep taking away our favorites?

There’s books to be written about that one day, and I would like to nominate Taizo Yamamoto as the author. Taizo knows more about paper than anyone I know, and possibly more than anyone I don’t know. He is the person behind Yamamoto Paper, and his passion for paper knows no bounds.

His latest creation, Canopus, is designed to be a better version than one of the papers that got away in Cosmo Air Light. When I say creation, I mean that in a literal sense. Taizo creates some of his own paper formulas, and works with manufacturers to have them produced to his exacting specifications. His own Bank Paper was his previous creation, and now a new paper has entered the fray.

Colorverse Blue Crab ink in a Medium Jowo 14k Nib with a Stub Grind.

Canopus is designed to highlight the features of fountain pen inks. Colors are sharp, vibrant, and representative from the nib, and show off all of the different qualities inks have, such as sheen and shading. The feel of the paper is slightly soft and has a small amount of feedback, but is smooth overall.

I used the smooth Kakimori Muddler for the top swatches, and the sometimes scratchier Kakimori Stainless Steel nib for the bottom.

A bit of a light angle change to see the shading, sheen, and shimmer of various inks.

Comparatively, Cosmo Air Light offered brilliant ink representation, but didn’t offer a great nib on the page experience. It had a soft feel, which caused line widths to expand. For example, a stock Fine Jowo Steel nib would leave a line width you would expect from a similar Medium nib. It also didn’t feel great from a tactile perspective. The page was spongy, and the finer the nib, the worse it felt in my experience. So I rarely, if ever, used it for that reason.

Yamamoto wanted a firmer page, and while Canopus is not designed to get all the way there like with Bank Paper or classic Tomoe River, it is clearly firmer than Cosmo Air Light. My most extreme nibs feel solid, with line widths on the page that I expected.

Various fountain pen nibs (left,) and standard pens and pencils.

Canopus is more of a writing page than Cosmo Air Light, but it’s not perfect. There are still some interesting “feels” with standard pens, which I use a lot of. For example, the Schmidt P8127 Rollerball felt grabby on the page, and a little odd. The color looked great, and there was no bleed or feathering at all, but it didn’t glide. Gel ink pens were better, ballpoint pens work on almost any surface, and the fineliner laid down nice lines. On some papers fineliners feel dry, but not here, so it might be a good drawing and sketching paper. Not for pencils though - they felt too glossy on the page.

Great performance overall, with no feathering or bleed. Even the Sharpie was better than on most papers.

Fountain pens were excellent across the board, even my super fine Pilot Posting nib and Sailor Extra Fine. There was no sinking into the page, and both were smooth. I will say, and this goes for any nib/ink combo on Canopus, you can’t double up your lines, or color over the same area a second or third time without the underlying paper beginning to come up. Obviously this is an issue with any water on paper, but I thought this broke down faster on the top of the page than other papers I use frequently (Life, Midori, Maruman, etc.). Interestingly, it rarely bled through the back side in those areas, which is nice.

My kind of shading.

For me, Cosmo Air Light was never a product I wanted to use in a 200 page journal. Inks looked beautiful, but I didn’t enjoy writing on it. Canopus is better in that aspect, and I think I could use it as a journal paper, but still likely prefer it as a 50-80 page A5 note pad. These Bullet Paper Pads, which are what I’m using here, are narrower, but equally as nice. Plus, they are only $5.50 for 50 sheets, which gives you enough pages to test out and see if you want to take it further.

Since Canopus is new to the market, they are coming in and out of stock quickly at various retailers, but expect more after the San Francisco Pen Show, where Yamamoto Paper will be bring these, and more of their fantastic paper products.

(I bought this product from The Gentleman Stationer at regular price.)

Dominant Industry Takasago Ink Swatch Paper 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!.)

As if I needed more ways to swatch my inks, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try the swatch paper from Dominant Industry. The Dominant Industry Takasago Ink Swatch Paper measures 2” x 3.5” or 50 x 90 mm and comes in 3 designs of 40 cards each, packaged in a small cardboard case. Note that the packaging doesn’t say “swatch cards”, that’s just what I’m calling them in this review.

Box of Dominant Industry Takasago Paper ink swatch cards.

This is the Tea Time set - with 3 different designs.

Each one has a teacup image on the upper left, designs of writing tips on the bottom left (fountain pen, dip pen, glass dip pen, marker or pencil - not sure what the fourth one is, to be honest), space for Brand and Ink names, and a bar with 4 segments to color in as you see fit.

Testing notes:

• I used the Stainless Steel Kakimori dip nib in my trusty Kaweco clutch pencil holder to make the swatches and writing samples.
• I used the DI swatch cards and Col-o-Ring cards (my go-to for swatch cards) for comparison.
• I did not rinse the nibs while swatching the same ink on different cards/paper. I definitely rinsed after I was done swatching each color.
• For the bottom right bar, I swatched from left to right to fill the whole space, then dabbed extra ink on the second half of the bar to make it darker.

I started out staying on brand and swatching some Dominant Industry inks.

DI Tanzanite (top) and Pen Chalet exclusive Desert Eclipse. Both are very similar dark purples with a bit of copper sheen, with Tanzanite being a touch darker. DI swatches are similar to Col-o-Ring.

You can see that the DI cards also show some of the copper sheen.

Two more DI x Pen Chalet inks: Arizona Sky Crimson (top) and Arizona Sky Citrus. (bottom) Both DI cards are similar to Col-o-Ring.

The cards are made from Takasago 87.9 gsm paper which happens to be the same weight as #5 in the Yamamoto Fountain Pen Friendly Paper Collection Vol. 7, but I can’t tell if they are exactly the same or not. The paper is very smooth to write/swatch on, and while it’s very thin, there was minimal ghosting and zero bleedthrough.

I wanted to make sure that the DI cards also worked well with other inks, so I swatched a few other brands too.

Lamy Sepia (top) and Colorverse x Lucky Star Pens Stellaris (bottom) - Both matched the Col-o-Ring. Sepia is a “straightforward” red-brown ink with a little bit of shading, while Stellaris has copper/rose gold shimmer, which showed up in both swatches. It also shows the turquoise outlines in the darker parts of the swatch.

I can go on with the various inks that matched the swatches on the Col-o-Ring, but what fun is that? There were other inks where the swatches were similar but a little bit off. Here are some examples:

Dominant Industry Les Nympheas Matin (top) and Duftrausch (bottom) Nympheas is pretty similar on both the Col-o-Ring and the DI card, with the card showing a touch more purple, and the Dufrauch showing more pink on the Col-o-Ring vs a little more grey on the DI card.

This isn’t as easy to see in the pictures, but Anderillium Pompadour Cotinga Burgundy (top) is browner on the DI card than Col-o-Ring (which had some water drops resulting in bright pink spots). On the bottom, Anderillium Roseate Spoonbill Pink is a lighter pink in both the DI writing sample and the swatch. Only when I went over the same part of the bar multiple times, was the pink as dark as the Col-o-Ring writing or swatch.

Then there were some swatches that had me questioning whether I swatched the right ink or wrote down the right name and yes, I double-checked and it was not a mistake.

Anderillium Purple Gallinule Purple (top) is practically blue on the DI swatch card, while being somewhere between blurple and purple on the Col-o-Ring. You can also see some of the purple peeking out on the DI swatch card. The Van Diemena’s Sacagawea is a gorgeous dusty blue/teal/purple chromashader with a bit of shimmer on the Col-o-Ring card but is a mint green with a hint of light pink/grey.

Lest you think this must be a chromashading issue, there were no problems with these two chromashaders that I happened to swatch today either. There were also no problems with other inks from those brands.

Wearingeul Enki (top) on Col-o-ring, Wearingeul Instant Film Color Swatch card and DI card - you can see the subtle purple shading on all 3 of these swatch cards. Ditto for this gorgeous chromashader Mung Shing by Hosia Ink Studio.

I swatched 22 inks on the DI and Col-o-ring cards and really only had 2 inks look drastically different on the DI card, and maybe 4 that were a little different. Needless to say, as with any paper and ink combo, your mileage may vary with some inks swatching the same on the DI cards as other cards/paper. I won’t bore you with additional photos, but I compared my Col-o-Ring swatches to swatches done in my Hobonichi Weeks (52 gsm Tomoe River paper) and Endless Recorder (68 gsm TR) and they were what I expected, so it was really the DI Takasago paper for a few of these inks that was the differentiator.

As I mentioned earlier, this is a thinner paper so I don’t think it would hold up as well to the constant flipping that I subject my Col-o-Ring cards to. I would definitely put them in a binder to protect them.

A pack of 120 sheets of the Dominant Industry Takasago Ink Swatch Paper retails for $13.00, but you can often find it for less. It is a cute way to swatch your inks as long as you are aware that some inks might look different on other papers.

(Disclaimer: The Dominant Industry Takasago Ink Swatch Papers were purchased at a discount from sponsor Pen Chalet. Lamy Sepia and Anderillium inks were from past reviews. All other inks (including the DI inks) and Col-o-Ring are my own.)

Notsu To-Do List Cards and Case Review

“Where are all of the fountain pen friendly note cards?”

As an avid note card/index card user (I use those terms interchangeably,) I’ve always been on the lookout for a card that performs well with all pens, including fountain pens. And yes, at Nock Co., Jeff and I made some of the best there have been. Unfortunately, the paper we used was long ago discontinued, and the search for the next needle in the haystack has stopped - for now.

So where does that leave us? Are Exacompta cards the only choice? They have been a recommendation from me and others for years - and still are - but your choices are limited. I moved into the Foglietto system a couple of years ago, but they are now out of business (selling paper goods is brutal - as me how I know!) Analog cards, by Ugmonk, are beautiful, but only average for fountain pens. Shockingly, the Kraft card is the most ink friendly, which I love.

As you can tell, I have a thing for cards, as does Kimberly, who did all of the reviews linked above.

New note cards are few and far between, but my eyes are always peeled to try something new. New is what I found at the recent Atlanta Pen Show in the form of Notsu, carried by my friend Joe at The Gentleman Stationer. What’s funny is that I didn’t notice them on my first pass at his table, when I was focused on picking up some ink and Traveler’s Notebook inserts. But on second glance I saw them, and saw Joe’s writing samples, and inquired as to their fountain pen friendliness. He assured me they were, and one test line later, I confirmed that was the case.

The design of the Notsu To-Do List Card is purposeful. The front of the 3”x5” card is where you list goes, with 16 lines and boxes for any tasks you need to handle. There is a date line at the top, and room for another header above that, next to the Orange Notsu logo. Flip the card over, and you are met with Notes section on the top, using faint dotted lines, and a Sketch section on the bottom, with a 5 mm dot grid. I often like to segment and separate my cards, so this is a nice framework to work with for someone like me who uses one card for multiple things.

On top of those design elements, Notsu has done something extra for this specific product. Cards made for the accompanying Card Case (and specified refills,) are scored in the middle, allowing you to easily fold the card, or display it as part of the magnetized card case setup. This is a great option for those of you who will use these cards at your desk, or need an extra visual of the tasks at hand.

No feathering, bleed, or ghosting. These cards are thicc!

I took this pic when writing so you can see how much ink these cards handle without issue. You won’t see a lot of ink characteristics (shading, sheen,) but the page is smooth for all types of nibs.

“But Brad, I don’t need all of that nonsense. How about a simple card?” Notsu has you covered there, too, with their Dot Grid Index Cards. I haven’t tested those yet, but they use the same card stock as used in their other sets, so assumedly they are equally as nice. I’ll pick some up soon.

My final word on Notsu: Great quality, fun layout, absolutely usable with fountain pens. What’s not to like for a note card user? Even the price is nice. My review set, the Notsu To-Do List Card Case with 50 Cards, is $11.99. Refill packs of 50 To-Do cards run $8.99, as do the standard corner Dot Grid Card 50-pack (Rounded corners are $11.98 for the same quantity.) I think that is all fairly price for a nice card like this. and I look forward to using them frequently.

(I bought this pack from The Gentleman Stationer at the Atlanta Pen Show at regular price. Joe then gave me a second pack for free to give away tomorrow, so stay tuned!)

---

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!