Ecoqua Dot Notebook 5.8X8.25 Navy
First of all, I want to thank Jose Noyola for his gift of this Fabriano notebook. We were talking on Twitter and he mentioned these notebooks. I had heard of them but never tried the paper. Next thing I knew, there was a package delivered along with some Disney treats and something else I am saving for another post. 🙂 Thank you Jose!
I love notebooks and trying new paper about as much as I like trying new fountain pens. The fact that Jose mentioned the Fabriano notebook had dotted paper intrigued me.
The other thing he mentioned was how affordable these notebooks are. There are 90 pages of 85 g/ square meter. The thing about this paper is that it is not coated like Rhodia paper. It is going to have a little more tooth to it. This makes the paper act differently. Most A lot of fountain pen users like coated paper because it is smooth and because the coating provides a barrier that resists ink. This has both an advantage and disadvantage. The main advantage is that ink will not bleed through the page. The disadvantage is long ink dry times. It is hard to find paper that is not coated yet can stand up to the rigors of fountain pen ink.
Enter Fabriano paper. This is a paper that takes a middle ground that works with some ink pen combos and some will make it fail.
The written portion of this review was written with a Sensa Meridian fountain pen. The nib is fine but I have ground the nib a bit finer. The ink is Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku. I see no bleed with just a slight echo on the back side of the page. Some pen ink combos bleed quite a bit.
The cover is thicker paper with a cardboard backing. The pages are bound together by glue and tear out easily. The pages are glued together on the left side. On the inside back cover you find all the paper information.
Overall, this is good everyday paper that is fountain pen friendly with the right nib/ink combo. The low price, around $5 per notebook, makes it good for notes, quick lists and general use. The A5 size is good for carrying in a bag. The paper absorbs ink, so it dries fast, this is especially good for lefties.
Once again, thank you’s go out to Jose Noyola for cluing me in to this notebook! Thank you for reading.
Inktronics 
Love all your pen samples 🙂 I have to try this out myself. I agree – it’s hard to find fountain pen friendly paper that isn’t coated. However, I’m a sucker for dots. I’d go for anything with dots.
Thank you Azizah. I have to admit it is not totally my idea. I received a letter from Bogon07 (FPGeeks forum) with something similar and thought I needed to incorporate it somehow. Dots are your friends.
I wrote a review of this notebook awhile back (http://bit.ly/12zgqPG) and had a very similar reaction. Its kind of good… I like it as a decent scratch pad but the construction, glue-only binding and paper covers do not make this a particularly durable book.
Maybe I am not rough on notebooks but it has been a part of my EDC since I received it. It is doing fine. I do tear off the page as I use it though. It does not stand up to leafing through the pages very well. I tried to scan that back page with all the notebook info and decided not to when I felt like I would break the whole block of paper from the backing.
I bought a few of these notebooks online after seeing a similar Fabriano EcoQua notebook at my local art store. The price difference should have been a clue that these are different products but even factoring in that I would not buy these ever again. The glue binding isn’t reliable and after opening and writing on the pages (for the first time) they came off the glue binding. Not through wear and tear, but just from trying to turn the page to write on the next one! So here I am, freshly opened notebook and will be resorting to stapling all my pages back in place 😦
I am sorry to hear that.
Another great informative review. And now another notebook to look out for. The font Fabriano used on the front cover is very stylish.
I too like the dots and there is something just not quite right about the coated Rhodia dot pad.
The Ku-jaku looks nice too.
Thank you Ken. I’ll make sure a few sheets get to you in my next letter. 🙂
Where can we look to buy these?
An FPGeeks forum member pointed out that they can be found at Utrecht: http://www.utrechtart.com/Notebooks–Journals–Notepads-Paper,Fabriano.utrecht