Liisa at Wonderland222 gave me the opportunity to test the new papers that will be used in the Wonderland222 2026 planners. This paper is a conscientious choice not to use the 52gsm Sanzen Tomoe River paper that caused so many issues last year across the planner and stationery community. What they will be using is a undisclosed, Japanese paper that is both 52gsm and fountain pen friendly.
The paper has a crispy hand feel–the delightful crinkle sound of a thin, almost starchy paper. Its a natural white color, not ivory but not eye-searingly bright either. A perfect balance IMHO. The paper has a slight tooth to it making it a little more tactile than ice smooth papers like Rhodia or Clairefontaine. If you prefer a super smooth sheet, this paper may not be for you. When compared to Tomoe River in terms of hand feel, the paper feels a little thicker even though they are both 52gsm.
I tested the paper with an array of fountain pen inks, fountain pens and a variety of other pens I use on a daily basis to annotate and jazz up my daily planner.
All the standard non-fountain pens worked as expected and there was no lag in dry times. None of my fountain pens showed any change in line width from what I expected. Colors all appeared consistent to other papers I’ve used. Shade, sheen and shimmer were all visible on the paper.
I tested my favorite subtle sheener, Sailor Irori and the gold sheen did show up. I also tested swatches of shimmer inks, Ku-Jaku (another sheening ink) and a few shading and multichromatic inks as well just to get a variety. In fountain pens, I tested a variety of nib widths and color intensities from subtle to bright and even a shimmer ink in a 1.1mm stub nib and all showed expected qualities with no increase in expected line widths or any feathering.
From the back side of the sheet, there is a little bleed through with the large, wet swatches. The pen and marker tests showed little showthrough and little-to-no bleedthrough (the exception was my beloved Pentel Sign Bush Pen in Olive) but it was minimal.
Compared to Tomoe River Sanzen & Tomoegawa
I wanted to specifically add comparisons to the ink swatches where it is most easy to see color shifts, sheening and potential for bleed or show through. When compared with the sample note pads of Tomoegawa and Sanzen Tomoe River general writing was similar and while showthrough to the back is slightly more noticeable with the Wonderland222. When photographed, the Wonderland222 paper looks slightly more cream/ivory but in person, the color difference is negligible.
The Diamine Olive Twist appears a little lighter and slightly more yellowy on the Wonderland222 paper. The sheen, while visible on Wonderland222 is not nearly as noticable on the TR papers and again the sheen is more intense on the Sanzen (in the middle above) than the Tomoegawa. The multichromatic Sailor Haha looks like a different ink on all three papers: more blue on the Wonderland222, more noticable shading in dark teal and purple on the Sanzen and more aqua and pink on the Tomoegawa (far right).
The swatches of Van Dieman’s Parrot Fish (a shimmer with shading) looks similar on all three papers but the waffling of the TR papers made the shimmer particles catch the light when photographed making the ink look lighter than it is in person. The darker pooling around the edges of the TR papers make the ink look different but the overall color and shimmer is similar on all three.
Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku shows way more sheen on the TR paper and the most sheen on the Sanzen TR (center swatch).
The Colorverse Morning Star showed no sheen on the Wonderland222 paper but sheen is clearly visible on both TR papers.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I think the new Wonderland222 paper is a reasonable substitute. I would say its about 80-90% a good alternative to the Tomoe River of our memories. At this point in time, fountain pen users are such a small subset of an already small subset of people who still use paper planners and journal that we are lucky to have any paper options that meet our needs. We really are spoiled for choice at this time, even if papers have changed or been discontinued over the past few years. And the fact that manufacturers are still trying to capture that lightning-in-a-bottle that is thin, lightweight, opaque AND fountain pen friendly papers for writing is amazing. I believe we should continue to support the efforts of manufacturers and makers who are trying to find new papers and new ways to use them.
The question for you, in the coming year, is are you willing to take another chance on a planner that uses Tomoe River or are you ready to try something new?
(Finally, if I would have to guess what this paper was, I’d guess it was View Corona 52gsm (bright white) but I did not have any samples of that paper here to test. I will order some and see if I’m right.)
DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge by Wonderland222 for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.