I got so excited when I saw the Artik line of pocket notebooks ($16 for a pack of 3 notebooks). For starters, each notebook in their line-up features a cover made from recycled plant by-product material like coconut, hazelnut, olive and cherry. The interior paper in all the notebooks is 100% sugarcane paper that is a warm, kraft color made with no chlorine. Their tagline is “Writing a Better Future” and with being recyclable, compostable, acid-free, chlorine-free and printed with soy ink, I have to agree they are doing their best to live up to the tagline.
All the notebook covers are heavy cardstock and feature either 90gsm sugarcane lined or dot grid paper inside. I got a lined version and the lines a just a few shades darker than the paper which is perfect — there if you need them but easy to ignore if you don’t.
Each notebook in the 3-pack set is “Singer” stitchbound for durability.
Each notebook features a whopping 80 pages which is 32 more pages than a regular Field Notes/
I tested a wide variety of pens since I often use a pocket notebook on the go and while fountain pen friendliness is a bonus, I often use extra fine gel and felt tip pens in pocket notebooks so I can fit a lot of writing into them.
I had no issue with showthrough or bleedthrough with any of the pens, markers or fountain pens I tried. This is a notebook that I could really use both sides of the paper without feeling like I was compromising. There really is NO showthrough at all!
Some lighter color markers and pens might not be contrasty enough on the kraft colored, slight speckly paper but most of the pens, markers and fountain pens I tried performed well.
In more detailed fountain pen tests, I was able to get shimmer ink to show on the page but didn’t see a lot of evidence of sheen even with the sparkly sheen monster Lucky Cosmos.
I did notice a slight spread in my fountain pen ink. My EFs looked like Fs and my Fs looked like MFs. It wasn’t terrible but is probably the only downside I have about these books.
I love the designs on the covers of Field Notes but I know I cannot ever use them with fountain pens. The Artik notebooks, on the other hand, stood up to fountain pen ink with only a tiny bit of spread but still did not bleed or show through to the opposite page. So, from that aspect, I have to give these books high praise. The higher page count and epically environmental manufacturing is also worthy of high praise.
The price point is competitive with Field Notes as well so if you are looking for the same pocketability but just a little more, I can’t recommend the Artik highly enough. Of course, if you don’t like kraft colored paper then these won’t be for you. I guess that just means more for me!
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