The 160gsm Journal Comparison – Introduction

 UPDATE – This post has been updated (May 2025) to reflect discontinued brands and name changes.

The journaling community has lost its ever-loving mind over notebooks with 160 gsm paper!

First, it was 100 gsm paper, then 120 gsm paper… and now everyone is going nuts over 160 gsm paper. Only a couple of well-known brands carry a notebook or journal with dotted 160 gsm paper, and those companies have gotten a LOT of coverage in the blogosphere.

Archer & Olive and Scribbles That Matter are the two notebooks getting all the attention these days. Mostly A&O, right?!

We’ve seen a dramatic increase in the evangelism of these new thick-paper journals – followers are very vocal in their loyalty. Message boards and Facebook groups are filled with recommendations for Archer & Olive – even going to so far as to recommend that brand new baby journalers should dive headfirst into the most expensive journal on the market today as their very first purchase.

But you know me… I’m just a nerdy skeptic at heart. If too many people are all talking about the same brand of notebook, I tend to get very suspicious. Well, technically I first get annoyed, then I move into seriously pissed off… but then it usually settles down into suspicion. I’m a pretty even-tempered person, but when I reach the end of my patience and I get fed up with the obsessive evangelizing, it usually results in a massive research project to uncover the truth.

Can you guess which stage of rage in at right now?

One day, I stumbled across a Facebook group question from an uber newbie (literally, it was the first journal purchase of her entire life). That question had close to 40 replies by the time I came across it, and more than 80% of the replies were telling the original poster to buy an Archer & Olive notebook (along with their affiliate discount code). Your very first purchase of a journal to see if you even like journaling should NOT be a journal that costs $35!!! What are people even thinking?

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I was finally ready to find out if Archer & Olive was everything the interwebs were saying it was … or if there were some other notebook brands that could knock it out of the ivory tower it was in.

Anger + Shopping = “Shopping Rage”  – similar to Road Rage, but without cars, and involves credit cards, retail outlets, and excessive nerdy research.

Within 20 minutes, I had spent close to $150 on journals (many 120 gsm journals jumped into my shopping cart too – those reviews will be coming soon)!

September 10, 2025 | As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission from purchases made through links in this post.

How many 160 gsm paper notebooks are there anyway?

Based on all the chatter, you’d think there were only two notebooks in the whole wide world that have 160 gsm dotted paper designed specifically for bullet journal enthusiasts. Those two would be Archer & Olive and Scribbles That Matter. But I was convinced that there had to be more than just those two. You know … brands without a massive marketing budget.

My research revealed that there were, in fact, many other notebook brands with 160 gsm paper in a journal designed for the bullet journaling or art journaling community.

I skipped the notebooks that were designed for artists since 160 gsm paper is very common in sketchbooks and various forms of mixed-media notebooks. Those types of notebooks have blank pages and won’t work well for bullet journaling.

My hunt revealed SIX notebook brands that fit the bill (if you know of any others, please let me know and I’ll look into them too). The brands I’ve purchased, tested, reviewed, and compared here include (in alphabetical order):

• Archer & Olive
• Buke Notebooks
• QiHeng (name changed to SeQes)
• Scribbles That Matter

UPDATE – these two brands have been discontinued and are no longer available.

• Eclectic Scribbles (discontinued)
• Tekukor (discontinued)

You probably haven’t heard of half the names on this list. Yeah, me either. But now you know them, and I’m about to tell you every single detail about each one so you can decide which notebook you want to buy. Hint – it’s not the one you’ve heard about a million times before.

Individual Notebook Reviews

Even though I’m going to cover a lot of details about each of these journals and compare them to each other – you’ll probably want to head over to the more detailed review of each of these notebooks. I’ve done extensive testing and dug up as much information as I can about each.

Besides reviewing the notebook itself, I also think it’s important to understand how the company behind the notebook works. Are they trustworthy? Are they reliable? Will they be around for a long time? How often are they going to change their product materials or will they stand the test of time and not change?

Be sure to dig deeper into each notebook review once you’re finished reading this comparison. Here are some quick links to each review.

September 10, 2025 | As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission from purchases made through links in this post.

Criteria for reviewing all six 160gsm journals

I’ve run testing on all six notebooks and ranked them best-to-worst in a variety of categories. Interestingly, there wasn’t one brand that came in first place in all the categories. There are definitely clear winners and losers, but the standings on each competition are very interesting. Here are the categories I’m using to rank these brands.

• Construction & Durability
• Features & Specs
• Normal writing pen test & paper quality
• Art supply test & paper quality
• Fountain pens & feathering test
• Company trustworthiness

CONSTRUCTION & DURABILITY

Notebooks in this category should all have amazing construction and be ultra-durable. We paying a premium (in most cases) for these journals so we expect more from them. How did they stand up to my testing? I’m going to cover the general construction of the notebook – binding style; cover style; extra features such as elastic closures, bookmarks, document pockets; and special pages.

I’ve gone into a lot more detail for each of these journals in their individual full reviews so you can head over to each one for more info. But here I’m going to give you an overview of each.

Click the + button on each tab below to open the box and read my nerdy rambling comments. (Listed in alphabetical order.)

DESIGN & COVER OPTIONS

Have you ever bought something that you don’t need but you needed to have it because it was beautiful or cool? No? Just me? I’m a graphic designer as my day job – which extends to the rest of my life, of course. Design thinking is part of my DNA and I notice the way things are created, decorated, and presented So I notice the way notebooks are designed and also the design options of covers. 

In the next section, there’s a line on the chart that talks about the cover options, but I wanted to mention that in more detail here.

Archer & Olive – cover design is the strongest feature of Archer & Olive notebooks. I chose to purchase a linen-cover version with the gold hot-stamped bee on the front. There are several different emblem options in the linen line. There’s also another line of options where the cover is PU leather and has a beautifully printed pattern. They specialize in floral or nature-inspired designs. There are lots of options from Archer & Olive.

Buke Notebooks – this is the only notebook brand in this review that has an option both hardcover and softcover versions. All of the covers have the embossed gold owl on the front and you have several color options to choose from. 

QiHeng SeQes – this line of journals have both linen and PU leather options for the cover. Each one has an emblem on the front. The linen-cover options are a bit creepy-crawly, right? You choose between an ant and a spider. The PU leather options have more emblems to choose from – owl, fox, bear, or squirrel, each with their own color choice. 

Scribbles That Matter – with STM you can choose from either the Iconic or Pro cover options – Iconic has icons, Pro does not. At any given time there are about 4 to 8 different color options, but that selection is constantly changing so you never really know what will be available. Their standard notebook color is teal with yellow accents so you can usually find that one in stock. 

The following journals have been discontinued.

Eclectic Scribbles – this notebook comes in three design options – Mandala (the one I bought), Zentangle, and Steampunk Cat – all of which were designed by Amanda. Her artwork is beautiful and being able to see it on a journal is a great bonus. 

Tekukor – this notebook line has three cover options – blue, burgundy, olive green. Each cover has a gold hot-stamped emblem that is inspired by nature – fern, palm leaf, or lotus leaf.

FEATURES & SPECS

The data below allows you to compare each brand side by side. I won’t bore you with written commentary about all these specs (hey! I heard that sigh of relief!). 

Also – this is the first time I’m using a comparison table like this. Let me know if it works on your device or if anything looks wonky.

NORMAL WRITING PEN TEST & PAPER QUALITY

Here is where we begin the rating portion of this comparison. In each notebook, I tested 16 different writing pens. These are the types of brands you’d expect to use in a normal bullet journal or standard long-form journaling notebook. Fineliners, gel pens, ballpoint, fountain pen inks, highlighters, and calligraphy brush markers. Here’s the list.

SUPPLY LIST

First, let me just list all the supplies I’ve used for the basic pen-testing. I’ve chosen a variety of pens and markers in different categories. I’m testing fineliners, gel pens, ballpoint pens, fountain pen inks, and various highlighters and markers. I even threw a Sharpie Marker in the mix as the alcohol marker you should never use in a journal. And because this paper is supposed to be bleed-resistant and ghost-proof, I also grabbed an art marker (a generic version of Copic markers). Whenever possible I used a black pen because that is going to give us the darkest possible ink to test ghosting or show-through.

On those pages, I also put a few swipes of Sharpie Marker and Copic-style Marker, but I also used those alcohol markers on the art supply page. At first, I was going to just ignore those two markers because they’re covered in the next section with art supply testing. BUT… I’ve got a problem. 

See, if I take out the 2 alcohol markers from the list then there’s nothing left to “compare” because all these notebooks did just fine with all these pens. There’s virtually no ghosting in any of the notebooks. 

Then there’s the one really tough fountain pen ink I threw into the testing mix that half of the notebooks failed. Except when I say “fail” I really just mean they got an A- instead of an A.  

So the only way I was able to rate these notebooks from best to worst in this category was to take into account the two alcohol markers and the Noodler’s 54th Massachusetts fountain pen ink. We’ll judge those markers again in the art supply section.

PEN TEST WINNER

One notebook was far and away better than the others – I say that because the Sharpie Marker was barely visible, the fountain pen ink doesn’t show through, and the paper held up to Copic-style marker pretty well. QiHeng Stationery’s Notebook wins this round, hands down. Even though I’ve ranked the journals in order of performance, I gotta say that this was nearly impossible to do right. I’ve seriously wavered a dozen times about the difference between Tekukor and Eclectic Scribbles. And I’ve wavered a dozen more times about the difference between Scribbles That Matter and Archer & Olive. Buke Notebooks were definitely in last place, though (more on that in a minute). 

no medal for Buke Notebook

I was pretty surprised about the performance of Buke Notebooks’s notebook. The ghosting in Buke is similar to what I’d see in a good quality 100gsm notebook with all the normal writing pens. However, look at the results of the art marker. If I were only looking at that one result, Buke would be in first place. I suspect that Buke has a heavier coating on their paper which could mean they started with thinner, less opaque paper so when the weight is measured at the end of the manufacturing process, it comes out to 160gsm and the coating contributes significantly to that weight. That’s just a guess because I don’t have any additional details on the paper outside what is on the packaging. The paper in Buke is not slick as you’d expect with a coated paper so it doesn’t prevent ink from drying (smudging isn’t an issue). This theory will hold true when we get to the part of about how each notebook stands up to the Feathering Test below.

Alright… let’s move on. I’ve spent way too much time talking about the most boring part of this whole notebook comparison!

ART SUPPLY TEST & PAPER QUALITY​

Ahhh… art supplies! This is where things get real! You know that a major part of the marketing efforts from these companies claim that 160gsm paper in their notebooks stands up to the “no bleed” test with all sorts of pens and art supplies. Hold on there, cowboy! This nerd doesn’t believe your hype!

So I dug through my craft room (remember the huge Craft Room Cleanup from last spring?) and pulled out art supplies that should work in these journals …. Along with a few supplies that I knew were going to likely fail. Needless to say, I was pretty surprised at the results.

There are 10 different art supplies on the list. I will be grading each notebook on the pass or failure of each art media. We’ll look to see if the paper itself held and then evaluate how the paper performed. We’ll look at ghosting, bleeding, and feathering as well as the crinkliness of the paper (yes that’s a word, I just made it up!). There are a possible 100 points in this test – each art supply worth 10 points. In some instances, I’ve given partial points if that seemed fair.

First, let’s look at the art supplies I used.

My favorite part of this whole thing was this part! I love getting my fingers all messy with paint and ink – it feels more like playing than working. Although, is reviewing stationery supplies really “work” …. Ha! Probably not.

ART SUPPLY TEST WINNERS

So this was an interesting experiment for sure. Let’s first give each of these notebooks a failure-rate number to put things in order.

• QiHeng  SeQes – 3 failures
• Buke Notebooks – 4 failures
• Archer & Olive – 6+ failures
• Scribbles That Matter – 7+ failures
• Eclectic Scribbles – 4.5 failures (discontinued)
• Tekukor – 3.5 failures (discontinued)

Let’s evaluate these test results and look at all 10 of the art supplies I used.

There are two main categories of results. Pass or Fail. Four of the notebooks passed and actually performed pretty well. Two of the notebooks not only failed, but they failed really, really badly. Yep, you guessed it… Archer & Olive and Scribbles That Matter failed hard!

So this process was really difficult for me. Once I finished the testing and evaluated the results and gave each one their score, I needed to rank them from best to worst. In looking at the art supplies that failed and figured out that there were two that didn’t perform well in any of the books – both were the heavy alcohol-based supplies. 

I knew that the Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink was the toughest medium in the entire list and all of the paper succumbed to that abuse – I decided to throw that one out and not use it to consider the winners. Also, the alcohol art marker was pretty equal across most of the journals so I threw that one out too. So I decided to just cover those things up in all the journals with little Post-It notes. 

Once I had those two art supply results covered up, the judging was a lot easier. What I came up with was Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners. Two equal winners in Gold and SIlver, one winner in Bronze.  

Gold Medal Winners –  QiHeng SeQes had one art medium that bled through in addition to the two alcohol-based supplies. SeQes failed with dye ink and had a little bit of trouble with the fountain pen ink swatch.  

Silver Medal Winners – Buke Notebooks did very well. Besides the two art supplies that were thrown out, there were only two major problems with bleed-through. Buke failed with dye ink and Sharpie Marker but performed well overall. 

Bronze Medal Winner – Yep, I basically gave Archer & Olive a consolation prize. In addition to the two alcohol-based art supplies that were thrown out, there are four other supplies that failed (watercolor, distress ink, fountain pen ink, and Sharpie). The Dylusions Distress Ink and the alcohol ink both seeped into the next page of the notebook, too (major point deduction!). Amazingly, the dye ink barely soaked through the page, which is why A&O got a medal.

No Medal for Scribbles That Matter

Oh STM, you’re a hot mess! Your paper is so porous that everything just seeps through the page. As you look at the pictures, just ignore that big blue splotch on the upper left of the page (I spilled acrylic paint and made a massive mess!). Once I covered up the two alcohol-based art supplies that were thrown out, we still have a disaster. Dylusions Distress Ink, dye ink, fountain pen ink, Sharpie, and watercolor all failed (and some soaked into the next page, too) – that’s a tally of five failures in addition to the two that were thrown out. 

What shocked me the most about Archer & Olive and Scribbles That Matter was the watercolor. What the heck happened? They both did fine with watercolor that was applied in a much drier way and dabbed with a tissue to soak up any excess water. But when you add a bit more water and let it dry on its own it just soaks straight through the paper. The paper gets crinkled and starts to get fuzzy, too. With all the promotional videos I’ve seen from both of these companies, I would have expected watercolor (at the very least) to perform the best. I’m very disappointed.

FOUNTAIN PEN & FEATHERING TEST

Whew! This showdown is getting massive! But hey, that’s what we nerds do – we research every single teeny tiny detail, analyze it, compare and test it and then figure out who is best. In the past, I’ve gotten several of you ask for more robust fountain pen-testing. So here we are. Robust fountain pen testing, coming up next!

Several months ago I jumped headfirst down a rabbit hole of fountain pens and ink. I have amassed more pens than we need to mention here – but to summarize, I’ve been exploring the world of Chinese pens. It’s like a huge game to find the best performing pen for the cheapest possible price. Yes, I’ve bought pens that were less than $2 and I keep discovering more brands to try out. 

Needless to say, I’ve got a bunch of pens inked up and ready to go. So the list of inks and pens for all these tests is pretty wide-ranging. But here’s what I’ve tested.

 

September 10, 2025 | As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission from purchases made through links in this post.

This test includes two different factors. First I want to see how the pen glides along the surface of the paper. Is it smooth or does the tooth (texture) of the paper cause a rough writing experience? We’ve already covered the bleeding and ghosting side of things, so that’s not a factor here. 

The second test is to determine if the ink feathers on the paper. Feathering is when the line of ink you lay down on the page starts to spread out from that original line and creates a feather-like shape instead of a crisp line. Feathering is bad. We don’t like feathering at all. 

And this is where I get to play with toys! I dug out my magnifying glass, to begin with, but that just didn’t give me the amount of magnification I wanted to examine how the ink behaves on the paper. I’ve also got a jeweler’s loop that has 60x magnification. Wow! This thing is amazing and it lets me see clearly how the ink behaves with amazing detail. You should have seen me trying to finagle my camera to line up with that tiny eyepiece. But I did it! Anything for you guys!

FOUNTAIN PEN & FEATHERING TEST WINNER

This test was less about crowning a winner and more about finding out how the paper performs with fountain pens specifically. So in this test, the notebooks will get a pass or fail grade for the feathering test.  We’ll also go alphabetically, rather than order of performance. 

Archer & Olive – oh poor Archer & Olive, it just keeps failing at stuff. We’ve got feathering and we’ve got a rough writing surface. The paper is definitely not smooth to the touch and you can tell that there’s no coating on the paper during the manufacturing stage (or if there is a coating, it’s pretty slight). This is a direct contributor to the feathering we see on the page. 

Buke Notebooks – The paper in Buke is smooth and it’s a pleasure to write on. Plus it passes the feathering test. No problems at all here.

QiHeng SeQes – Not only is SeQes at the top of the heap on the other tests, but it performs really well here too. The paper is ultra-smooth and the pen just glides across the page. No feathering problems either.

Scribbles That Matter – The paper here is pretty smooth – maybe if there was a level of smoothness that fell between rough and smooth?? Smooth-ish? It’s not unpleasant to write on, but you feel the paper gives you a bit of feedback more than the others. There was no feathering on the page.

UPDATE – the following two notebooks have been discontinued

Eclectic Scribbles – No feathering problems here on the Eclectic Scribbles paper and the surface is smooth to write on.

Tekukor – There is no feathering on the page and the paper feels smooth to write on. Good performance in the Tekukor.

To summarize…

• SeQes has the smoothest writing experience.
• Archer & Olive has the roughest surface.
• Archer & Olive is the only notebook that failed the feathering test.

BRAND TRUSTWORTHINESS & LONGEVITY

I almost didn’t include this section because it’s more subjective than it is information based on hard-hitting research. But I’m going to chatter on anyway.

BRAND TRUSTWORTHINESS & LONGEVITY

I almost didn’t include this section because it’s more subjective than it is information based on hard-hitting research. But I’m going to chatter on anyway.

Archer & Olive

2025 Update – Yep, they’re still around and they’ve expanded their product line to include journals and notebooks, pens and highlighters, pouches, stickers and a variety of subscription boxes. Check out their store here: archerandolive.com

I think this brand is here to stay. Hopefully, they will eventually get their price under control. I believe the notebooks are overpriced, and once more and more notebooks start appearing on the market, their sales are sure to suffer. They definitely have a strong creative team to keep their notebook cover options fresh and new. However, they’re often out of stock or sold out, so they are clearly still working on their inventory management skills.

Buke Notebooks

2025 Update – Buke Notebooks has expanded their product line to include 180 gsm notebooks and several different cover designs in both paper-weight categories.

This review used to be based on five notebooks until I found this one at the very last minute while I was browsing AliExpress (like I do). When this notebook popped up in my suggestions, I snatched it up. Thankfully, it only took 13 days to arrive (which is super speedy for normal shipping from China). Looking closer at Buke Notebookd, I see that they are actually the manufacturer of the notebooks, not just a company that buys notebooks from someone who makes them. This is why we have such a great price of around $10-12. Their main business is making notebooks for other companies. I worry that they’ll get so bogged down in making notebooks for other companies that they’ll suddenly decide not to sell direct to consumers any longer. But that’s probably borrowing worry.

QiHeng SeQes

2025 Update – Not only have the makers at SeQes renamed their notebooks, but they have also built a substantial following and an expanded product line. Visit the SeQes Amazon Store to browse their beautiful notebooks!

This company is also the maker, selling directly to consumers, which is why the price is outstanding. I have the same concern as the Buke Notebooks brand above – will they get out of the consumer market in favor of focusing on their commercial customers. I’ve had an email conversation with them which is how I found out they own their own factories and take care of their own design and production. When I asked them about different emblems on the cover, here is their response: “We are new to the North American market, so we are still trying to figure out what styles/colours that American customers like.” This is so encouraging and I’m excited to see what else this company brings us.

Scribbles That Matter

2025 Update – STM is still going strong. They’ve expanded their product line to include black-paper notebooks, desk organizers, pen and journal pouches and even a line of fineliner pens. You can check out the Scribbles That Matter Amazon Store to see what they’re up to.

Do I have to say it again? I’m worried about Scribbles That Matter and whether the company will survive their insistence on listening to the vocal few of their user base. Quite often users are not the right people to listen to when it comes to making major product development changes in your line of notebooks. Yes, some of the things they’ve changed are good, like the rivetted pen loop on the back cover. But the very fact that their current lineup of notebooks ONLY includes 160gsm paper is a testament to the fact that they aren’t making wise decisions. They changed the paper because their “vocal few” insisted that they get thicker paper so they abandoned their 100gsm option completely. Until that is, the outcry from those who didn’t want thicker paper convinced them that they needed to bring back the 100gsm paper. And if you’ve been following along on their social media, they’ve got a whole new version of their notebooks in development that is not actually a notebook at all (notebook covers with softcover paper inserts). I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… Scribbles That Matter has jumped the shark. Can they survive the jump? That remains to be seen.

Tekukor & Eclectic Scribbles 

Discontinued – 2025 Update – I fully expected Eclectic Scribbles to disappear, but I was shocked (and saddened) when Tekukor left the market. It was my long-time favorite journal and had a large stationery nerd following. They’ve left a hole in my heart with their exit. 

September 10, 2025 | As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission from purchases made through links in this post.

THE WINNERS AND LOSERS

I’ve brought all of the test results together in a single list. We’ve got some patterns emerging, right?

Pen Test Standings

• GOLD MEDAL – SeQes
• SILVER MEDAL – Scribbles That Matter
• BRONZE MEDAL – Archer & Olive
• NO MEDAL – Buke Notebooks

Art Supply Test Standings

• GOLD MEDAL – SeQes
• SILVER MEDAL – Buke Notebooks
• BRONZE MEDAL – Archer & Olive  (and they only got a medal because I felt sorry for them)
• NO MEDAL – Scribbles That Matter

Fountain Pen & Feathering Test Standings

• GOLD MEDAL – SeQes
• SILVER MEDAL – Buke Notebooks
• BRONZE MEDAL – Scribbles That Matter (due to smoothness of writing)
• NO MEDAL – Archer & Olive

 

All Journal Specs

CONCLUSION

Whew! We’ve made it to the end. This review was a monster to complete and took me months longer than I first thought it would take. 

This is also the most expensive review I’ve done so far. I purchased each one of these journals with my own hard-earned money – they were not given to for free from the companies. I prefer that method of acquiring journals because it ensures that I’m being 100% honest, transparent, and raw in my reviews. I don’t like being influenced, even subconsciously, by the fact that I’ve been given free stuff. 

By the time I finished buying all these journals, it came out to around $130. Ouch! Kind of pricey for a set of notebooks that I really don’t plan to use for any of my everyday journaling (I’ll need to figure out what to do with them in the future). 

NOTE: I’m not opposed to receiving free products for review, it’s just that those reviews are harder for me to write because of that potential for some level of subconscious bias. That’s why I always disclose how I acquired the products I share with you. 

It’s clear from the standings that SeQes is the winner in the performance categories. The construction and durability of the QiHeng notebook are outstanding and the paper is better than any of the other options. 

LET’S CHAT

I’d love to know which notebook you love the most. Were you surprised by any of the test results? Do you know of any other 160gsm paper notebooks that I didn’t find in my digging? Let me know what it is so I can check it out too. 

Leave a comment below and we’ll continue this conversation.

Kitty Outtakes

No review is complete without kitties getting into a picture or two. Here’s Jack napping under the warm lights of the photo table.