How do you deal with ink bleeding on different types of paper?

[roryelila68]

Hello everyone,

I’ve recently started journaling more seriously with my fountain pens, and I’ve run into an issue that I didn’t expect to be so persistent: ink bleeding and feathering on different papers.

For context:

I mostly use medium nibs (Lamy Safari and a Pilot Custom 74).

My current inks are Diamine Oxford Blue and Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-kai.

On some notebooks (especially cheaper ones I use at work), the writing looks fine at first, but then it feathers and even bleeds through to the other side.

I know high-quality paper like Rhodia or Tomoe River solves a lot of these issues, but I’d like to find a practical balance between everyday usability (office notes, journals) and the joy of fountain pen writing.

My questions for you:

Do you have a favorite affordable paper brands that handle fountain pen inks well enough for daily use?

Have you noticed specific inks behaving better (or worse) with budget paper?

Do you adapt your nib choice when you know the paper isn’t fountain-pen friendly?

I’d love to hear your experiences — especially if you’ve found a clever workaround that doesn’t involve carrying around expensive notebooks everywhere.

Thanks in advance for your advice and stories!
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