Something WEIRD is Happening | PaperTess Designs 2025 Unboxing + Swatches

Tell me I'm not the only one... what is HAPPENING with the 2025 Sanzen paper? I was never a fan of the 2024, but at least the bleed through wasn't awful.

I can't even tell you how excited I was to receive this planner. Don't get me wrong, the planner is beautiful, and Tess did an amazing job, but the Sanzen paper is allowing feathering and bleed through.

I have seen other creators mention the same thing about their 2025 Hobonichis, so I'm thinking it could have been a manufacturing error for the Sanzen paper in general.

I am off on a mission to find ink that will work! I will keep you posted!

Stay cozy, and happy planning 🤍🐻

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[lillabjornco]

QOTD: Have you noticed a difference in the 2025 Sanzen paper?! 🤔🤔

[bujowithsarah]

The bleed through omg 😵 I have never seen TRP perform like that before

[Are.]

These are so cute! I love how you look at the spelling mistakes as a way to make journaling on it less pressured, it makes complete sense to me and it's so comprehensive!!

[syddlinden]

Interesting the ballpoint and roller ball pens show more than the fountain pens. Makes me think writing pressure has a bigger impact on ghosting and bleed thru than ink type.

I'm wanting to try a hobonichi cousin in 2027 (have other planners to use up first) but if the paper issues continue I'll have to scrap that idea and try hand binding my own notebook with trp of a guaranteed weight...

Keep making noise about the paper quality y'all! These planners got big in large part because of the paper quality and companies need to know we are holding them up to established standards!

[Emendezen]

I am glad to see that it is not only a few of us feeling like the Tomoe River paper now performs badly. I feel like we used to be able to use ANYTHING to write on Tomoe River paper and it would be fine. I have always used my Hobonichis for water coloring and mixed media. Never had an issue. Now, even a ball pen either ghosts or bleeds through. I am so bummed. I decided to leave the Tomoe River paper planners aside, because it is obvious that the paper has changed, and now I will look into the Mohawk paper planners like Colibri, Planner envy, etc. This sucks! :(

[allgoodthings]

Looking forward to seeing which inks you come up with 💖

[MyMagicalPlanner]

I think it’s the paper honestly I have a video coming out next week where I tested the paper in my Hobonichi cousins from this year, next year and the old paper in the 2021 as well as the Sterling ink this year and next…so I feel like it’s universal to all the tomoe river paper planners since my test are similar

[PlanYourOneLife]

Good review! This planner reminds of the Aura Estelle A5 Weekly planner. I have been hearing about the new Sanzen paper having bleed through and feathering with the 2025 Hobonichi 5 year Techos.

[blakeley-shea]

I received my Sterling Ink 2025 planners & notebooks and when I saw this I went straight to my SI planners to check…and it was fine. I did order a PaperTess A5 as well for the first time this year but I’m still waiting on it to arrive and as soon as I do I’m going to try it and compare to the Sterling Ink ones and let you know how it does. I’m praying it’s the same bc I REALLY wanted to switch over to the PT A5 for 2025 as I want to see how well it will work for me having the months, weeks, days consecutive.❤

[TheKoffeeVerse]

I really like the layout of that planner. It's a shame that the paper is not living up to its potential.

[plandsandtravels]

I tend to use Uniball One and Fine fountain pen. The ghosting I can live with. I got PTD instead of Hobonichi this year and I don’t regret it, especially when I look at the pens I use. For me, I prefer the way the paper feels to my touch in the PTD than the Hobonichi. I am hopeful that the feathering won’t be an issue with the inks I use as I prefer dry inks.

[AnLiPDo]

😮 the bleed through! The feathering! I was ready to buy the A6 before the pen test.
In my 2022 B6 PPTD planner the paper was perfect, last year she launched the 68gsm notebook and I had the same quality issue. Sorry to see it’s happening again. At some point there is a global issue with TRP and her supplier.
Now I hope Take a note will perform, this is why I prefer their 68gsm paper.

[alexplansnz]

I've found so far (not all my 2025 lineup has arrived yet), that compared to my 2024 hobonichi cousin, the Kinbor planners for 2025 are a LOT better. I will be interesting to see how the Wonderland222 goes.
I wanted a Papertess, but i couldny justify the cost with errors - am I being petty 😂? I also have a Take a Note A5 coming and I LOVE the paper in those.

[mollymollie]

There’s been a lot of discussion (and a lot of pictures with comparisons from TRP-S 2024 and TRP-S 2025 for some specific Hobonichi’s with some serial numbers of Cousins, and a lot of the 5 Years in particular being unusable.) You may be part of the now known “bad batch” of TRP-S that was received by Hobonichi this year. As far as I know, Hobonichi is “looking into it” and haven’t made a decision about it. I would contact Paper Tess definitely to express your concerns, and maybe ask others in the community who have tested their books this year (or other planners using TRP-S) to see if some are having problems and some are not. I can say that my Sterling Ink A6 Vertical Forest/Gold performed excellently with pen tests including the Zigg and fountain pens. Normal ghosting, no bleed through. Looked wayyyy better than yours is looking. I thought it felt better to write on than my 2024 Hobonichi Cousin, also (which bleeds a little with the Ziggs). My Sterling Ink A5 came today, so I’m going to test it tomorrow probably and I’ll let you know if I have any issues. Check out the Hobonichi forum on Reddit for more info (I know, Reddit…but it is apparently a very real problem, particularly with some Cousins and most of the 5 years.)

[AllTheArtsy]

i guess the paper is adorable and prevents you from being too pressured.... 😅

sorry couldnt help it

[tortagialla]

I have tested the 2025 midori hibino which is sanzione paper and didn’t seem bad but lots ghosting like the paper is less than 52gsm - they don’t state the gsm and hobonichi has gone down to 47gsm… it seems like it is a lottery and paper is in consistent in general. But I understand ink and pen can change things so we just have to find the right combo 😅😅😅 so anxiety inducing!

[Planner-ingPlatypus-kqnf]

I had seen comments here and there about a “bad batch” of the Sanzen paper. So not every planner from every company, which makes it a hit or miss, unfortunately. I’m so sorry!

[ilananl]

It's horrible when you loved the TRP for soo long. I didn't like the Sanzen paper either when they started producing that in 2021 but it has gotten worse ever since. I treasure my stack of old TRP notebooks and hobonichi's. I've bought every old unused ones i could find online. I will date them myself.
I am using a Sweet Freckled Design weeks i bought in 2022 now and feel very restricted. Mildliners bleedtrough and only ef nibs with dark inks in fountain pens are somewhat ok but the ghosting when writing on both sides is distracting. Only ef or 0.28mm nibs pens max. But maybe not a dark ink if you are bothered by the ghosting. And i never been with the old paper... If i want color i use colored pencils now. But i'm still sad and kinda mad that they are allowed to call it Tomoe River paper (just because they bought the name) because it really isn't.😢
I bought a B6 Papertess and am scared to use it. Also bothered by the small weeks boxes and a lot of inconsistencies in the planner, but that's unrelated to the paper. I really hope Papertess will come out with more notebooks and planners in Cosmo Air light paper. Because after this i'm done with Sanzen paper and i hope the independent planner makers are as well so we can be excited again about our planners next year and not disappointed/distracted by the paper quality!

[atrotsiuk]

I'm so sorry, this looks terrible! It's so sad because it looks like something unusable.... 😥