Rhodia 'R' Pad No 16: Review & Bleedthrumanade

You walk past a Rhodia 'R' Pad in the store, but it doesn't leap off the shelf and scream at you.  There are no sparkles, no fancy fabric, magnetic clasps or bungee cords.  It looks like a fairly standard notepad.  But you wonder about the scoring across the top, and it is orange, so you pick it up.

The minute you do, your perception changes.  It feels solid, and weighs more than you thought it would.  Checking the back you find the flexible thinner cover, but also a heavy cardboard in the back.  That scoring on the front allows you to completely fold the cover over so it won't flop around and get in your way, while you write or draw.

And the paper.  It's an ivory color, smooth, but more like silk than satin.  It's thin, but you can feel the weight in your hand, so you know this is quality paper.

A couple of weeks ago, I won one of these Rhodia 'R' Pads, the 6 x 8 1/4 in (14.8 x 21 cm) size, and last Tuesday it arrived.  So far my description has been subjective, but here are the hard facts:

Notepads with "Soft Touch" coated cover

90g smooth ivory vellum paper

Blank or ruled

70 sheets

The paper is perfed so it can be removed.  I don't generally care for this, because it looks ugly and unbalances the weight of notepad.  That's important to me.  I really didn't want to remove a sheet from my pad, but 'hey!' if you are going to review something, you have to put it through the paces.  I yanked out a sheet from the middle of the pad.  One sharp jerk and it came out with ease.  I pulled pages (gently) at random and got no sense that I'd lose sheets because the perf would give.

The perforation is a microperf, and it's seated just behind the upmost scoring on the cover.  That means it has some protection, but can be folded easily to loosen it before tearing.  Time will tell, but I don't think I'll lose sheets, and people who do tear will probably love it.

Next up, the writing test.  I grabbed one of every type pen I had within reach.  The Staedler Lumocolor bled through slightly, but none of the others even shadowed.

Then I did my kind of testing. I tangled.  You can see how neatly the cover folds back and out of the way.

 Nothing bled through to the back.  That worried me just a bit.  How were my Letraset Promarkers going to do?

They bled through, lol!

My other concern was that the ivory of the Rhodia paper would dull the Promarker colors.  Maybe it was this worry, or maybe just my perception, but I'd swear the color is actually brighter.  I love the glow I got.

So, I'm totally in love with Rhodia 'R' pad.  Rhodia has other paper products out there, and I want to visit them all!