Since I’m such a big fan of annotation when I work and read, I get asked a lot of questions about annotation tools, sticky notes among them. One common question is whether a fountain pen friendly sticky note exists. My answer? Sort of.
Sticky notes seem simple but they’re not, at least when it comes to how they interact with ink. The adhesive applied to the back of the note bonds to the paper, and can affect how that portion of the paper behaves. Similarly, many sticky notes are brightly colored. Adhesive and dye can cause bleeding and feathering (the most common effect), but they can also repel water-based ink in certain cases, causing the ink to sit atop the paper and never dry.
An example of how you can layer the various Cloth & Paper Transparent Circle sticky notes and page flags. Despite how cool they are, however, you won’t be able to use fountain pens on them.
I’ve discovered a few brands of sticky notes over the years that perform decently with fountain pens. Traveler’s and MD Paper used to make very good sticky notes, but these lines have been discontinued. Both Notsu and Cloth & Paper still make lines of sticky notes that feature heavier, absorbent paper stock and can withstand fountain pen ink, though you may get some feathering with especially broad nibs or wet inks.
Cloth & Paper’s Transparent Circle Sticky notes - at least in some colors - allow you to see underlying rulings and other layout markers. In addition to serving as a guide for writing, you can layer the notes over entries in your journal or planner.
The downside to these fountain pen friendlier sticky notes? They’re thick. You can’t layer your journal or planner with moveable sticky notes like the lightweight transparent notes made by Cloth & Paper and Kanmido (Coco Fusen). These thinner notes are made from plastic (or are coated with plastic) and require an oil-based pen like a standard ballpoint, hybrid/low-viscosity ballpoint, or fineliner marker. They also work well with pencils. Even if you can’t use your fountain pens, however, these types of sticky notes can be fun and useful because they allow you to annotate without adding a lot of bulk to your notebook, and you can usually move the notes around easily from page to page without losing “stickiness.”
In other words, fountain pen friendly sticky notes do exist, but like everything in stationery, there is usually a trade-off!
As part of our store refresh, we’ve added multiple new lines of sticky notes, page flags, notebook and planner tabs, and other annotation tools to our shop. You can view these online and in our Nashville brick and mortar store (though there are so many different varieties that we cannot keep all of them on the showroom floor).