Welcome the the Seven Seas product page. Seven Seas is the brand name under which we manufacture notebooks, and this page is where you will find all things in the store related to this brand and Tomoe River paper in general. 

No doubt you have heard about Tomoe River paper. It is very thin - 52 gsm - nearly half the thickness of copy paper. It was developed to reduce the thickness of notebooks that use a lot of pages (such as the Hobonichi Techo), while remaining strong and resistant to ink bleed-through and feathering.

At the same time it is sheer, almost like the pages of a dictionary. Its surface is smooth but not slick, it loves fountain pen ink, and will keep up with fast writers. It is also a very "quiet" paper when used with a fountain pen. If there was a Nobel Prize for the smoothest, strongest, thinnest and most ink-friendly paper, Tomoe River would surely be a contender.

Because the paper is so thin, heavy writers may find that pen tips can leave impressions several pages deep. If this is a concern, I recommend not writing directly into the pad; instead, tear off a page or place a writing mat a couple of sheets down.

For notebook information, please read this buyer's guide.

If you want lined underlay guides, please check the resources page for downloadable templates.

If you are concerned about "show through" of reverse-side writing on thin papers, please read this.

If you are concerned about long ink dry times, you might want to consider using blotter paper.

If you need envelopes for cream Tomoe River, this site has two options:

• The LIFE "Cream Writing" envelope is a pretty good match, color-wise, for the cream paper, although it is just a tad darker cream. It is sized for A5 paper folded in half, so B5 and A4 papers will need to be folded more than once to fit inside.
• Midori MD letter-set envelopes are a decent match, again just a tad darker, and come in sizes for both A5 and B5 paper.

If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, please don't hesitate to contact me via the About page.