Getting the right paper for my journal is crucial. It's the medium and the raison d'être of a journal. You can't just bind a stack of printer paper from Staples and call it a day. Well, not if you want something that will last.

I had a few requirements for the paper going into this. The first is that it has to be archival quality. This basically means it won't break down over time. Acidic papers tend to do this, so the paper needs to be pH-neutral. Often, it is just called "acid free". I also wanted something that felt good to write on and would readily accept ink from fountain pens, technical pens, and gel pens without bleeding through. I also wanted Copic markers not to bleed through, but I quickly learned that Copic markers will bleed through anything thinner than a battleship's hull, so I took that off the requirement list. I also wanted a paper that I was reasonably confident I could buy for years to come. Lastly, I wanted the paper to be very white.

I bought a lot of paper samples. Talas is a Brooklyn company that is the go-to place for bookbinding supplies in the US. They have almost any sort of paper you could want. While you can view the colors online, there is no substitute for seeing them yourself. This isn't the time to be cheap. Buy lots of papers to see what's right for you. Talas does sell booklets of paper samples. Those are good for quickly checking colors, but the samples are tiny, and you'll need larger sheets to experiment with. Still, the sample packs are good for shortlisting some options.

There are other sources for the paper. There are art stores like Blick and Jackson's. The papers they sell have a good amount of overlap. I suspect there are a limited number of paper mills creating archival paper. I found the paper I wanted at Jackson's at the best price, but originally found it at Talas.

One tip is to search for some papers you like on Amazon. I was able to find pads of some of the papers there. It was an inexpensive and quick way to test out a variety of papers, especially because the only other way to buy the paper I ended up with was to buy a 10-meter roll that shipped out of England.

I found a paper called Accademia by a paper mill called Fabriano. It checked almost all of the boxes. It's a heavier-weight paper and felt good to write on. It didn't bleed through using the pens that I tend to use. It was archival, and I am confident I can buy more of it in the future.

The history of the paper mill sold me on it. Fabriano is one of the oldest paper mills in the world. How old? Well, they date back to 1264. Michelangelo was one of their customers. Michelangelo! One of my major influences is Leonardo da Vinci. Although they have no record of selling him paper, they certainly could have. The timing was right. I want to think they did. Fabriano has a rich history that meshes well with my tastes and inspirations.

The paper comes in various weights. The 120gsm weight felt good, with some bulk, but it was still pleasant to leaf through. I also found that I could buy it in 10-meter rolls. The kicker is that it isn't even that expensive relative to other options on the market.

I mentioned that it checked almost all of the boxes. The one downside is that it isn't quite as white as I would have liked. I don't fault the paper, though. In my research, I found very few papers that were very white and archival. I suspect that part of the process of making paper white interferes with making it acid-free, but that's just a theory.

I bought several rolls of the paper from Jackson's. I bought more rolls (five) than is prudent, but Jackson's ships out of the UK, and I wanted to defray the shipping costs, which ended up amounting to over a third of the total cost.

My next step is to break down one of the rolls into individual pages that I can fold together into signatures. I'm still unsure about the final page dimensions, but I'll know soon.