The most common complaint about a bulk notebook is that pens ghost through to the next page. The usual fix — buy heavier paper — often does not work.

What sizing actually is

Paper is a mat of fibres with air between them. Left alone it wicks ink sideways and downwards like blotting paper. Sizing is a treatment that seals the sheet so ink stays where it is put.

Internal sizing is mixed into the pulp; surface sizing is applied afterwards. Cheap stock skimps on both, which is why a thick cheap sheet can perform worse than a thin good one.

Feathering, bleed and show-through are three different faults

Feathering is ink spreading sideways along fibres, so lines look furry. That is sizing.

Bleed-through is ink physically reaching the other side. Show-through is only seeing the ink from the back because the sheet is not opaque enough — that one really is about weight and filler, and it is the only one heavier paper reliably fixes.

Recycled paper’s reputation is half earned

Recycled fibre is shorter, so the sheet needs more sizing to behave. Cheap recycled stock does not get it, and that is where the reputation came from.

Well-made recycled paper writes cleanly, and sugarcane bagasse — longer fibre, a by-product of sugar milling — usually beats recycled pulp at the same price.

How to test it in ten seconds

Ask for a sheet of the actual stock and draw on it with the pens your people really use: a cheap ballpoint, a rollerball, and a highlighter over dry text.

If the supplier cannot send a sheet, they are selling a gsm figure rather than a paper.