Quote:
Originally Posted by thibaulthalpern
I think much of this depends on one's preference. Clairefontaine paper, which is often touted as one of the best paper among fountain pen enthusiasts is bright white.
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Exactly, it is, as you say, a personal preference. I suspect a lot of people do not like the "shiny" paper used in magazines and some books because they read under harsh overly bright lighting. And even under more subdued lighting those type of papers are too reflective to offer a nice reading experience. Personally I do not like them at all. I want bright soft white not a harsh light reflected back to me.
An analogy can be made with the current and completely strange trend in LCD displays & TV's with glossy fronts. Under anything but a very narrow range of lighting conditions these devices are very difficult to use for anything more than brief periods. And if you have any sort of bright background behind you when facing the display you will get a significant amount of eye numbing glare or reflection depending on how one wishes to define each term. Most use them interchangeably which is fine for this purpose here. Again, unless your intention is to watch movies in the dark there is truly no purpose for these sorts of displays as there are far too many trade-offs especially in terms of eye fatigue.
How easy any media is to read from depends on how much light is directly reflected back to your eye and how much is diffused. Diffusion softens how light appears to your eye. A flat or rougher surfaced media will generally, there are exceptions, reflect back a very diffused soft light while retaining the brightness needed for contrast needs. A simply summary is direct reflected non-diffused light is harsher and reflected but diffused light is easier on the eye but is still just as bright. Still the inverse square law applies to light fall off over distance. The diffused light can have a shorter distance in which it is effective.
I guess I am saying glossy white paper is awful to read from for a lot of people. But bright white flat paper is superior for many people. Especially over gray.
I believe the reason fountain pen people like the Clairefontaine paper is how it handles the ink. It does not bleed and holds ink better than other general use papers. Plus it is has great archival properties, is very tear resistant, and it's one of the smoothest papers around. I used some only once and was blown away by it. Too expensive for every day use though and a complete waste of perfectly good paper if used in a color laser printer.
