Montblanc’s Digital Paper is absurd, and I can’t stop thinking about it

Montblanc digital paper; a designer gold and white e-ink pad — (Image credit: Montblanc)

I thought I was immune to luxury tech. I review graphics tablets. I test styluses. I spend my days telling people they don’t need to spend a fortune to make good work. And then I stumbled across the Montblanc Digital Paper and genuinely had to check I wasn’t misreading the price: $935, for a digital e-ink pad and pen.

That’s with no colour screen. No apps ecosystem. No 'Pro' chip. Just an e-ink tablet and the promise of a beautiful writing experience. Yet somehow it’s one of the most fascinating creative tools I’ve seen this year, because it isn’t really about the tech, it’s about what it says.

So its a designer e-ink pad?

This is where my brain starts short-circuiting. On paper (sorry), this competes with devices from reMarkable or Onyx Boox. Tools built around workflow efficiency and software depth, but while they win on features, on price, and on flexibility, Montblanc skirts around any technical failings, because, well, it’s not trying to compete. Instead, Montblanc is reframing the category entirely, bending it to a design-first mentality.

The real draw here is the digital pen itself. And yes, it’s styled to echo the Meisterstück, and yes, it’s beautifully weighted, and yes, it looks like something you’d sign a peace treaty with rather than sketch Batman or doodle Daffy Duck as a zombie.

This is where Montblanc gets credit, and its costly digital paper-and-pencil stops being a gadget and becomes an object. If you’re evaluating it like an iPad alternative, it’s absurd. If you’re evaluating it like a luxury writing instrument that happens to sync to your phone, it starts to make a strange kind of sense. Oh god, they’ve caught me, haven’t they? I’m going to drop neatly a grand on a digital pen and paper that’s not as good as a Wacom Movink Pro 14, aren’t I?

Why it makes sense

As creatives, we talk a big game about process. We obsess over workflow and specs, but we also romanticise our tools; it’s why Android stylus alternatives like the Staedtler Noris exist. The best notebook? The perfect pen? The ideal mechanical keyboard, one with a click-clacky retro feel? We’re kind of obsessed.

Montblanc is leaning into that romanticism, and it’s not pulling punches. The Montblanc Digital Paper isn’t designed to overwhelm you with options and exhaustive specs; instead, it’s meant to slow you down and let you enjoy the process of noting and sketching as you would traditionally. There are no glowing app icons or colour distractions; it’s just a textured surface and your ideas.

At a time when most of our ideas begin as a blinking cursor in a cloud doc, there’s something quietly rebellious about Montblanc's push for simplicity. But, of course, you can get the same sensation from a biro and drawing pad, from an E-Ink notepad at a fraction of the price. So, is it $935 worth of rebellion? That depends on how much you value the ritual, and let’s be honest, the designer brand that will get people talking.

Who's it for, exactly?

Who’s the Montblanc Digital Paper really for, then? Not students, that’s for sure. Not illustrators needing layers and colour, that’s where the best drawing tablets win. Not designers who want the most powerful tool for the money.

This is for someone who already owns a Montblanc pen. Someone who sees their desk as part of their identity. Someone who believes the way you capture ideas matters as much as the ideas themselves.

And here’s the uncomfortable bit: I understand that person more than I’d like to admit. We’ll spend thousands on a laptop for marginal performance gains. We’ll upgrade a stylus because the pressure curve feels fractionally better. We’ll buy a new chair because it “changes how we work” (it doesn’t).

So why does a luxury digital notebook feel so outrageous? Because it exposes the emotional side of art and design purchasing. It strips away the productivity argument and demands you face up to the hard truth: you want this because it feels good. It’s beautifully made, absurdly priced and fashionably niche, and yet it’s stuck in my head all week.

If you do want one, visit the Montblanc website and choose from three models.

Some options more in budget:

Ian Dean is Editor, Digital Arts & 3D at Creative Bloq, and the former editor of many leading magazines. These titles included ImagineFX, 3D World and video game titles Play and Official PlayStation Magazine. Ian launched Xbox magazine X360 and edited PlayStation World. For Creative Bloq, Ian combines his experiences to bring the latest news on digital art, VFX and video games and tech, and in his spare time he doodles in Procreate, ArtRage, and Rebelle while finding time to play Xbox and PS5.

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