The technological parameters relating to the aeration, mixing and separation steps of the notation cells currently used in the field of waste paper recycling are reviewed in this paper. A laboratory notation cell was designed to study the effects of the hydrodynamic notation parameters, and tested on different deinking furnish. The physico-chemical aspects of notation deinking were not investigated and the notation efficiencies were measured for the ink particles detached from the fiber surface. Experimental evidence concerning the first-order kinetics of ink removal, with respect to notation time and consumed air, was obtained for different particle and bubble sizes. Small bubbles were shown to be more effective, but led to higher fiber losses than large bubbles for a given ratio of consumed air. The design of the experimental cell was then improved in, such a way as to produce calibrated air bubbles of different sizes between 0.5 and 2 mm diameter, and to investigate separately the effect of turbulence generated in the notation cell. The results showed that the relation between the notation rate constant and bubble size depends on particle size and shape. The optimum ink particle size showed to be in the range of 10-100 mu m. The notation efficiencies decreased strongly with particle size in the case of flat shaped ink particles, while no significant efficiency drop was observed for the large particles in the case of calibrated laser inks. A turbulence increase improved significantly the removal efficiency except for the largest laser ink particles. The experimental results were compared with the theory developed in the field of mineral notation and showed quite good agreement with the theoretical relations as far as the effects of air ratio, bubble size and turbulence with respect to relatively small particle sizes are concerned.