This is the Plum Blossom one, a true 20 x 20cm square, on a 5mm dot grid. The square is the interesting one. No page orientation, no implied top and bottom, so a spread reads as one wide field rather than two tall columns. The cover reads as a soft muted mauve, the pink of the blossom rather than the fruit, and behind it sit 80 sheets of 140gsm acid free paper that will take a fountain pen without complaining. The one for people who think in shapes, not lines, in a colour picked for people who want something quiet and warm without it reading as bubblegum.

★ ART SHED STAFF TIP

Run the elastic under the back cover rather than around the whole book while you are writing. It stops the band leaving a dent across the pages you have not used yet.

Perfect for

Mixed notes and drawingTrackersMind mapsStoryboardingSquare format workLayout and composition

The colour: Plum Blossom

The plum blossom, ume, opens in late winter while there is still snow on the branch, which is why it turns up constantly in Japanese poetry as the flower that refuses to wait for permission. The related traditional colour umemurasaki holds that same pale, slightly grey pink.

Traditional Japanese colour name: umemurasaki (梅紫)

What a 5mm dot grid actually gives you

Dot grid is the compromise that mostly wins. You get the same five millimetre structure as graph paper, but because the page is dots rather than rules, nothing you draw sits inside a cage. Write across it and the dots vanish behind the words. Draw on it and they become registration marks.

Choose dots when you do not know yet what the page needs to be. It is the ruling that suits people who plan, list and sketch in the same sitting. At 20 x 20cm you get a layout with room around it, which is the part people forget to think about until they are living with the book.

What you are actually getting

Paper

80 sheets, 160 sides, 140gsm acid free and FSC certified, in a slightly cream white that cuts glare

Ruling

5mm dot grid, printed edge to edge with no pre-printed margin

Cover

hard cover in Plum Blossom, with rounded corners that will not fray in a bag

Fittings

elastic closure band, bound-in bookmark ribbon and an expandable pocket in the back for loose notes

Questions about the dotted Plum Blossom notebook in 20 x 20cm

How far apart are the dots?

Five millimetres, the standard dot grid spacing used by most bullet journal layouts, so any spread or tracker you find online will map straight onto these pages.

Why choose dots over lines or grid?

Because one book can then do several jobs. Dots give you the same structure as graph paper but they disappear behind writing and act as registration marks behind drawing, so you are not committing the whole notebook to one kind of page.

Why would I want a square notebook?

Because a square has no built in orientation. There is no implied top and bottom the way there is on a portrait page, so a spread reads as one wide field. It suits layout work, composition roughs and anything destined for a square crop.

Will fountain pen ink bleed through this paper?

Very unlikely. The sheets are 140gsm, which is roughly double the weight of standard notebook paper, and Sakura specifies the stock as suitable for virtually any pen ink without bleed through. Very wet broad nibs and alcohol markers are always the exception on any uncoated paper, so test on the inside back cover first if you are using those.

How many pages do you actually get?

Eighty sheets, so 160 sides. At a page a day that is most of a working year, and at a spread a day it is about five months.

Is this stock held in Australia?

Yes. Art Shed holds this range in Australia and ships it Australia wide, so there is no overseas transit and no international shipping to pay. Our Melbourne store is in Moorabbin and our Brisbane store is in West End if you prefer to buy in person.

(NU94167206)

SKU NU94167206
Barcode # 8712079544546
Brand Sakura
Shipping Weight 0.5700kg
Shipping Width 0.050m
Shipping Height 0.050m
Shipping Length 0.050m

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