The everyday one, the size most people mean when they say notebook. Tall enough to write properly in, narrow enough that it does not fight you for space on a cafe table next to a coffee. This one comes ruled at 7mm, on 80 sheets of 140gsm acid free paper heavy enough that a fountain pen will not push through to the other side. The Pine Needle cover reads as a dark muted green, closer to a forest floor than to a lawn, which suits anyone who wants a colour that disappears politely into a desk or a shelf.

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FSC certified and acid free means the pages are not going to yellow and go brittle on you. If you are keeping these on a shelf for years, that matters more than it sounds.

Perfect for

DraftingLists and planningLanguage studyHandwriting practiceEveryday carryDesk and cafe

The colour: Pine Needle

Matsuba-iro is named directly for pine needles, and pine in Japan carries the idea of something that stays green while everything around it gives up for the winter. It is a green with almost no sweetness in it.

Traditional Japanese colour name: matsuba-iro (松葉色)

What 7mm ruling actually gives you

Plenty of notebooks rule at 6mm, which is why handwriting ends up looking squashed in them. Seven gives it room to breathe without turning the page into mostly empty space, and it is the spacing that suits an italic nib or a brush pen rather than fighting one.

Ruled is the straightforward choice for prose. If most of what goes in the book will be sentences, lines keep it tidy without you having to think about it. At 13 x 21cm you get a full sentence without wrapping, which is the part people forget to think about until they are living with the book.

What you are actually getting

Paper

80 sheets of 140gsm, acid free so it will not yellow, FSC certified, and cream toned for easier reading under artificial light

Ruling

7mm ruled lines, printed edge to edge with no pre-printed margin

Cover

rigid Pine Needle hard cover with rounded corners, which is what keeps it tidy after months of being pushed in and out of a bag

Fittings

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

Questions about the ruled Pine Needle notebook in 13 x 21cm

Is there a margin printed on the page?

No printed margin, just clean full-width ruling edge to edge. If you want a margin you rule your own, which is the flexible way round.

Can I still sketch in a ruled notebook?

You can, and plenty of people do, but if drawing is more than an occasional thing the dot grid version is the better buy. Lines are hard to ignore behind a drawing in a way that dots are not.

Is this the same as A5?

Close but not identical. A true A5 is 14.8 x 21cm and this is 13 x 21cm, so it is the same height but a couple of centimetres narrower. Worth knowing if you are buying a cover or matching it to existing books on a shelf.

Does it lie flat when you open it?

Not on day one, and no hardcover of this construction does. Open it flat in the middle a few times and work outwards over the first week and it will stay open on a table from then on.

What is in the back pocket for?

It is an expandable gusseted pocket bound into the inside back cover, meant for loose notes. In practice people use it for receipts, business cards, postcards, swatch cards and the scraps of paper they would otherwise lose.

Can I see one before I buy it?

Yes, if you can get to a store. Art Shed has a Melbourne store in Moorabbin and a Brisbane store in West End, both family owned and Australian run. Otherwise we ship Australia wide from local stock and orders move quickly.

(NU94146903)

SKU NU94146903
Barcode # 8712079544362
Brand Sakura
Shipping Weight 0.3900kg
Shipping Width 0.050m
Shipping Height 0.050m
Shipping Length 0.050m

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