Notebook Review: LiveNotes Notebooks by PenGallery

LiveNotes notebooks, Pen Gallery exclusives

When you use fountain pens, it's always a joyous event when you find a paper product that tolerates fountain pen writing. After shifting to using fountain pens for everyday writing, I stopped looking at beautiful and colorful notebooks and pads. I always check the paper quality before buying them. Imagine my happiness when I received Pen Gallery's LiveNotes notebooks! LiveNotes are exclusively produced and sold by the Malaysian store using the well-known fountain pen friendly Tomoe River paper. The series offer notepads and notebooks in different sizes, all with 68gsm Tomoe River paper.

Created especially for fountain pen lovers, LiveNotes are available in the following formats and sizes: Notepad A4, Notebooks in B5, B6, A5, and A6, TN regular refill, TN passport refill, ink diary, and wire-bound hardcover A5 notebook.

LiveNotes Notebook A5 Purple Mangis

Of all notebook sizes out there, the A5 (5.8 × 8.3 inches) is my favorite for writing. My notebooks for journaling, daily notes, work notes, ink diary, and health tracking are all in A5. To me, the A5 size is like a large room with enough space for everything—it's large enough for my notes and doodles. LiveNotes A5 is such a nice notebook because it has 68gsm Tomoe River paper with 5mm dot grid. It's not thick even though it has 64 pages or 16 sheets of paper. It's perfect for diary keeping, junk journals, and bullet journaling. LiveNotes A5 notebook is also available in blue, green, and orange covers.

LiveNotes A5 Notebook in Purple Manggis (mangosteen)

LiveNotes Notebook B6 Green

LiveNotes notebooks are also available in B6 size (4.9 × 6.9 inches). This notebook is smaller than the A5, but larger than the usual pocket-sized notebooks. I haven't tried B6 notebooks before, and I find this bright green one perfect for daily notes and lists, but I want to make it my "quotes journal." I love writing down quotes from famous personalities, books, movies, and even from my favorite Netflix series (Hello, Good Witch!). I'll collect my favorite quotes and write them in this B6 notebook. Similar to the A5 Purple Manggis, this B6 Green notebook has 64 pages of 68gsm Tomoe River paper with 5mm dot grid. 

LiveNotes B6 Notebook in Green

LiveNotes Notebook A6 Pink

This pocket-sized A6 (4.1 × 5.8 inches) LiveNotes notebook is so handy and useful! It's small compared with its A5 and B6 cousins, but it fits into small bags, and can even be an insert inside my A5 notebooks. This notebook is perfect for lists, random notes, and reminders. I have written my list of medications and emergency numbers in this notebook and I'm keeping it in my daily carry. And because this notebook has Tomoe River paper, I can now use a fountain pen in writing down notes while I'm at the grocery or drugstore. Pen Gallery lists this notebook's cover as pink, but my camera interpreted it as orange. Pink or orange, I don't mind as long as it has Tomoe River paper.  

Live Notes A6 Notebook in Pink

I have a number of notebooks with 52gsm Tomoe River paper, and sometimes I still get bad ink bleed or feathering. LiveNotes has 68gsm Tomoe River paper, and writing on it is a different experience. My pens' nibs simply glide on this smooth, luxurious paper. Some of my pens with scratchy nibs wrote smoothly on this paper.

LiveNotes notebooks use 68gsm Tomoe River paper with 5mm dot grid

To test the 68gsm Tomoe River paper in LiveNotes notebooks, I used a whole page in the A5 Purple Manggis to test most of my inked pens. This paper really showed the shading in some of my inks, and all of my pens wrote so smoothly! Even the scratchy ones! 

Pen and ink tests in LIveNotes notebooks' 68gsm Tomoe River paper.

Look! No bleed! Err—Baystate Blue bled. But BSB bleeds on almost anything! 

Of all the 38 pens I tested on this paper, only the Lamy Vista bled because it was filled with the notorious Noodler's Baystate Blue. 

I love all the LiveNotes notebooks and will definitely get some when I use them all. They are friendly to fountain pens, useful, handy, and affordable. The LiveNotes A5 costs ~US$3.14, while the B6 is priced at US$2.90, and the A6 at US$2.31. Do you want to write on smooth paper and never worry about bleed tough and feathering? Get LiveNotes notebooks!

Rants of The Archer thanks Pen Gallery for providing the LiveNotes notebooks in this review. Visit their website to learn more about their products and new brand offerings. offers worldwide shipping. For more updates, follow Pen Gallery on social media:

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For Winter, Let's Have Cold Horizon

(Courtesy of Bryan Bedell / fieldnotesbrand.com)

And Field Notes has done it again. Wow me with their notebooks, that is. 2013's Winter FIELD NOTES COLORS limited edition release has been revealed! Cold Horizon, the sibling to my 2011 Winter FIELD NOTES COLORS pack, Northerly is here! 

Field Notes' 21st COLORS edition features three seasonally-inspired colors, a blend of three blues across all three notebooks, invoking the deeply saturated winter twilight sky, fluorescent glacial water, and the shiny metallic glimmer of the Aurora Borealis. These notebooks are BLUE!!! Did they make these for me?

The notebook covers are printed on glossy UV-coated 120lb (178gsm) Appleton Utopia One stock. Arranged side by side, or back to back, the blues fade evenly from notebook to notebook, evoking a single, wintery gradient.

(Courtesy of Bryan Bedell / fieldnotesbrand.com)

Each of the three notebooks from the Cold Horizon limited edition pack uses Finch Opaque 50lb (74gsm) paper with a 3/16" gray graph grid. The grid pages of the three notebooks correspond to the colors of their covers: light green, light blue, and cool gray. How cool is that? It's like getting three different notebooks when you buy a pack of Cold Horizon.

(Courtesy of Bryan Bedell / fieldnotesbrand.com)

My small tiny Field Notes collection includes (left to right): Northerly, Winter 2011; Red Blooded; Traveling Salesman, Fall 2012; and Day Game, Summer 2012. I'm waiting for my local source of Field Notes notebooks, Avalon.ph, to stock up on Cold Horizon so I can add it to the lot.

For more information about the FIELD NOTES Brand notebooks, visit their website at http://fieldnotesbrand.com/. 

To read more about their limited edition COLORS notebook packs, and how to buy them, go to: http://fieldnotesbrand.com/colors./.

Notebook Review: Banditapple Carnet

I first read about Banditapple Carnet notebooks in June when my friend Julie wrote a review in her blog. Out of curiosity, I sent an email to Banditapple's creator and owner, Arnie Kim, to ask for sample products to review on the blog. Three months of waiting and chasing the guys at our Post Office, I received the lovely notebooks that Arnie sent to me. 

Banditapple Carnet notebooks are sold by its creator and owner, Arnie Kim from Seoul, South Korea, though they are all hand-made in Vietnam. Arnie said that his notebooks are now available in stationery stores not only in South Korea, but also in selected stores in Japan.

The notebooks come in three sizes (Peewee, Handy, and Tablet) and two cover colors (Hanoi Red and Saigon Black). All Banditapple Carnet notebook sizes are available in either blank or ruled paper with 64 pages of acid-free, 80gsm off-white paperstock. The cover used on the notebooks is plain cardstock which makes them look very simple, and almost anonymous and unbranded. But I like that. I'm also glad that Arnie sent me samples of all available notebook sizes and covers, and that he sent me notebooks with both blank and ruled pages.

Peewee in Saigon Black cover with my first generation pink Lamy Safari.

Peewee is the smallest among the three available notebook sizes of Banditapple Carnet. It measures 3.5 x 5.5 inches, sized like a pocket Clairefontaine notebook, Venzi, or Field Notes. The photo below shows the Peewee on top, and all the notebooks I mentioned underneath it. All notebooks have the same dimensions, they just differ in either their binding (stapled or stitched) or corner cuts. Since I received the Banditapple Carnet notebooks, I've made the Peewee my 'ink diary'. It's the perfect thin, small, black notebook I can carry with me anywhere because it fits in the plastic zipper pocket of my Midori TN. When I need to see how a certain ink behaves in a particular pen, I just pull out my Peewee.

Handy in Saigon Black cover with my yellow Lamy Safari.

Handy, the 'middle' size, measures 4.25 x 8.25 inches. This notebook made me very happy as soon as I saw it. Why? Because it's the same size as my Midori Traveler's Notebook's refills! And what's better, the Banditapple Handy have round page corners.

Banditapple Handy in Hanoi Red cover on top, Midori Traveler's Notebook refill below.

See? Banditapple's Handy fits my Midori TN perfectly!

Tablet in Hanoi Red cover, with my LE orange Lamy Safari.

Tablet, the biggest Banditapple notebook, measures 5.125 x 8.25 inches. It is sized like a large Moleskine or Rhodia Webbie, or as shown below, a soft cover large Venzi notebook. I got a blank Banditapple Tablet, and I may just turn it into a sketch/doodle/calligraphy notebook later.

Banditapple Tablet in Hanoi Red cover on top, soft cover Venzi below.

The other wonderful feature of Banditapple Carnet notebooks is their binding — the pages are stitched — not stapled, not glued, but stitched. A single signature is stitched to the cover, and the notebooks' stitching match the color of their covers.

Neat stitching on spine...

...and on the notebook's pages.

And now, the best part about these wonderful notebooks: the paper. Banditapple uses 80gsm off-white (read: not-so-white), acid-free paper. Dr. Matthias Meckel, blogger at Bleistift, wrote that Arnie spent more than two years to find the right paper for his notebooks. And his efforts paid off. Banditapple Carnet notebooks have one of the best papers I've ever tried with my fountain pens.

Banditapple uses a .25 inch page ruling; top margin of .75 inch, and bottom margin of .625 inch. Ruling has been printed using soy type ink.

The pages have no side margins, though. The ruling extends to the edges of the page spread.

And I saved the best for last: the pen and ink tests on Banditapple's Handy notebook. Because the Handy is a tall notebook, I was able to test a couple of pens on a page, including fountain pens, a rollerball, gelpens, and a permanent marker. I like using different pen types to test a notebook's paper because it shows me instantly how the pens and inks react to it.

Banditapple uses paper that is not smooth and shiny white. But it is very excellent for fountain pen use, especially to very broad and wet nibs such as those on my Esterbrook pens. The Esterbrook LJ and Trans J pens below both have 9968 (firm broad) nibs and I did not see any feathering or bleed at all. Even the badly notorious bleeder called Noodler's Midnight Blue behaved so well on this paper. I also noticed that some ink types even showed better color in Banditapple's paper, like Edelstein Jade and J. Herbin Bleu Myosotis. Drying takes a longer time compared to other paper types, but that is just fine.

All in a page: 21 fountain pens, 1 rollerball, 9 gelpens, 1 permanent marker.

Banditapple paper up close. Ink is  J. Herbin Café des îles. I love the pure, cottony goodness of paper on a close shot like this. And even at a very close view, I just don't see the ink feathering on paper.

This is how the back of the pen and ink test page looks like. Not one of the 21 fountain pens bled or feathered, but the Sharpie permanent marker just had to bleed very badly. But that's how Sharpie behaves on almost all of the paper types I have ever tested.

Lastly, here is the Peewee notebook that I have made into an 'ink diary'. Very cool. I like keeping an 'ink diary' because it's a way of keeping an informal inventory of my inks and pens. And I am very strict with myself that whenever I fill a pen, I have to write down the date, ink type, and pen used so I have an ink/pen reference.

If you need more information about these wonderful notebooks, Arnie Kim's contact details are on his site, http://www.banditapple.com/. Or you can email him using this email address: owner@banditapple.com if you want to discuss notebook orders. You can place orders for his notebooks in bulk and he will gladly give you a good price and a choice of whether to ship by air (faster), or water/surface (slower by 2 weeks, but then, the package gets to you). This is the best way of ordering from Arnie at the moment.

I am not affiliated with Banditapple Company, I am just a very satisfied owner of these wonderful and amazing notebooks.

The Banditapple Carnet notebooks used in this review are from the Banditapple Company through its creator and owner, Arnie Kim. The other notebooks, pens and inks used in this review all belong to my personal collection.

Notebook Review: Midori Traveler's Notebook

The Midori Traveler's Notebook has been one of my grail notebooks for the longest time. When I started collecting (and using) high-quality notebooks, I read about it at Patrick Ng's Scription site, and instantly fell in love with it. I wanted it, but I knew I could not have one. Yet. It was expensive and not available here in the Philippines. So I just continued to ogle at the thousands of Midori Traveler's Notebook photos on Flickr.

Unknown to me, the Philippines' biggest seller of fountain pen related stuff, Scribe Writing Essentials, has began stocking up and selling this highly coveted cultish notebook. After talking to its owner, Marian Ong, a notebook set was sent to me for review, pronto.

Marian sent me a large black Traveler's Notebook (TN) and I was instantly amazed by its Japanese packaging style, which is both presentation and function. Midori's packaging is minimalist and simple, yet elegant and classy. The notebook is packaged very well inside what looks like a thin box made from kraft paper, held together by a firm black elastic band. A small flyer about the notebook is also included in the packaging.

Inside the box are: large black leather Midori TN, cotton slipcase for the notebook, blank notebook refill (003), and a spare red elastic band to hold the notebook cover and refills. The soft cowhide leather of the Midori notebook/journal (sourced from Chiang Mai, Thailand), and the wide variety of changeable inserts, embellishments and other accessories give it a unique charm and magic.

The first thing on my mind when I saw my Midori TN is the paper used in the notebook refill. Paper is very important to me as I am a regular user of fountain pens. And I am ready and willing to forego any notebook if the paper cannot tolerate my very wet fountain pens and very saturated inks. Would it stand fountain pen use? Or would ink feather and bleed through its pages? Luckily for Midori TN, I knew that I can make my own refills, so paper is not an issue, but I'll discuss that towards the later part of this review.

The blank notebook refill has a kraft board cover and 64 pages of cream-colored paper . The inside cover page is printed with an upright rectangular box and the Midori logo.

As soon as the notebook was out of the box, it's customization galore!!! The first thing I did was to change the elastic bands. I opted to use the red band to give the notebook some contrast and brightness. The tiny round thing on the upper left corner of the notebook cover holds the elastic bands that keep the notebook inserts in place.

I rummaged through my boxes of stuff and found a small glass bead charm I could use to secure the end of the Midori TN's thin bookmark. Lovely, isn't it?

Next, I made my own refills using pages off my large Rhodia dotPad. I went to a printer, had them saddle-stapled several notebooks, and trimmed according to the Midori TN refill size. I recycled Starbucks paper bags as covers for my new refill notebooks. I had fun making Dymo tags for them too.

The first notebook is for lists of everything I have done and finished the whole day --  an inverted 'to-do' list.

The second refill is for my notes. Any notes. Blog ideas, project concepts, sketches, hand drawn maps, phone numbers, pen and paper stores, ink notes, restaurant bestsellers, etc.

Refill number three is a microjournal, called so because I have a full journal already. I just want to have a journal in my Midori TN. I have small writeups in this notebook about places I visited, postcards I received, books I've read, or movies I've watched.

I have also included Midori's plastic zipper pocket refill. This refill has one large zippered pocket and another pocket without a zipper. The zippered pocket can hold a lot of stuff, especially small pieces of paper such as receipts, stamps, business cards. Sometimes I put a pen or two inside and still manage to zip it. The pocket without zipper can accommodate bigger sizes of paper like postcards, prescription notes, etc.

Perhaps you've noticed that I've added another bookmark to my Midori TN with a new charm. I made one more bookmark for my "Finished/Done" notebook, as the original bookmark/charm is used on my microjournal. I love these charms!

But the customization does not end there for my Midori TN. It's now full of stickers and stuff (stamps, tea bag tags, postcards, etc. I know there will be more of these as the leather gets more scratches and scuffs softens with use and becomes more beautiful. 

Finally, the paper test. The refill that came with my Midori TN is blank. As I have difficulty writing on blank pages, I went ahead and ordered a ruled/lined refill which is what I used in the pen and ink test below. The cream-colored paper used in the ruled/lined refill is Midori paper. There are two types of paper used on Midori's notebook refills. One is Midori Diary (MD) Paper, the other is Designphil Pocket Book (DP) Paper. A note in the Midori website (here) gives a full explanation on the differences of the two paper types.

Midori Paper is smooth and thankfully fountain pen friendly. Some ink types showed feathering, but not one of all the inks I tested here bled.

Below is the back of the pen and ink test I did. There is not bleeding at all. The tiny blob of orange is show through, but it is very mild and not very noticeable. I say I'll be using this refill for another microjournal when my own refills ran out of pages.

I've kept the red elastic band for now and rotate several black bands with different combinations of trinkets and charms. One band has a small pewter elephant, another has a series of different color beads with a drop of olive green Swarovski stones, rescued from an earring without a matching pair. I've also changed charms since, and I have ordered a batch of lovely charms from a local supplier. I have stocked up on black elastic band from a local crafts store and just yesterday, I got a set of vintage letterstamps I'll use for more fun of notebook customizations. Will I use this notebook for how long it will be serviceable? Yes. With a notebook as versatile as the Midori TN, who wouldn't? The possibilities with the Midori Traveler's Notebook is excitingly never-ending!

The large Midori Traveler's Notebook used in this review is courtesy of Scribe Writing Essentials, and the regular, passport size notebooks and their refills are all available in their Eastwood City Mall store. A regular/large Midori Traveler's Notebook set sells for PHP2,595 (~US$61), while a passport-sized notebook costs PHP2,295 (~US$54). If you are somewhere in Asia, and would like to try the possibility of ordering from them, give them a call at +63 2 487 6339.