A paper range on a pale desk

Mill-made paper, sewn by hand

120 gsm, sewn in signatures, lies flat

The pen test on every product page shows what bleeds and what does not, on the paper you are actually buying.

  • 120 gsm Paper
  • 192 Pages
  • A5 Size

The stock

How big the page is, and what it takes

Drawn to scale from the real trimmed size. Every pen below was tested on this exact stock.

Actual size

  • This notebook — 148 × 210 mm
  • A5 — 148 × 210 mm
  • A4 — 210 × 297 mm

The stock

Weight
120 gsm
Finish
Uncoated, lightly sized
Shade
Cream, not bright white
Pages
192, numbered
Binding
Sewn signatures, opens flat
Mill
Named on the inside cover

Pen test

  • Fountain pen, medium nib Clean
  • Gel pen, 0.5 mm Clean
  • Fineliner, 0.3 mm Ghosts
  • Alcohol marker Bleeds

Each pen was drawn on this exact stock by hand. A humid day and a heavier hand both move the result.

How it is bound

Four bindings, and what each one is for

A binding decides whether a book opens flat, survives a bag, or can be added to. Here is what we use and when.

  • Demo close-up photograph of a botanical binding

    Sewn signatures

    96 to 288 pages

    Opens flat at any page and survives being carried in a bag for a year.

    Our own bindery

  • Demo close-up photograph of a botanical binding

    Section-sewn, cloth spine

    144 to 320 pages

    Cotton cloth over board, so the spine takes a thousand shelvings without breaking.

    Our own bindery

  • Demo close-up photograph of a botanical binding

    Saddle-stitched

    32 to 64 pages

    Two staples through the fold. Cheap on purpose, for a notebook you fill in a month.

    Our own bindery

Questions

Asked before a first order

Demo photograph of a notebook open on a desk
Will a fountain pen bleed through?

Not on the 100 gsm stock with a fine or medium nib. Broad nibs and wet inks ghost slightly on the 80 gsm pads. Every product page has a pen test photo, front and back, with the inks named.

How many pages is it?

Page count, not sheet count: a 192-page notebook has 96 sheets. Every page is printed with its number, and the page says whether the count includes the index pages at the front.

Does it open flat?

Sewn and cloth-bound books open flat from the first page. Saddle-stitched pads open flat by nature. Glued bindings do not — which is why we do not make any.

Where is the paper from?

The paper is 100 gsm laid stock from a mill in Punjab, named on the product page, and the handmade deckle-edge sheets are from a workshop in Sialkot. Where we cannot name the mill, the page says so.

  • Demo product photograph Paper firstTry the stocks before you commitA sample of all six papers, with the pen test already done.Order the sample pack
  • Demo product photograph RefillsEvery notebook takes a refillKept for five years after the last print run.Find a refill
  • Named millPrinted on the inside cover
  • Pen testedIncluding the pens that bleed
  • Flat-packedBoarded, so corners arrive square
  • Rebound, not replacedBring it back when the spine goes
Demo photograph of a notebook open on a desk

Why the weight is on the cover

Paper you can compare by number, bound so it opens flat

Grams per square metre, the mill, the binding and the pen test are printed for every notebook, because those four things decide whether a page takes ink and whether the book survives a year in a bag.

  • Paper weight and mill on every cover
  • Sewn or stapled — never glued
  • Pen-tested with the inks named, front and back
  • Bound in our own bindery

From the bindery

What we are making

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