Posts filed under Maruman

Maruman A5 150-Sheet Spiral Notebook Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

There's always room in my stationery stash for another basic, utilitarian notebook — especially when it has a large number of pages.

The Maruman A5 Spiral Note is a 150-sheet (300-page) thick notebook that uses the great paper that Maruman is known for. While I call this "basic," I only mean that in a positive way. Yes, the design is basic and minimal, but the quality is there where it counts. There's not much branding or fluff — just lots of pages.

On the outside, the covers of this notebook are thick craft cardstock that should provide plenty of protection against minor scuffs, but it won't hold up to moisture very well. The covers are plenty to protect the pages from other things inside a bag. Outside of the print on the front cover, there is zero marketing or printing on the inside or back covers. Inside, the first non-page is the only marketing material you'll find, and it's easy to remove if you don't want it.

The paper is the same as other paper I've used in Maruman notebooks. The 80 gsm paper has a 6.5mm ruled line, and there space at the top for a subject, topic, date, or other metadata that you can use or ignore. The pages are all perforated, making it easy to rip individual sheets out. The outer corners of the pages are also rounded off, so they won't easily get caught on things in your bag.

In my testing, all types of ink and graphite work well on this paper. It's mostly smooth with a little bit of feedback. It definitely feels like there's a coating on the paper, but it's light and doesn't keep ink from drying quickly. It's not the same paper that Maruman uses in their Mnemosyne line, but it's still a great paper that performs well.

The binding on this notebook is a stout wire spiral that has a brass finish. I don't think it's real brass, but the color/finish matches the craft aesthetic of the covers. The thick wire will bend if enough force or weight is applied, but it's sturdy enough to be resilient against the typical forces inside a crowded bag.

This is a fantastic line of notebooks from Maruman. I love their sleek black notebooks, but I've always got room for the craft paper style that these notebooks pull off so well. While you can choose from lined or dot grid in some of the notebooks, the large capacity 150-sheet versions only come in lined rule. And, they even come in A4 and B5 sizes too.

At $8.50 for this notebook, it's an incredible value. You get a lot of great paper for this price, and that makes it easy to recommend. This is great if you want a lot of capacity for a single purpose or just something that will last a long time provided you take care of the covers. The Maruman Spiral Note is now one of my top recommendations for no-frills, great quality notebooks available in A5, A4, and B5 sizes.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on May 21, 2025 by Jeff Abbott and filed under Maruman, Notebook Reviews.

Maruman Utöka Pocket Notebook Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

My philosophy when it comes to notebooks is that there's always room for one more. This philosophy is in direct conflict the lack of adequate storage for the notebooks or enough time to fill them all. But, for better or worse, the philosophy of never turning down a new notebook always wins.

The Maruman Utöka Pocket notebook is the latest notebook to find a home in my collection. This is a small spiral-bound notebook with 80 sheets of 4mm graph paper, and 10 sheets of lined "list" paper at the back. All 90 sheets are perforated, making them easy and clean to tear out. And, these sheets are made of 70gsm paper that works really well with all types of writing instruments. Fun fact about the name: Utöka means "expand" or "extend" in Swedish.

Despite this notebook looking like a top-bound steno-style book, it's laid out to be used with the binding on the side. In practice, it's like using a standard A5 notebook that's been sliced in half. I actually like having the extra horizontal space instead of the typical vertical space you get with most notebook orientations.

Since "pocket" is part of the name for this notebook, you might assume that it can fit in something like, say, a pocket, but you'd be wrong! It is a small notebook, but there aren't many pockets that will hold it. At a total size of 107 x 163mm (4.2 x 6.4 inches), it's very portable, but not pocketable. For most people, a pocket notebook is something around 3.5 x 5.5 inches. It's just barely too big to work well with pockets.

The usable sheet dimensions are close the A6 size (105 x 148mm) at 107 x 142mm, meaning there's plenty of space to let your ideas and sketches breathe. The 4mm grid also provides lots of structure while also disappearing if you want to freeform.

Maruman paper is always a delight to use, but most of my experience with their paper is in their Mnemosyne line. With the Utöka notebook, they use a little lighter paper, but it still performs well. It's done great with all the pens and inks I've thrown at it. There's a small amount of show-through when using some inks, but it's not enough to make the back of the page unusable. There's no feathering or bleeding or other weird ink behaviors to speak of. It's a consistent paper that works really well.

The covers of this notebook are a sturdy cardstock material with a glossy coating on the exterior faces. The covers should stand up to minor wear and tear, but I'd expect to see plenty of bends and deterioration with lots of use. Likewise, the double-wire binding is really sturdy, and I love that they've colored the wire a nice gray to complement the color of the cover.

At $7.75, the Maruman Utöka Pocket notebook is a good value. It's perfect for jotting down notes, sketching out ideas, and throwing into a bag to carry along. While it's not a true pocket notebook, it's still very portable and up to the challenge of being a notebook you carry frequently. Plus, if the yellow isn't quite your thing, there are four other accent colors available! You can pick from yellow, red, navy, light green, and light blue.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on January 15, 2025 by Jeff Abbott and filed under Maruman, Notebook Reviews.

Maruman Bodoni A5 Notebook with Cover Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, The Atropine Tree, is now available!)

This Maruman Bodoni A5 Notebook is the ultimate in minimalist elegance. I wouldn't normally think that about something so aggressively orange, but the design of it is so sleek that it screams fancy. But it's not! JetPens has the Maruman Bodoni notebook for just $17.50. And it does come in Black or Blue if you need something for your more formal writing events.

The cover is made from a very thin sheet of faux leather. It's firm enough to serve as a writing surface, but soft enough to be flexible. The front inside cover is a rounded folded flap embossed with a portrait of Giambattista Bodoni, who was a typographer and printer in Italy in the 17th century. The inside back cover is a folder pocket where the notebook's insert slides in. The cover closes with an elastic band around the middle.

The insert is an A5 Maruman notebook with 40 sheets of 60gsm blank paper. A 3-pack of the refills costs $13.00. Because they're so slim, you might need a few extras on hand. Other thin notebooks will fit in this cover, as well, so you can substitute your favorite if you have a preference.

The paper inside the insert was fairly good, although it did show some feathering and bleeding with liquid inks in broad nibs. Dark rollerball ink had enough show-through that it would be difficult to use the back side of a page. The paper was fantastic for fine nibbed pens, gel pens, or pencils. The notebook has a glue binding that allows the pages to be cleanly removed, but has enough hold that the pages stay attached if you don't peel them.

The highlight of this notebook is really its slim simplicity. While it's not enough paper for penning an epic work of writing, it would be great for meeting notes. It's thin enough to slip it into a laptop sleeve alongside your tech and it was great to take traveling when I needed to pack light.

While it might not be fine leather or the best quality paper, it looks and feels like a very fancy product and it's been quite enjoyable to use. If you're looking for a well-made, minimal, elegant notebook without the high price tag, this is perfect.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!