Review: Uni-Ball Signo DX Golden Yellow 0.5mm

I guess I should have saved my green covered Clairefontaine Twin Book review for St. Patrick's Day, huh? Oh well, the equally cool colored - yet unfortunately named - Uni-Ball Signo DX Golden Yellow 0.5mm golden yellow is pretty darn good in its own right. (EDIT: this is the 0.5mm model - thanks to eagle eyed commented Laura for the catch!)

I had no idea whatsoever how much I would enjoy this color, but it works great in so many different situations. On its own, it is dark enough show up well on any white background paper. The shade of the ink leans a little toward orange, but there is plenty of yellow that pops off the page. As I mentioned in the written review, what I use this pen a lot for is in conjunction with one or two other colors when I am taking notes. It goes perfectly with many of my favorites, such as blue black, light blue, and purple, and finds its way into a bunch of my multi pen setups.

It should go without saying at this point that the performance of any Signo DX pen is going to be top notch, and this one os no different. If you are looking to step outside of your regular color spectrum, give golden yellow a shot. I like it so much, I even have the live webcam while I'm blogging this post from my laptop t-shirt to prove it:

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Brad Dowdy.

Review: Clairefontaine Twin Book

This great new Clairefontaine Twin Book notebook was provided to me for review by my good friends at Exaclair, Inc. I was really happy to see it included in a recent package of goodies from them, and promptly set forth to put it to use.

I like to keep a journal, but it is notes and ideas based more than diary style, so the Twin Book setup is right up my alley. The notebook is essentially divided into two sections by the first half of the book having notched out pages, making for 48 pages in each half. This makes for a clean division between the two. What I have already started using this notebook for is blogging notes for The Pen Addict, and my new fantasy baseball blog called NL Only. I like to jot down ideas for future posts as I have them, or plan out and research articles that may get fully fleshed out down the line. The way I used my journal, I went from page to page in order, and just tagged my entry as "blog" or "baseball" or some other tag. I could have been proactive and hacked up my journal, or added tabs, but I'm lazy, so the Twin Book is coming in more than handy.

The dimensions of the Twin Book also suit my needs perfectly. I have always been a fan of the traditional Mead Composition Book, and this notebook is approximately the same size. It has a soft, staple-bound cover, and the cover is scored on the binding on both the front and back to allow for the cover to bend back and stay put easily. Little features like that makes this a wonderful notebook to use.

What is a Clairefontaine review without talking about the paper? If you are not familiar with their 90g paper that populates many of their products, then you should pick some up because you are in for a real treat. It is silky smooth to the touch, and holds all types of inks very well. I completely forgot to photograph the back of the ink sample page, but trust me when I say that the only ink I could even see through the paper was from the Sharpie Ultra Fine permanent marker, which is to be expected. The other pens I couldn't see through the page in the slightest, and that included the Sailor Ink Bar and Platinum Preppy fountain pens. You may have a little see through with a wide nib fountain pen or bold gel or liquid ink pen, but I think even that would be minimal. The Clairefontaine paper is exceptional.

I plan on the Twin Book being one of my main companion books in my backpack. The setup, size, and paper quality are exactly what I am looking for when it comes to a notebook, and I plan on using it heavily. Big thanks to Karen and Stephanie for sending me these samples. It is much appreciated, and there is more to come!