(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
The Kleid A5 Grid Notes notebook is a lesson in minimalism for other notebooks. Aside from the tiny brand imprint on the front lower corner and a barcode on the back interior cover, there's zero fluff, branding, and extra organizational bits in this notebook. I like that some notebook manufacturers don't see the necessity behind adding trivia, branding, and contact info locations to the covers of their notebooks. Notebooks are utilitarian, and this lack of extra stuff reinforces that ethos. With Kleid, the A5 notebook is about as utilitarian as it gets.
At 210 x 148mm, this A5 softcover notebook doesn't have any surprises up its sleeves. The stitched binding is precise and strong, the cardstock covers are soft but resilient, and the paper between the covers is a warm ivory tone and features a tiny 2mm grid pattern to guide your words and drawings. And with 32 sheets at your disposal, you have just enough space for a single topic or journal type without any fear of running out of space prematurely.
The paper is fairly thin and handles most inks well enough. What it gains in portability from being thin, it loses a bit in handling wetter inks and nibs. For anything that isn't a fountain pen or rollerball ink, you have nothing to worry about. I takes ballpoints and gel inks beautifully. The paper is smooth and dependable. Aside from some noticeable show-through on the back of the page, there isn't any feathering or bleeding either. When using my massive 1.5mm Opus 88 nib with KWZ Gummiberry ink, it not only showed through on the back of the page, but it also made a few marks on the next page after that. Not ideal, and certainly something to note when you're determining the use for this notebook. Save the ultra-wide nibs and wet inks for a notebook or paper that was designed to handle it better!
Where the Kleid shines is portability and utility. It doesn't look rugged, but it is more than capable of surviving a few rough jostles in a bag along with some of your trust gel or ballpoint pens.
While I'm not a huge fan of the tiny 2mm grid pattern, it does easily fall out of sight when you're actually writing or drawing. It's a nice guide that can offer you a lot of precision when drawing something to scale, but I'm just not someone that can write small enough to take advantage of that. Fans of small grid patterns and tiny writing will love this, though.
The A5 notebook from Kleid comes in a variety of cover colors, like Black, Navy, and Grey, but they all feature the same paper inside. If you're looking for a durable, portable grid soft notebook with good (but thin) paper, the Kleid is certainly worth your attention. At $8 a notebook, it's also a good value when you factor in the size and quality of the materials.
(Vanness Pens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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