What do you get when a software company who puts a lot of thought and care into their product ventures into the analog world? A notebook built with the same philosophy, executed well.
I admit I was hugely skeptical of the iA Notebook. I used their wonderful distraction-free writing app, iA Writer, in my early days of blogging, and have always held a soft spot for its design and functionality. Translating that experience into a physical good, though? I’m glad they were up for the challenge.
The core feature of the iA Notebook are the watermarked pages. Watermarks are typically an identification marker of the paper maker, usually only seen on the page when held up to light. iA has taken that concept and made the watermark functional by using those subtle marks as the lines on the page. Yes, this is a lined notebook.
Can you make out the subtle lines?
While great in concept, they are challenging to see when writing. Notebook pages aren’t backlit, so you need good lighting to stay on the lines. I often found myself tilting my head to ensure I could see where I was writing. Luckily, they are spaced at 10 mm apart, so you have plenty of room if you wander.
I tested all kinds of pens, pencils, and inks on the paper, and it held up well to most of it. The 81g Araveal White used in this notebook is slightly textured, and uncoated, giving it performance characteristics of a dry page. That means inks dry fast, but you lose some of the character (shading, sheen,) that fountain pen inks are known for. The ink gets into the top layer of the page, but didn’t bleed through to the back, and didn’t feather on the top.
The finer the nib, the more I enjoyed the ink experience, which is odd to say. Lines from wet nibs seemed to be oversaturated, while the finer nibs gave my lines more color balance. It’s like the lighter application of ink didn’t have a chance to get deep into the fibers, and was allowed to show off the ink characteristics.
One of the best inks to test paper absorption is the rollerball ink of the Schmidt P8127, and it wasn’t great. This water-based ink wouldn’t be my choice for this paper, as it did have some feathering. Fineliners were not great either, as the dry paper didn’t allow the ink to grab well from the plastic tip, giving them a pencil-like feeling. Alcohol ink Sharpies showed off how the ink absorbs into the top layer of the page, but didn’t immediately blast through the back and on to the next page. Gel and ballpoint inks were nice to use, and pencils felt great.
Cotton swab ink swatches.
Taking away any performance preferences, the build of the iA Notebook gets an A+. It’s solid, with thick front and back covers, and a cloth/mesh binding. It’s an object, as well as a notebook.
If the design gets an A+, I’d rate the paper as a B. As I mentioned earlier, it’s usable for many types of pens, but not universally great. It doesn’t have the all-around performance that you get from top Japanese brands like Maruman and Midori, and it may be more in the Leuchtturm zone for fountain pens, which is good, but not elite.
One note on the 10mm line spacing: If you stay committed to the lines, and don’t use the back side of the page due to ghosting, you are giving up a ton of writing real estate. At this cost per acre, that’s tough.
Ghosting. Not sure I’d love writing on both sides of the page.
The watermark lines of the iA Notebook are its killer deign feature, and, along with the packaging, turned it into the design award winning notebook that it is. But it has to be functional, too. I’d much prefer it as a standard blank page notebook, but then iA wouldn’t get to show off the cool features and construction they have here. I love it as an object, there are better choices for performance.
At $79, the iA Notebook is on the upper end of the pricing spectrum. Is it fairly priced given the design and quality of the product? Probably. It’s close. I’d personally love to see if they could create a blank page option and get the price down to a still expensive $49-$59, but that’s just me wishcasting. I think iA knows their market for this, and they are leaning into what the company has always been about: design.
(I purchased this notebook from iA at full price.)
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