
Custom-printed Moleskine notebooks - kirillzubovsky
http://www.fiftythree.com/book
======
spodek
Am I missing something with Moleskine notebooks?

I kept a diary for two decades, going through over two dozen notebooks in the
process. In graduate school I also kept lab notes for years. I used cheap
notebooks. Never did I see the value of Moleskines justifying their five- to
ten-times higher cost.

Am I missing something?

They only remind me of this Onion article --
[http://www.theonion.com/articles/privileged-little-
artiste-w...](http://www.theonion.com/articles/privileged-little-artiste-
writing-something-ohsopr,6938)

 _Privileged Little Artiste Writing Something Oh-So-Precious Into His
Moleskine Notebook_

 _SAN FRANCISCO—After gently unfastening the elastic strap keeping his dearest
musings safe from prying eyes, little literary artiste Evan Stansky penned a
few more darling thoughts into his clothbound Moleskine notebook Wednesday.
"These are much higher quality than the notebooks you find at CVS," lilted the
auteur, who couldn't be bothered to use—dare it be said—a journal of lesser
craftsmanship or pedigree, or one not famously used by such legendary artists
as van Gogh and Hemingway. "They're a little more expensive, but I try to
write on both sides so I don't go through them as quickly." At press time, the
princely scribe was seen finishing his apricot jasmine tea, asking a mere
mortal sitting nearby to watch his literary accoutrements, and then prancing
off to the Starbucks powder room, light as a feather._

~~~
Swizec
They are just notebooks. But so far they are the only notebook I have been
able to keep in my arse pocket for months on end without it falling apart.
Most other notebooks start shedding pages after a few weeks of being exposed
to heavy sweating in the summer, and the general wear and tear of bending
every which way when you're walking and sitting down.

Moleskine handles it like a champ.

I also really like the form factor. Especially for the big soft cover
moleskines. I'm not sure exactly why, but the dimensions are just perfect for
me and I haven't been able to find anything else that's similar.

~~~
drewcrawford
Actually, I have found the opposite--at least as far as the grid pocket
notebooks go, Moleskine paper and build quality has been inconsistent-
bordering-on-bad [1]. In addition, I find dot paper superior to grid paper as
it is more unobtrusive, but Moleskine has no dot configuration whatsoever in
its product line.

The two notebooks I tend to rely on are the Rhodia Webnotebook and the
Leuchtturm1917, which are both much higher build quality than Moleskine in
every respect (although the Leuchtturm has a bit of a smearing issue with G2
pens). But if you think a Moleskine is overpriced, you are in for a rude
surprise with either of those.

It does seem like there should be, out there somewhere, a cheap and high-
quality engineer's pocket notebook. But if there is such a thing I have yet to
find it, and I have tried probably 10 or so contenders.

[1] Other reports: [http://www.notebookstories.com/2011/10/17/moleskine-
monday-h...](http://www.notebookstories.com/2011/10/17/moleskine-monday-hello-
goodbye/)

~~~
DanBC
I'd be interested to read reviews of notebooks and papers, written by someone
who actually has a use for them. You could use referral links and put a google
ad on the page for a tiny bit of passive income.

Have you tried Black n Red?
([http://www.blacknred.com/](http://www.blacknred.com/)) I doubt they'll have
dot grid, but perhaps.

Or Field Notes? ([http://fieldnotesbrand.com/](http://fieldnotesbrand.com/))
I'm not sure if Field Notes is just a fashion brand or if they're actually
good.

~~~
drewcrawford
Well, this is as good of a time as any to dump my knowledge on the subject.

I love dot grids, because each page has the potential to be either grid,
ruled, or plain, depending on how seriously you take the dots. Having now
gotten used to the various ways of using dotted paper, I don't think I could
go back. If you are satisfied with other ruling methods, then you have many
more potential vendors, but I am not.

So that leaves these contenders: leuchtturm1917, rhodia, behance, field notes,
scout, dotgrid.co, whitelines, ecoqua, monsieur, and nuuna. Vendors seem to
come and go, as notebooks seem to be a bit of a fly-by-night sort of business.

Behance and nuuna have that "fly by night" feel and seem difficult to get
ahold of in the US (e.g. through Amazon, etc), so I have not tried them.
Traditionally leuchtturm1917 has had this problem, but their US distributor
seems to be straightening it out.

Scout and dotgrid.co only come in something like Moleskine's "cahier"
configuration (e.g., not hard bound). These might be worth trying, but I
prefer perfect-bound.

Field Notes only sells in "cahier" configuration, and their only dot grid
product is on waterproof/fireproof/everythingproof paper. I hear they work
well with pencil or ballpoint pen but the ink from my trusty G2s doesn't
absorb well into the paper, so I will just be getting ink all over the place.

Ecoqua sells a glue-bound notebook with a soft cover and no pocket, so it
isn't really Moleskine-equivalent in its featureset.

Whitelines is interesting because the lines/ruling is actually brighter than
the paper itself, which scans well. However, their Black Ocean notebook is
missing a pocket in the back cover, which is an important feature for me. I
will probably pick one up eventually. They do have some nice pads though,
including offbeat paper like isometric.

Monsieur is a weird size (not very pocket-friendly), and seems to have some
supply issues.

This leaves the Leuchtturm1917 and the Rhodia. In my experience, the
Leuchtturm1917 is smeary with G2 pens, but is otherwise perfect. The Rhodia's
paper is perfect for the G2, but because the paperstock is so thick, the
notebook feels a little thick in the pocket. I tend to alternate between these
two notebooks.

I have also looked into abusing the on-demand book publishers to create
notebooks, but it seems self-published hardbound pocket books are not a thing.
Things like boundforanything.com get pretty close, but you're still missing
core features like a ribbon, elastic, and a rear pocket.

tl;dr getting a notebook right is more difficult than it looks, rhodia and
leuchtturm1917 come the closest for me.

------
fit2rule
Is it really custom if its got the 53 logo all over it?

I'm all for having a nicer looking collection of organized Moleskines (already
have 10 'normal' moleskines on the shelf, easily spotted among the noise) but
I abhor the idea of my 'customized' set nevertheless looking like they were
published by 53.

If there's an easy way to remove all branding, I'd be into this in a heartbeat
..

~~~
PilateDeGuerre
I think you may not understand this product.

53 makes the Paper app and these are not custom blank Moleskine's but they are
printed inside and out with what you select from the Paper app.

~~~
fit2rule
I fully understand the product, because I use the Paper app. Its currently not
possible to print these custom booklets without the 53 logo on the spine. I
find that distasteful, personally, which is why I raised the issue. If I could
put my own logo on there (and someone please correct me if there is a way to
do this) then I'd be all over this ..

------
ISL
Moleskine with an 'e'.

Custom Moleskin is also an interesting product, but relevant to preventing
blisters on unhappy feet.

------
Cthulhu_
Does anyone else get envious for not having the artistic ability to make cool
stuff like they show in Paper and the ads around it?

~~~
rfnslyr
Not really. If I wanted to be a good artist, I'd take to the time to be a good
artist. Until then, I have a million other things to prioritize than "draw".

Check out this thread:
[http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=870](http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=870)

MindCandyMan has been posting his artistic progress for over 10 years. Look at
what he started with versus what he's produced recently.

------
honestcoyote
For my last year of classes, I made something similar, though for a lower
cost.

I used
[http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/](http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/) to
make a custom dot grid to accomodate my large handwriting, imported it into
InDesign to create 200+ numbered pages of the grid and then added a few pages
front and back of reference items. Finished up with a color cover of my own
design, and then sent the resulting PDF to an online printing service, Lulu,
and the resulting 8 x 10 notebook was quite nice.

It didn't have the feel of a Moleskin but the spiral binding was pretty
resilient to the daily abuse, the thick cover also held up perfectly, the
paper was thicker than normal notebook paper, and it was nice having a
notebook which fit my writing style perfectly. Total cost per book was around
$15.

------
yeah_ok
I feel like the website doesn't really explain what they're offering. It's a
little cryptic to me, I can see lots of beautiful artwork, but am I the only
one who still doesn't understand what problem they're trying to fix or what
they're offering me?

------
welder
This company will stamp a logo on a moleskin-like notebook for $4.45 (min 100
quantity):

[http://www.chameleonlike.com/CategoryListing.asp?catid=14](http://www.chameleonlike.com/CategoryListing.asp?catid=14)

------
spankalee
What does "Made from Paper" mean? As opposed to a book made from plastic?

~~~
daeken
No, this is referring to their app, Paper. These are notebooks printed
straight from their app, using your art.

------
uptown
Reminds me a little of this:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6599075](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6599075)

------
theboss
App is free. You get a fountain pen and an eraser. If you want a marker,
pencil, or whatever, it is $1.99. And if you want the notebook?

Not sure what they are going for here....

------
llamataboot
So no way to upload art unless you have an ipad?

~~~
fit2rule
Yeah this is definitely a weakness in this whole scheme..

------
31reasons
Hipster Biz!

~~~
jamesbritt
Don't knock it. :)

I'm happy drawing my own stuff on plain paper and adhering it with clear
packing tape. Helps protect the cover.

But that's me. Folks want to pay for this or that indulgence, I say have at
it.

------
jotm
I'm kinda sad that even though tablets are multipurpose and go for less than
$200, people still manufacture paper notebooks and books. What happened to
save the environment, reuse, save the trees?

~~~
fotbr
My (paper) note book (a cheap $0.50 mead spiral bound model) can be thrown in
my bag without any concern over it being damaged, or remembering to charge it,
and it will remain functional. It has no obvious value to thieves, and leaving
it lay visible in the car does not appreciably increase my risk of the car
being broken into. It is also lighter, and quicker to use than any tablet I've
used.

~~~
keithpeter
And in these days of network printers that can also scan an email a PDF back
to you, backups are easy.

~~~
fotbr
Given the spat of hard disk failures I've experienced in the last few months,
I actually trust the paper copy to remain useable longer. Also, the lower data
density of a paper note book helps mitigate the risk as well - damage to a
notebook simply doesn't affect the quantity of data that the loss of a hard
disk, tablet, or flash drive can affect.

~~~
keithpeter
Absolutely, I have notebooks going back 30 years in this room, data on disks
not so much!

I scan to share and to tag and as insurance for complete loss of the 'daily
book' I carry round.

