It’s not that important a point, but legal pads are a very US phenomena. I’m German and I have never ever seen a yellow pad like that in person. The current notes icon (with white paper) is much more in line with the note pads you would encounter in Germany. Paper people write on to take notes is typically just white. Maybe bound with a spiral on the left or top (and perforated paper to tear off), maybe glued together at the top.
Maybe internationalization was a consideration here? Yellow paper doesn’t read as anything recognizable internationally. (Yellow sticky notes are probably internationally known, though.)
My overall point would also be that taste colors opinions in this case. Or taste at least leaks into them. I think it’s important to be very careful with that and to try and avoid to let taste color too much of what you think. (My taste is very different from that of the author and as such I think many of his points are just plain wrong-footed. There certainly are some good points in there, but taste plays too much of a role.)
I'm German as well, and I also feel that only Stickies are commonly yellow. But Stickies.app on OS X 10.11 has retained its yellow icon, and it actually makes it easier to tell Notes.app and Stickies.app apart now. (Yes, Stickies.app still has its fans :P)
I think the bigger issue with the new Notes icon is the weak branding. Previously, you could tell Notes and Reminders apart by just looking at the colours. This was really important when you told Siri to "remind me to buy milk tomorrow" - you would either see a bright-yellow note[1], or a black-red-white reminder[2]. Now, everything is "almost white", making it really hard to tell what content lives in which app. (Notes and Reminders have a lot of conceptual overlap, especially now that Notes supports checklists.)
For me the old yellow colour implies that the notes taken within the app are for easy disposal and will be poorly organised - just like how yellow paper is used primarily for quick throw-away notes and scribbles in reality (at least here in the UK).
The Notes app is far better than that, the white it uses now implies a more permanent organised feel which better reflects the app. The texts I store within it are important to me, they're not final documents but something I'd treat better than a disposable scribble on a yellow-pad. With the app's formatting, cloud and folder abilities this seems a good fit.
The only yellow paper I remember seeing was when I did a dunning cycle application for accounts dept. Depending on the age of the debt, it would either be white, fluorescent yellow or florescent orange. I remember thinking this was a clever way to get your invoice noticed.
I've not had a yellow notebook for a long time, but in my view right now I have 5 stacks of yellow sticky-pads (aka post-it notes), some of which are A5, notebook sized.
When I buy cheap recycled-paper notebooks the paper is often off-white and has a yellow look to it. At least to me; yellow implies disposability or cheapness.
Paper was normally made out of linen, rags, cotton, or other plant fibers. Asian-style papers are made from the core of tall grasses (bast fibers) and Western-style papers are made from 100% undyed cotton and linen rags or cast-off fibers from spinning. After being picked or washed clean of impurities, the long fibers that are left are pure cellulose, which is actually colorless, but reflects light opaquely and we see the color white. It wouldn't be until the mid-19th century when paper was made out of wood fiber.
In 1844-45, two individuals invented the wood paper-making process. A Canadian, Charles Fenerty, and a German, Friedrich Gottlob Keller, both involved in lumber industries and recognized the cost and durability that wood pulp provided over cotton. Within thirty years, wood pulp paper was all the rage on both sides of the pond. While wood pulp paper was cheaper and just as durable as cotton or other linen papers, there were drawbacks. Most significantly, wood pulp paper is much more prone to being effected by oxygen and sunlight.
Wood is primarily made up of two polymer substances – cellulose and lignin. Cellulose is the most abundant organic material in nature. It is also technically colorless and reflects light extremely well rather than absorbs it (which makes it opaque); therefore humans see cellulose as white. However, cellulose is also somewhat susceptible to oxidation, although not nearly as much as lignin. Oxidation causes a loss of electron(s) and weakens the material. In the case of cellulose, this can result in some light being absorbed, making the material (in this case, wood pulp) appear duller and less white (some describe it as "warmer"), but this isn't what causes the bulk of the yellowing in aged paper.
Lignin is the other prominent substance found in paper, newspaper in particular. Lignin is a compound found in wood that actually makes the wood stronger and harder. Lignin is a dark color naturally (think brown-paper bags or brown cardboard boxes, where much of the lignin is left in for added strength, while also resulting in the bags/boxes being cheaper due to less processing needed in their creation). Lignin is also highly susceptible to oxidation. Exposure to oxygen (especially when combined with sunlight) alters the molecular structure of lignin, causing a change in how the compound absorbs and reflects light, resulting in the substance containing oxidized lignin turning a yellow-brown color in the human visual spectrum.
Since the paper used in newspapers tends to be made with a less intensive and more cost-efficient process (since a lot of the wood pulp paper is needed), there tends to be significantly more lignin in newspapers than in, say, paper made for books, where a bleaching process is used to remove much of the lignin. The net result is that, as newspapers get older and are exposed to more oxygen, they turn a yellowish-brown color relatively quickly.
As for books, since the paper used tends to be higher grade (among other things, meaning more lignin is removed along with a much more intensive bleaching process), the discolorization doesn't happen as quickly. However, the chemicals used in the bleaching process to make white paper can result in the cellulose being more susceptible to oxidation than it would otherwise be, contributing slightly to the discolorization of the pages in the long run.
Today, to combat this, many important documents are now written on acid-free paper with a limited amount of lignin, to prevent it from deteriorating as quickly.
> yellow paper is used primarily for quick throw-away notes and scribbles in reality (at least here in the UK).
Is it? I know yellow is the default colour for sticky notes, but for everything else -- at school, university, work, home -- the paper is white.
Ryman stock over 500 notepads. Three have yellow paper, and are described as "Being Yellow in colour [they] may appeal to people with dyslexia as the coloured paper can aid reading and writing in people with this condition".
Great point, but I've had the opposite reaction — to me the old one says that someone's else junk is already in there (the scribbles) while the white blank page is a blank canvas, in the good sense of the term. It's inviting. What great thoughts might I write in there?
I would guess that stationery is not extremely globalized as of yet. I’m honestly not sure why, though. It seems easy enough to mass produce and export everywhere. Maybe historic standards (different paper formats, different rulings) have created trade barriers that prevent globalization.
My brand new notepad (DIN A5, 5mm grid, spiral bound at the top) for my board game evening today doesn’t say where it was made, just that it’s from a German company (it’s labelled predominantly in German, though somewhat prominently also in English – language designated as “UK” – and Turkish, as well as French, Italian and Dutch in much smaller print).
Googling the company doesn’t tell me where and even whether they produce the notepads. Maybe they just relabel someone else’s notepads and resell them?
All I know that the text on their website makes me want to vomit: “Kyome’s target group is primarily women between 30 and 50 who want to combine the practical with the attractive. SoHos (Small Office or Home Office) are increasingly finding their place in living rooms and kitchens. For this reason, kyome products are surprising, as according to the brand promise, with nice, clever ideas, are pleasantly functional and a long way from grey, everyday office life.”
Firstly that’s some really bad English, secondly that’s insultingly sexist.
But back to the topic at hand: I think the important point is that white paper with some ruling (lines or grid, with margins or without) and bound in some way (left or top, spiral or glue) is a widespread internationally recognizable look for notepads. The details then don’t matter that much.
I don't see anything particularly sexist nor insulting about a company having a target demographic. Most companies that sell products do.
That said, I was thinking along similar lines a few weeks ago. I was at a home improvement store browsing the power tools for a jig saw when I came across a hot pink drill kit.
"Hot pink?" I thought to myself. "Did they see that the number of women interested in home improvement is rising and figure that women are simple enough to fall for that? To buy your shitty drill just because it's pink?"
Feeling grumpy, I told my mom about it over lunch the next day. My mom bought an old foreclosed-on house in BFE Appalachia last year, and took it upon herself to renovate it -- it went from complete, unlivable dump to nice, cozy home as she replaced the floors, the ceilings, the roof, the cabinets, all of the bathroom fixtures, all of the doors, etc. My mom is no girly-girl and has never been afraid to get her hands dirty, and she's physically stronger than most men I know (including myself). To my surprise, upon hearing about the pink drill, she declared, "I want one!"
Let me tell you, my mother is far from simple. Beyond being strong, dedicated, and resourceful, she's also very intelligent. I know that she knows that the company doesn't actually care about women doing home improvement and is just trying to make a quick buck by "tapping" a market that's already been tapped by your typical orange or yellow or black unisex drill. But you know what? If you like something, you just like it, even if it happens to be stereotypical for you to like it. Stereotypes exist for a reason, and businesses would not be constantly wielding them in attempts to appeal to their target demographics if they didn't work in the market. There's clearly no ill-intent behind it, just business.
If I were out buying eyeglasses and saw an advert for some new sort of lens or coating to suit people who stare at computer screens all day, and the advert featured a nerd typing furiously on a computer with a fake lightsaber mounted on the wall and a set of D&D books on the shelf, should I be insulted? Or should I be glad that someone is finally making glasses for me? Chances are, I'd be excited. I might even wait around for a bit to see if I can find a new cleric for my party...
I think people should make diverse aesthetically pleasing things (even if only some people find some of those things to be aesthetically pleasing).
The world needs diverse things and something for all tastes. What I dislike very much, however, is strict bucketing or stereotypically selling those things.
Pink drills? Why not, though maybe blue, green, orange, magenta and so on drills would also be cool to have. And please don’t write “drills for the female renovator” above them.
Also, if there is only one shitty pink drill and the rest of the stuff is not available in pink, wouldn’t you say that sends a message, too? It says something about how normal it is for women to do e.g. home renovations. It says something about their status and role and as such is pretty shitty. See the wider context.
(Also, your assumption that you are somehow uniquely positioned for glasses for people looking at screens all day is itself somehow weirdly sexist. So many people look at screens all day for all kinds of reasons, irrespective of their gender.)
Sorry for taking so long to respond to this. I've been carefully mulling it over the last few days.
> I think people should make diverse aesthetically pleasing things (even if only some people find some of those things to be aesthetically pleasing).
I agree completely.
> The world needs diverse things and something for all tastes.
I agree here as well.
> What I dislike very much, however, is strict bucketing or stereotypically selling those things.
I understand why someone might find that distasteful. The problem is that marketing budgets are only so big, and companies need to identify some well-defined subset(s) of the population in order to effectively advertise and (hopefully, to them) sell their products. Perhaps it's unfortunate, but the straightforward way to advertise to some group of people is to identify things that some large percentage of them have in common, and appeal to those things. If the selected strategy doesn't work, it's time to abandon it and come up with a new one. If Kyome's advertisements have been along the same lines for some time, then it's likely that it's been effective. If the adverts aren't working, Kyome will eventually ditch them in favor of something else. For what it's worth, there is (usually) no ill intent behind it -- it all just comes down to trying to effectively advertise without spending a fortune creating tailored advertisements for everybody. If you let it get to you, then you're going to be constantly offended by all the advertisements that (unfortunately) fills the modern world.
> Pink drills? Why not, though maybe blue, green, orange, magenta and so on drills would also be cool to have. And please don’t write “drills for the female renovator” above them.
Again in agreement.
> Also, if there is only one shitty pink drill and the rest of the stuff is not available in pink, wouldn’t you say that sends a message, too? It says something about how normal it is for women to do e.g. home renovations. It says something about their status and role and as such is pretty shitty. See the wider context.
I didn't notice any other pink tools, but if they were there, it's likely I overlooked them. I'm not the most observant person in the world, especially when I'm locked on target. The only reason I even noticed the pink drill was because it was out of place, not with the other drills, but on the counter with the "display models" of a bunch of handsaws rather than on a shelf.
The thing is, up until recently, it hasn't been normal for women to do home renovations in the US. There has been growing interest in DIY home improvement and construction projects among women in just the last few years. Of course, there have long been some women interested in it (my mom, for example), but they didn't constitute a large enough segment of the market to convince companies to produce demographic-targeted tools. That's apparently beginning to change.
> (Also, your assumption that you are somehow uniquely positioned for glasses for people looking at screens all day is itself somehow weirdly sexist. So many people look at screens all day for all kinds of reasons, irrespective of their gender.)
I've read and re-read what I wrote here, and I couldn't at first figure out where you got the idea that I think I'm somehow "uniquely positioned" for such glasses. I gather that you're German, though I'm not sure German is your native tongue (your written English is very good). If it is, it may be a "language barrier" type thing, and I think the misunderstanding likely comes from this phrase: "someone is finally making glasses for me". I can see how that might be taken to mean that I thought the manufacturer literally had me specifically in mind when creating their product or their advertisement. However, this is a common figure of speech (a hyponymic form of synecdoche) in US English that I suppose could be read "for me and people like me in some relevant way", with the subtext that it feels as though they might as well have had me in mind while creating it. One alternative, "for us", is too nonspecific and ambiguous -- who's "us" in this case? me and you? unspecified people I happened to be with when the event was occurring? everyone in the whole world? glasses-wearing people who look at computer screens all day?. Compared to "for us", "for me" also puts more emphasis on the fact that I myself am a member of the group (to the point that it might even be the only reason why I care). Another alternative, "for people who wear glasses and spend all day looking at computer screens", while it has the virtue of specificity and unambiguity, is just way too verbose. One middle-of-the-road alternative would be to say "for me and people like me", which itself is perhaps ambiguous enough to lead to similar confusion because it doesn't specify in what way(s) the referents are similar to myself. I hope that helps clear that up. Please let me know if I've made any wrong assumptions here or if I'm not making sense.
Finally, I really don't know how you're able to read sexism into that little anecdote. I didn't mention gender or sex in it anywhere. I didn't even use any words that connote or otherwise imply gender. Regardless, you don't know me and you don't know anything about my gender, but your assumptions here have left me too confused to be offended.
If you have suggestions on how I could make my use of language better or more clear in the future, please let me know. I'm always striving to improve my communication skills.
(American here, but pen-and-paper snob). I literally was walking through my apartment as I was reading this, looked over at the (Rhodia) notepad on my counter, and thought "hmm, looks about right".
I'd imagine Rhodia is pretty correlated with the popularity of fountain pens.
American here. Can't say I've ever seen a notepad like that, nor have I heard of Rhodia. For what it's worth, with the cover folded back it looks very much like a legal pad. That wide left-hand margin with red vertical rule with the faint blue horizontal rules are pretty characteristic of legal pads. While you do often see legal pads with yellow paper in the US, whitely-papered legal pads are also readily available (frankly, I never liked the yellow paper and I don't really understand why anyone would...). I've also seen legal pads with pale pink paper, and ones with pale blue paper, but in my opinion both of those were too dark to offer good contrast with ink.
Oh that make sense then ! I never understood why most of the notes apps on my smartphone were yellow and not white, I found it bizarre and assumed it was some kind of fashion, it must be international differences then.
Wow, I've never seen those in real life (I live in Poland). I know most of the results are photos, but I always encountered those in the form of icons, so my brain is still telling me that I'm looking at icons. It's a weird feeling ;)
Certainly a peculiar regional difference, they are ubiquitous in the States. I might not have one in my house, but I grew up around them, they are usually clipped into a clipboard.
Yeah, I think it's an US - European thing. The parent comment mentioned Germany, you mentioned France, another comment mentioned Italy, I'm from Romania and we also use white notepads.
This and it's subsequent comments are the weirdest, most unexpected thing in here to me.
I'm an American who's worked in offices the last 10+ years and I have stacks and stacks of yellow legal pads from years of note taking in my closet.
I think it is probably to do with it being cheap recycled discolored paper that was cheaper to dye than bleach. Might be better for the environment than bleach as well.
I switched to dot paper about 4 years ago, though, and I'm relatively happy with the decision.
The yellow pads are available in the UK but I've never seen them in the wild, I use 5mm squared A4 pads as they are the cheapest I've been able to find without buying an insane bulk order.
We don't do yellow pads in my country either, but I still find the yellow icon with writing on it ('notes') more evocative than the white icon with no writing ('lack of notes'). If you were to show me the flat white icon without any context, I might not even get it right.
Maybe internationalization was a consideration here? Yellow paper doesn’t read as anything recognizable internationally. (Yellow sticky notes are probably internationally known, though.)
My overall point would also be that taste colors opinions in this case. Or taste at least leaks into them. I think it’s important to be very careful with that and to try and avoid to let taste color too much of what you think. (My taste is very different from that of the author and as such I think many of his points are just plain wrong-footed. There certainly are some good points in there, but taste plays too much of a role.)