(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
If you've listened to The Pen Addict Podcast in the recent past, you've probably heard Brad talk about his Plotter Planner and how he uses different paper refills to create a unique notebook with lots of different paper options. Plotter is a binder and refill system that is owned by the same company that makes Traveler's notebooks, and that should be enough to let you know that the bar for usability, quality, and aesthetics is high.
Similar to the Traveler's notebooks, you first pick a size, then a cover, and then all of the paper refills and accessories to pack inside. All of the options are made to last and are pleasant to use. With Plotter, instead of a standard notebook that is strapped into a leather cover by the binding, these notebooks use a 6-ring binder to hold paper refills in place. This is great because you can combine different types of paper, add or remove accessories, and even reshuffle the order of everything whenever you want. The possibilities are endless, and I can see how trying just a little piece of this system can be addicting.
But a notebook or planner system relies heavily on the quality of the paper, right? No one really wants to use a planner that has mediocre paper at this price. Luckily, the paper that Plotter uses to create these notebook refills is fantastic. Before taking the plunge on an entire notebook system, I chose to dip my toes in the water with a single paper refill that Brad sent over.
The Letterpress Printing version of the paper I'm using here isn't for sale anymore, but it's still a good representation of the other options that you can pick up today. I'm using the Bible size paper, which measures in at 6.7"× 3.7" (170mm X 93mm). It's tall and narrow, similar to the larger Traveler's notebook size.
Aside from the Bible size, you can also use standard A5, Narrow, and Mini.
- A5: 8.3" × 5.8" (210mm X 147mm)
- Bible: 6.7"× 3.7" (170mm X 93mm)
- Narrow: 6.7"× 3.1" (170mm X 78mm)
- Mini: 5" × 3.15" (127mm X 80mm)
I think the Bible size is a pretty happy medium in between a standard A5 and pocket notebook (like a standard 3.5" x 5.5" Field Notes or the Mini Plotter size). It's tall, but still skinny enough to easily fit into most pockets or bag pouches with no problem. That extra inch or so provides just enough additional space to make the page feel larger, even though it's not technically that much more two-dimensional space than a pocket notebook. I'm struggling to see where I'd prefer using the Narrow size, but I'm sure I'll eventually be able to find a perfect use for an even slimmer paper size!
Once you have a size picked out, there are still a few more choices to make. With the layout, you have several options that you can mix and match to make the perfect notebook. Every size refill offers the same layout options, except that the blue grid paper isn't available in the Narrow size.
- Plain
- 2mm Grid
- 6mm Ruled
- To Do List
- Drawing Paper
- 5mm Dot Grid
- Blue Paper 2mm Grid (not available in Narrow)
- Chart Grid
So many options to make the perfect notebook! Keep in mind, these are just the memo refills, not the Diary refills (calendar based).
The cream-colored paper is smooth to the touch and provides just a tiny amount of feedback to your fingers as you write. In my case, the letterpress ruling means that there's no ink used to create the ruling — the ruled lines are debossed into the page. Even though the lines are debossed, I can't feel them with my fingers or when writing over them. It's really subtle and well done, while also providing a soft guide to keep my writing perfectly horizontal. The lines can be nearly invisible in certain light, though. This can be a good or bad thing as the lines can easily disappear if you don't need them, but it can be a bit of a struggle to find the lines when you need to draw a straight line or find the guiding line when writing. That said, it's still a really cool feature, but the standard ink-based rulings are perfectly fine and more dependable.
Since this is a binder refill, I think it's reasonable to expect that you can write on the back side of the page, and show-through isn't an issue with this paper. You can certainly see ghostly outlines of the inks through the page, but it's not noticeable enough (for me, anyway) to keep me from writing on both sides of the page.
The paper is Midori MD Cotton, which is made by Designphil, parent company of Plotter. It's thin and smooth, but handles fountain pen inks remarkably well. There's no feathering or bleeding, and dry times aren't affected. It's a great paper that is a joy to use.
At the end of the day, the Plotter system isn't cheap. But, what they offer is a high quality product that you can customize to your heart's content. If you can envision yourself using these refills, you can rest assured that the product will deliver for you. Thanks to Brad sharing, I think I'll have to start planning out my Plotter configuration soon!
(Brad purchased the paper from PLOTTER at one of several pen shows he attended in the past.)
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