![]() ![]() The marbling pattern created in Germany and seen both then and today as the inspiration for many composition book cover designs was known as the agate pattern. Modern notebooks with marbling began popping up in France and Germany in the middle of the 19th century before making their way to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Eventually, industrial methods of marbling were used, making mass production of such designs possible. This type of marbling continued for centuries, with manufacture moving from Turkey to Western Europe and eventually to England, where publishers used the technique to add unique designs to book covers or bindings.Īs publishing grew increasingly automated, the appetite for handmade designs remained. (In Japan, it was known as Suminagashi.) People would then print over them. The result is a page that takes on a one-of-a-kind psychedelic pattern, with swirls and loops acting as an artistic flourish. With traditional marbling, pages are hand-dipped in a solution consisting of various pigments. That’s when the practice of marbling pages came into widespread use. But where did they get started?įor answers, we need to look back to 10th-century China and 12th-century Japan. No one holds any copyright to the design, and so a variety of manufacturers have circulated their own version of the familiar black-and-white bound notebooks. These journals have been a staple of schools and nightstands for decades. These are always at my fingertips and the variety of sizes makes it easy to incorporate into any organizational system and daily use.For jotting down notes, sketching elaborate monster rampages over cities, or just capturing your thoughts, people love a marbled composition notebook. I’ll take just a moment to say that I absolutely love carrying and using these notebooks. With beautiful cardstock covers in bright colors and a vintage design, these books can be carried as they are or combined with a coordinated leather cover. Galen has taken some of the most popular standardized sizes and added them to their Tomoe River Notebooks lineup. The Tomoe River Range - Everyday Notebook Sizes Most notably, Traveler’s Company Standard or Regular size is now often found in other manufacturer’s lineups and is nearly always sized at 110 x 210mm (4.33 x 8.25 inches). Note: As they are one of the largest producers of stationery and notebooks in the world, it should be noted that Japan’s “B” sizing does not coincide with standard “B” sizing.Īdditionally, sizes have been introduced by manufacturers through product offerings that have gone on to become part of others’ lines. While not considered a world standard, “B” sizing followed to describe sizes in between the “A” sizes and is used in most countries globally. By the 1970’s this “A” sizing was widely used and considered standardized sizing around the world. In the 1920’s sizing was created and introduced in Germany. In 1888 left over scraps were made into the first legal pad for a judge with a love for yellow paper. The 1860’s introduced Europe and then the world to the composition notebook, whose marble pattern was inspired by early Chinese and Japanese printing techniques. The first pocket notebook we know of was filled with diligent notes kept by Lewis and Clark as they explored and traveled west. Notebooks have been around for nearly 2000 years and while they have been used by artists and writers all over the world since then, it’s the 19 th century that gave birth to the modern notebook that appealed to and was priced for the masses. Seeing that this “problem” has been going on for about four decades at this point, I was thrilled when Galen asked me to write a short article about how notebooks are sized and what they can all be used for.īut first, a tiny bit of history. I don’t want to run out of paper, not in this lifetime (or in the next hundred years!) which given the state of the stacks right now, is insured. I love the hunt of finding new ones I “have to have” and I get immense pleasure from filling lots of pages. How many notebooks does one need? Why can’t I be like the people who buy one notebook, fill it up, and then get a second? Why can’t I be like my partner who keeps everything he writes, be it lists, notes, ink swatches, what have you, in one notebook?īut then I realized that I find great joy in writing in many different sized notebooks. ![]() I used to give myself a hard time about this. Is there such thing as 'too many notebooks?' A few more are in a fancy shoebox and my sisters and friends are often recipients of notebook care packages to share the love or make room for new ones, depending on who you ask. The result is this, there are several stacks of notebooks on my desk, some gracing my bookshelves, and some in a storage container under my bed. Let’s start this article with an admission: I have a notebook problem. ![]()
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