Maruman MNEMOSYNE Memopad 4.25 x 3.35 Inches (Modified B7), 5mm-squared, 70 Sheets (N178A)

TLDR: These are absolutely top of the line notebooks, particularly with fountain pens. In dollars per centimeter of line, the 194 (B5) size is a 14%-20% better value than the 199 (A4) size at current prices ($14.85 for the 199 and $10.04 for the 194). Maurman notebooks are first class. To date they are my favorite of all I have tried. Other top-tier brands I have tried are Rhodia A4 size and Clairfontaine A4 size, which are also excellent, but for a variety of reasons I prefer the Mnemosyne. Fountain pens write like a dream on this coated paper, as do gel pens. The thickness and feel of the paper is amazing. The subdued dotted lines are really nice. The cover is fantastic and the rear cardboard of the 199 or rear plastic of the 194 is substantial. The micro-perforations tear off super smoothly. Also, when you remove the entire page from the notebook before removing the micro-perf scrap, the little nibs stay attached to the page and you don't end up with nibs all over the place. Lastly, the off-white color is classy and archival looking (if you want bright white paper, look elsewhere). Everything about these notebooks is premium. I do wish that they contained more pages. The 199 has 70 sheets (140 sides) and the 194 has 80 sheets (160 sides). Personally, I think that 100 pages would be a better number. But for some reason, all premium notebooks tend to have between 50 and 80 pages. I guess it is a European / Japanese thing. I am currently really geeking-out on fountain pens and paper and have compiled a ridiculous amount of information comparing the different notebooks I like the best. One of the things I have calculated is value for the money. I am not thrilled about how much these quality notebooks cost, so I wanted to know how I could maximize my value. With this in mind, I calculated the number of line-centimeters the 199 and 194 have. Doing the math reveals that based on the current prices of these notebooks, the smaller 194 gives you 14% more value than the larger 199. Of course, this doesn't consider the aesthetics of the size differences. With the 194 you are writing on a smaller piece of paper, will have more "carriage returns" than the 199, and your hand will encounter the side edge and binding edge more often. The 194 is more compact and easier to carry, though. Also, the 194 has plastic on the rear cover instead of cardboard. So, I can't say which format you will prefer, just that in terms of pure value per written word the 194 comes out on top. "BUT WAIT," you may say, (well, at least I did), "isn't it likely that with the smaller paper and having to carriage-return more often, there might be some inefficiency involved in coming to edges that may weigh in favor of larger pages where your writing flow isn't broken as often?" To me, this seemed like a likely thing. It seemed somehow intuitive that the more often you had to break to go to the next line, that there would be efficiency losses. So I set out to test this theory, to see if the 194 was truly more cost effective. Well, it turns out, for me at least, my theory was exactly wrong. Not only wrong, but OPPOSITE wrong. When I wrote long lengths of text on both the A4 paper and B5 paper, trying to maintain my exact same writing style, size and spacing, I ended up getting MORE text into the same overall length of line in the smaller notebook. I was shocked. What happened is, as much as I tried to make my writing the same size and spacing in each notebook, my brain didn't let me do it. Somehow, when I was writing on a larger page my writing expanded. And when I wrote on the smaller page it constricted. Looking at the pages side by side it was obvious. Crazy. I honestly thought I was writing the same. So, as it turns out, for ME, the 194 is not 14% more efficient than the 199, but actually 21.6% more efficient (i.e. cost effective). Of course, your mileage may vary. But for me the 194 is a better value. All of that said, I still vacillate between the 194 and the 199. I like the smaller size of the 194 for carrying, and the fact that it has 80 instead of 70 pages. I think I also prefer the plastic back of the 194 over the cardboard of the 199. But if I am being honest I have to admit that I like writing in the 199 more. It just so much more spacious. My ideal notebook would be the 199 with 100 pages. At the same price as the current one, of course.

This is an excellent notebook. I am about 3/4 of the way through this notebook so far, so I feel like I can say some things about it. The cover is very durable and holds its shape well. The paper has worked great with every pen I have used on it, from felt tips to fountain pens. I write on both sides and very little shows through with most pens, although there is some visible marking on the back page with certain inks. I love the off-white color of the paper; it's nice to look at and not stark white. The binding is excellent and has held up to a lot of use; I constantly flip back through my notes and the pages have remained easy to turn and smooth. Pages are perforated and easy to tear out if needed. I like the line spacing and the lightness of the lines themselves. I throw this in my computer bag and it has not wrapped, the edges are still nice looking as well. Honestly I can't fault this at all; I will be repurchasing it, if not stocking up.

I wanted a fountain pen-friendly notepad for use with my various regular bottled inks and shimmer inks. Photos show the following: front A5 label is so easy to peel off (and I stick it on the inside of back cover for info), very sturdy (and not bendy) medium-weight plastic covers, writing samples with various inks, photo of bleed-through on back side of paper from the writing samples, and one of my fountain pens for a size comparison. I like that the notebook has some "weight" to it and is not horribly floppy. The lighting did not do justice to the shimmer inks, as in the right lighting, the shimmer inks show up well on this weight of paper. I'm glad I purchased it, as I found the larger, 8 mm line spacing to better suit my size of handwriting. I find that the notebooks with dots and squares are pretty neat, and I have many of them, but for straight-out note taking, this 8 mm. lined notebook suits my needs best. Also like that the color of the pages are not stark white, but rather a pleasing off-white color. I will buy this one again. A perfect size to throw into my purse that will not take up too much room.

I can't begin to describe how smooth this paper is. I've been using moleskine notebooks for a while since they handled fountain pen ink better than your "off the shelf" school notebooks do. However, the paper quality has still never been superb, there's still been a little bleed through, and it still feels like a low thread count sheet for lack of a better phrase. I also hated how few moleskine notebooks have perforated pages - there have been numerous times where I've needed to give a piece of paper to a classmate for a quiz, group work, etc. or just simply wanted to tear a single page out and take it with me. This notebook solves all of those problems. The perforations are nice and tear easily with one pull, the pages fold flat so I don't need any sort of paperweight to write on the adjacent page, and the paper is one of the smoothest surfaces I've ever written on. You can feel how dense and smooth the paper is simply through the tip of your pen/pencil. There's next to no bleed through either, even when using an ink/pen with a heavier flow rate. I haven't experienced any feathering at all from the ink which makes my handwriting look so much nicer.

Considering the weight of the paper, this is great use with fountain pens. While it is lined paper the lines are very faint. So, it is almost like using a line guide under a blank sheet. The texture is smooth which I appreciate. With the money.

Muy suave para escribir con pluma estilográfica

カバーの手触りが柔らかくてとても良いです！ リーガルパッドJrサイズも是非作って欲しいです。

I've been buying these for five years now. I do all my time blocking, planning etc. in a digital calendar (Google Calendar with BusyCal as my MacOS client and Calendars by Readdle as my iOS client). For general notes, I've adopted the BuJo system in Leuchtturm notebook. So I don't need a paper appointment diary or calendar, BUT I often want to plan out my month to SEE how my deadlines fall and where different projects may "crunch" together. The visual "timeline" spread offered by this schedule book is PERFECT for the task. I list projects down the left and I can block in deadlines and work periods under the date columns that run across the top. And there's a little space for free-form notes at the bottom. The only trap: together with all Sundays, certain Mondays are shown in red with grey-shaded columns – I'm assuming these are Japanese public holidays, but if I'm not careful, it's easy to read the pair of grey columns as a "Saturday-Sunday" pairing and mark things in the wrong place. I don't mind the red dates, but I really wish only the Sunday columns were shaded grey. This is a minor negative though.

今まで国内外の色々なジャーナル 用ノートを試しましたが、コストパフォーマンスとクオリティがピカイチです！ 特に万年筆ユーザーにお勧めです。 ・定価3000円ですが、Amazonでは常に31%引きの2082円(ロイヒトトゥルムの約半額！) ・90gsmの厚みの240ページ(1ページあたり定価で12.5円、実売価格8.7円) ・4色展開のハードカバー、ゴムバンド、栞紐2本、後表紙ポケット付き、インデックスページ有り、全ページ番号入り ・信頼の日本製で、カバーも製本も丁寧でしっかり。ページの角は丸く落とされ、全ページがカパッと平らに開きます。 デザインも、ニーモシネと同様に高級感のあるシックさと、少しの遊び心のある感じが素敵です。 ・特筆すべきは、紙質とページ構成の素晴らしさです！ 定評あるマルマンのニーモシネ より少し吸水性のある上質紙で、ロイヒトトゥルムより厚い90gsm。 万年筆＋水っぽい染料インクでも裏写りや裏抜けが無く、インク乾きも速いです。 万年筆とのセット販売もあるくらいで、万年筆での書き心地を重視＋自信の程が伺えます。 ジャーナル 用のインデックスページとページ番号入りで使いやすく、ドット方眼は筆記の邪魔にならない色と薄さ。 ページの上下左右の半分とさらに半分の１/４部分のマス目にも▼のマーク入りです。 総じて、ジャーナル 用ノートの要件を非常によく研究して開発されていることが伝わってきます。 開発に携わった方達に感謝と拍手を送りつつ、定番化を切に願う一冊です。

もう何冊もリピートしてます。 表紙がシンプルなので主に仕事用ですが、何よりスルスルと書きやすいのがお気に入りです。 表紙も少し硬めなのが良いし、ページを切り取れるのも良いし、裏移りもしにくいし、私的、完璧なノートです。