If You Grew Up In 1990s Britain, You Probably Learnt To Write With These…

Well, I thought that I’d talk briefly about stationery and nostalgia today. This was mostly because my parents were clearing some old stuff and found an old “Berol Handwriting” pen from the 1990s. The nostalgia was instant!

Sorry about the low-quality scan but, even with that, the pen still stands out like a life-raft. Probably designed to stop children from losing them. And, yes, if you’re British and you went to school during the 1990s, you probably remember these pens.

If you grew up in 1990s Britain – or, from what I’ve read online, 1980s Britain too – then this orange pen will probably be instantly memorable. It was typically the very first pen that you were given at infant school or primary school and it’s a really weird one.

Despite looking like a felt-tip pen at first glance, the nib is actually made out of solid white plastic. It’s difficult to tell exactly what type of pen it is. The example I have still writes – albeit intermittently – and, if I had to guess, then I’d say that it was… possibly… a rollerball pen because the ink is too bold for a ballpoint pen, it isn’t scratchy and it still writes after more than two decades of disuse.

It doesn’t seem to be a fine-liner pen, since I imagine that these would be too fragile for use by young children. Yet the body of the pen is much closer in style to the ones typically used for fine-liner pens, even down to the style of end-cap on the bottom of it.

I can’t seem to get inside the pen – probably a safety feature – so I can’t tell whether it has a rollerball-style ink reservoir or a fine-liner style ink sponge. Interestingly, due to the age of the pen, there doesn’t actually seem to be any “air holes” on the cap (not sure when these safety regulations were introduced, but the pen is possibly from before them…).

Another thing which dates the pen is the fact that it was actually manufactured in Britain. Whilst you can apparently still get these pens these days, the modern examples I saw online also carry PaperMate branding and the pens apparently stopped being manufactured here in 2010. And, aside from high-end fountain pens, I’m not sure if any stationery is actually even made over here any more because even Parker pens relocated to France in 2011.

Still, Berol pens are one of those things which possibly only seems to be sold or widely known about in Britain. And, despite being a functional general pen, they are also one of those things – like the devil’s own instrument, the recorder – which are indelibly associated with childhood and never really used after that.

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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂

One Lesser-Known Advantage Of Rollerball Pens

Well, I thought that I’d write another quick article about rollerball pens today. If you haven’t heard of these before, they’re like a cross between a ballpoint pen and a fountain pen. They have the user-friendly nib of a ballpoint, but their feed system and the type of ink that they use is a lot closer to what you’d find in a fountain pen. Common brands of rollerball pens include the “Uni-Ball Eye” (or “Uni-Ball Vision” in the US) and the “Pilot V Ball”.

Like any type of pen, they have both advantages and disadvantages. For example, they write much more smoothly and boldly than a ballpoint pen, but they get through ink more quickly and require slightly sturdier paper (to avoid “bleed-through” etc...). But I want to focus on one of the less well-known advantages I’ve found.

This is all totally anecdotal, based on experience. I haven’t had time to conduct lengthy scientific tests or anything like that, and this possibly also varies from pen to pen as well (depending on the design and ink formulation). But, on the whole, I’ve noticed that rollerball pens have a longer “shelf-life” than ballpoint pens do.

Case in point, when I almost ran out of working pens in 2020, I found some old ballpoint pens from the mid-late 2000s and literally none of them worked. Likewise, the refill in an old “Parker Jotter” ballpoint (probably also from the 2000s) which I found last year had also well and truly dried up.

On the other hand, whilst searching the deepest reaches of my other desk for notebooks last spring, I stumbled across an old 0.5mm “Pilot V Ball” rollerball pen – probably from the early-mid 2010s at the latest – and it still works absolutely perfectly. Likewise, I’ve used “Uni-Ball Eye” pens which are maybe 3-10 years old without any issues.

On a side-note: Gel pens (pens with a ballpoint nib but which use gel ink) seem to have a much more variable shelf life. When I found some old scented gel pens from the early-mid 2000s, they had all dried up. Ditto some cheap gel pens from the late 2000s/very early 2010s. But I also found an old “Pentel EnerGel” pen from the 2000s which, surprisingly, still writes.

Anyway, getting back to the main point, I think that this is possibly less of an advantage of rollerball pens and more a disadvantage of ballpoint pens. At a pure guess, because ballpoint ink is a lot thicker and less watery than rollerball ink, it’s probably more prone to “drying out” because there’s less water there in the first place.

Interestingly, this seems to have absolutely nothing to do with the common “air hole” safety feature on pen caps. Since, looking at the rollerball pens on my desk, literally all of them seem to have air holes in their caps. On the “Uni-Ball Eye” pens, they tend to be slightly concealed on the top of the cap (in the 0.7mm version, it appears to be in the “pupil” of the eye design and, on the 0.5mm it’s a thin slit next to the top of the clip).

Anyway, although this isn’t exactly a proper scientific study or anything, it’s something that I’ve definitely noticed. It probably varies from pen to pen, but rollerball pens definitely seem to stand up to prolonged disuse a lot better than ballpoint pens do.

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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂

Why Rollerball Pens Often Have Smaller Nibs Than Ballpoint Pens

Well, since I couldn’t think of a better idea for an article, I thought that I’d talk very briefly about why common rollerball pen nib sizes (eg: 0.5mm and 0.7mm) are often smaller than the common 1mm nib size used for many standard/ordinary ballpoint pens. And, yes, literally every reason for this has to do with the type of ink that each pen uses.

Ballpoint pens use very thick/viscous quick-drying ink. On the other hand, rollerball pens use much more watery fountain pen-style ink. And there are several good reasons why this results in smaller nib sizes for rollerballs.

For starters – if you’re using cheaper or thinner paper, rollerball ink tends to spread out very slightly or soak into the paper. As such, the line it makes can sometimes appear to be wider than the nib. To show you what I mean, here’s a comparison of a 1mm ballpoint pen and a 0.5mm rollerball on some very cheap and thin note paper:

Here’s a comparison of lines from a 1mm ballpoint pen (Bic Cristal) and a 0.5mm rollerball pen (Pilot V Ball), drawn on cheap thin paper. As you can see, despite being half a millimetre smaller, the rollerball lines are about the same width as the ballpoint lines, due to the ink spreading out and/or soaking into the paper slightly.

Again, this is on cheap low-quality paper which doesn’t handle rollerball pens that well. But, although seasoned rollerball pen users will probably be a bit more careful about the paper they use, new users might not be aware of this – not to mention that, if you’re just carrying a rollerball – you might find yourself in a situation where you have to write on low-quality paper. So, the smaller nib sizes help to compensate for this to an extent.

In addition to this, even on better paper – where rollerball ink “spreads” much less – rollerball ink is usually a lot bolder than ballpoint ink. As such, even a slightly thinner line from a rollerball will still stand out and be more readable than a slightly larger line from a ballpoint pen.

Not to mention that, because rollerball ink takes longer to dry than ballpoint ink does, the smaller nib sizes mean that slightly less ink is put onto the page – speeding up the drying time very slightly. It probably also helps to conserve ink because – even with smaller nibs – rollerball pens still get through ink more quickly than ballpoint pens do. I imagine that both of these things would be even more of an issue if rollerball pens had larger ballpoint-sized nibs.

So, if you’re used to ballpoint pens and are puzzled about why rollerball nibs are smaller in comparison, then this is why. It compensates for ink spread on cheaper paper, it is balanced out by the bolder ink and it also probably helps slightly with drying time and ink consumption as well.

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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂

One “Flaw” Of Physical Notebooks (Which Is Actually An Advantage)

Well, I want to talk briefly about one of the so-called “flaws” of physical notebooks and how it is actually an advantage. I am, of course, talking about the limited number of pages. Yes, technically speaking, digital documents do have a finite length – limited by the amount of storage on your computer, memory stick, website etc….

But, given that about 620,000 words of basic plain text (eg: “.txt”) can take up only about eight and a half megabytes, it’s basically unlimited in functional terms these days. Even with more bloated modern document formats – or a happy medium, like rich-text format (“.rtf”) documents – text doesn’t exactly take up a huge amount of room on a computer compared to pictures, videos, games etc…. Even with the latest fancy document format from a large company, you’d have to write billions – or perhaps trillions – of words before you even came close to maybe filling up even a fraction of a modern hard drive or SSD.

And, yes, this sounds like a massive advantage and a massive advancement over old-fashioned pen and paper. And, in some ways, it totally is. It’s like an “infinite words” cheat code of some sort. Still, although its definitely useful in practical terms, it means that you miss out on something that you get with physical notebooks. Namely noting the passage of time and feeling a sense of achievement.

Back in last December, I somehow managed to finish the third volumes of both my physical gratitude journal and my physical fan art sketchbook within about a day of each other. Unlike endless lists of digital documents and scanned images, this had something of an “end of an era” feeling to it. These two books, which had been a daily fixture of my life for about eight months and four months respectively, had come to an end. Like a travelling companion and I had parted ways after a journey.

Contained in both books were memories of that time – written descriptions of every day or paintings of stuff I enjoyed at the time – and they had a defined beginning and ending. If I need to look back on a very specific four or eight month window of my past, then I can just pick up one of these books and open it. It also gives me a feeling of achievement too – like I have an actual physical thing to show for all of this time.

And, of course, when I start the next volume of each notebook, I get the feeling of a new beginning as well – I get to decide what I keep the same and what I change. It’s like adding chapters to your life, and it’s something that you only really get with physical notebooks.

Not only that, there’s also something of a rhythm and progression to using notebooks – the way that you’re eager to fill up some pages at the beginning, the way that the notebook just seems “ordinary” and “endless” when you’re in the middle of it and the weird feeling of tension when you near the end, nervously counting pages to work out how many more days of it are left. Wondering whether you should slow down and savour your remaining time with the notebook, or speed up and get started on the next one as soon as possible.

There’s also the fact that notebooks have continuity in the way that digital documents don’t really have. Yes, if you’ve got one document which you add to regularly, then you’ll experience some of this. But, most of the time, people tend to write lots of shorter, separate documents. Like the draft of this article, which is a single “.rtf” document file which isn’t connected to anything else.

On the other hand, with notebooks, there’s more of a linear progression and continuity to them. Things you’ve written on different days are connected by virtue of being in the same notebook. And I haven’t even talked about the intimacy and physicality of putting pen to paper either, something you don’t really get when you type on a keyboard (even if the results are more legible).

Yes, none of this is “efficient” or “practical”, but it is much more organic and satisfying in emotional terms. As your life progresses, you have different notebooks which travel with you for a time before concluding. Each one is a snapshot of a particular time. They’re long enough for you to get familiar with them, but short enough that you’ll also get used to changing notebook every few weeks or months. And, although nothing more can be added to a finished notebook, it is still there as proof that your time was not wasted. It is a thing that you made, something unique to you.

Finishing a notebook is a bittersweet experience, it’s the end of one era – but the beginning of another. And you don’t really get this with folders of digital documents or whatever. Yes, the limited length of a notebook might be a “flaw” in objective terms – but in subjective, emotional terms, it’s part of what makes them such meaningful things to use.

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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂

It’s Ok Not To Be A Connoisseur – A Ramble

Well, since I couldn’t think of a better idea for an article, I thought that I’d talk about how the internet can distort how you think about the things you enjoy. You’ve probably been there – you’re interested in a topic (eg: stationery, tea etc…) and you look on a site like Youtube out of curiosity about it.

Of course, you are instantly dazzled by the sheer variety on offer. There are videos by experts, collectors and connoisseurs, where – in seemingly every one – they’ve got something new to show you. And it’s easy to end up feeling limited or “second-best” by comparison. But you shouldn’t. Because it doesn’t really reflect how most people – even as little as 10-20 years ago – interacted with the things that they are interested in.

Realistically, you would just find something good and settle with it for as long as you do. For example, despite the dazzling array of stationery being shown on the internet, I’ve pretty much found my favourite “everyday” pen and notebook combination at the moment – both are relatively cheap (about £4-5 per notebook and, if I can find a good deal, £1 per pen), but fancier than what I used to use – and I pretty much just buy those when I shop online. Why? Because I enjoy using them, because they are things that I know that I’m actually going to use regularly. They are things I can stock up on in case the price changes or something goes out of stock or whatever.

Likewise, although I don’t really drink that much tea these days, I usually just stick with my favourite type when I do. A teabag of green tea brewed strong in about half a mug of hot water almost to the point of bitterness, then topped up with about a quarter-mug of cold water. This was something I developed in part for practical reasons during the 2010s (eg: the cold water allows you to drink it pretty much instantly) and in part because, whilst there was a variety of teas in supermarkets, cafes etc… back when I drank tea more regularly during the mid-late 2000s, it was more limited than the dazzling array of loose-leaf teas, tea bricks, aged teas etc… you can see on the internet these days. So, after some experimentation with what was available, I found my favourite type of tea – green tea – and just stuck to that.

And this “Find what you like and stick with it” thing is fairly normal for most people. There is literally nothing wrong or weird or “second-best” about it. Throughout most of human history, this is how most people interacted with the things they enjoyed. You found whatever worked best for you – shaped by things like cost and/or availability – and stuck with it. You couldn’t see what people on the other side of the world were enjoying and, if someone was showing off a variety of things, they were often either boasting (in order to make themselves feel better at your expense), it was an educational lecture/documentary or they were trying to sell you something.

As for why people on the internet keep showing off lots of new and different things, part is motivated by enthusiasm for the topic but it also has a lot to do with coming up with interesting and entertaining videos, articles, reviews etc.. Making new stuff to post regularly. And it isn’t always as fun as it looks.

For example, back when I spent a couple of years reviewing novels and a total of about a year writing daily articles about horror videogames, there was this constant self-imposed pressure to find new things. To study, rather than fully enjoy, then move on to the next thing. And, although I was able to discuss a variety of novels and games, I was also still limited by things like my (relatively low) budget, my strong preference for physical books, the specs of my computer etc….

And, whilst it was cool to feel like a cultured expert, it isn’t really a “natural” way to enjoy novels or horror games. As hinted earlier, both of these phases only lasted a year or two before I felt “burnt out” by either thing. Yes, I’ve read – or tried to read – a tiny number of books since then and I’ve played a small number of horror games since then (and written about them every once in a while), but this focus on constant, excessive variety for the sake of being a “connoisseur” eventually exhausted me and lessened my interest in both things.

So, don’t feel bad if you enjoy things that you are interested in in a more normal way. Don’t feel bad if you just find whatever is best for you from the available options and stick with it. It’s a more natural and long-lasting way to enjoy things. The way that people enjoy things when they’re making stuff to put on the internet is at least somewhat different to how most people normally enjoy things.

It can be very easy to watch lots of videos about a given topic and feel like you’re “second-best” in comparison to the enthusiasts on the internet, but you aren’t. You’re just normal, like virtually everyone else who uses stationery, drinks tea, reads books, wears clothes, plays videogames etc… It’s the internet which is the “weird” thing here. And if you treat what you see online as normal, then it’ll just make you feel bad about yourself. Even though there’s nothing to feel bad about – because you’re just doing what virtually all of humanity has done (finding the best things for you – shaped by cost/availability – and sticking with them) for centuries or millennia.

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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂

Is The Modern Style Of Hardback Notebook Actually Better?

Well, although I’ve compared cheap 2000s and 2020s hardback notebooks before, I thought that I’d focus a bit more heavily on the modern style of notebook today. This was mostly because, in 2023, I ended up switching over from using spiral-bound sketchbooks and traditional 2000s-style hardback notebooks to pretty much just using the modern style for everything.

The key features of the modern style – seemingly inspired by Moleskine notebooks – are that the covers have rounded corners, there’s a vertical elastic strap around the notebook and there’s – often, but not always – a cardboard pocket on the inside back cover. Older-style hardback notebooks just looked more like ordinary hardback books.

For illustration, here are two visual examples of modern-style hardback notebooks/sketchbooks:

Here are two examples of modern-style notebooks/sketchbooks. Note the elastic strap and rounded corners on both books. This style is probably the most common for hardback notebooks these days. And, yes, the gold one is technically a sketchbook rather than a notebook.

Both were relatively cheap, I can’t remember how much the purple one cost, but they typically cost about £4-6 from Amazon. Still, the few examples of 2000s-style hardback notebooks I could find online these days weren’t that much cheaper, so the cost is less of an issue than you might think. Especially since, even at these prices, they’re still significantly cheaper than higher-end examples (eg: Moleskine, Leuchturm etc…).

As for the design, the rounded corners are probably more of an ergonomic thing since it prevents the book from snagging on anything if it is dropped into or pulled out of a bag or backpack. On the downside, if you are scanning pages from these books – especially sketchbooks with this design – you’ll often get annoying dark areas at the corners thanks to the rounded edges. Yes, this isn’t too difficult to cover up with image editing software or to crop around, but it’s mildly annoying. Still, if you aren’t scanning anything in these books, it isn’t really an issue.

The elastic strap is another mixed blessing. Yes, it technically stops the notebook from falling open, but I don’t really remember this being that much of an issue with old 2000s-style notebooks (just hold them closed, store them flat or upright, don’t drop them, put them between other things in a backpack etc...). And, whilst removing the strap every time you open the notebook takes less than a second, it’s a mild hinderance. I guess the strap could be useful for keeping things in the cardboard pocket safe, but the only real use for it is if you’re using the book as a sketchbook.

Case in point, when I started a second sketchbook – mostly for fan art and stuff like that – last year, I initially made ballpoint pen art in an old A6-sized W.H.Smith notebook I had left over from the 2000s. Literally just a plain, simple “hardback novel” style book. And the sheer amount of page curl with this book got ridiculous after a while. Whether it was the pressure on the pages or the large quantities of ink I was putting on the page, the book bulged like a concertina when I was done with it.

Conversely, when I switched over to smaller modern-style 9cm x 14cm “Talens Art Creation” sketchbooks with better paper, I started using watercolours in these sketchbooks. As any artist will know, watercolour paint can often warp or crease the page slightly when it dries. Yes, painting on both sides of the page also helps, but this is where the elastic strap really helps. Even when completely filled with paintings, the book still remains reasonably flat 🙂 Again though, like with the scanning thing earlier, this is sort of a slightly “unusual” use-case for many notebook owners.

I can imagine that the small cardboard pocket at the back of many of these notebooks is probably a useful thing to have in some circumstances. But, if you’re carrying the book in a bag, backpack or pocket, then you can probably just use that to store things in instead. It’s what I used to do back in the 2000s when I travelled more and had notebooks without pockets. Still, even though I don’t really use the pocket, it’s a neat feature to have regardless.

Whilst paper quality and binding quality can vary between brands, the few examples of modern notebooks I’ve had hands-on experience with all seems to have fairly decent lie-flat binding. The purple notebook in the image earlier – which I don’t use as a main notebook – requires a little bit of a “push” to get it to lie flat. Whilst there probably are bad examples – which use “paperback novel” style binding – they, from my limited experience, seem to be less common than in older hardback notebooks from the 2000s.

As for paper quality, it always varies between brands and always has. And it really does seem to follow its own logic. Case in point, my “everyday” notebook is a cheap 13cm x 21cm plain paper Cambridge notebook (typically about £4-5 each on Amazon) and the paper is substantial enough to handle 0.7mm rollerball pens fairly well. On the other hand, more expensive Moleskine notebooks these days have notoriously thin paper which – if you use anything other than a cheap ballpoint pen or a pencil – will often render the other side of the page unusable due to ink bleeding through.

In conclusion though, notebooks are notebooks. Both old and new ones have pages that you can write on. Whilst the modern style has some small advantages (eg: the corners don’t snag on things, sketchbooks bulge less, they’re more likely to have lie-flat binding etc…) and some small disadvantages (eg: annoying if you want to scan the pages, takes a second longer to open, mildly more expensive), so did old-style notebooks.

The differences are subtle enough that it’s difficult to say whether or not they are better. Still, as mentioned in the other article I linked to at the beginning, they’re designed for different purposes. In the pre-smartphone days of the early-mid 2000s, notebooks were common, utilitarian everyday items which were meant to be cheap and practical. On the other hand, thanks to smartphones, notebooks are less common these days and are often seen more as leisure or prestige items (eg: journals, executive diaries, “commonplace books”, sketchbooks etc...), so the slightly fancier style of even most cheaper notebooks reflects this.

Still, notebooks are notebooks. Both old and modern ones have small advantages and disadvantages, but they’re still just books that you can write in.

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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂

These Notebooks Aren’t The Best (But Are Popular Because…)

Well, it has been a while since I wrote a lengthy stationery review – so I thought that I’d talk about Moleskine notebooks, my weird love-hate relationship with them and why they are popular.

If you haven’t heard of these, they’re a brand of notebook with rounded corners, an elastic strap, a bookmark ribbon and a cardboard pocket in the back. Yes, that also describes most modern hardback notebooks, but more on that later…

This is a Moleskine notebook. Due to the lighting, the rounded corners aren’t really visible here. I have a weird love-hate relationship with these notebooks…

Anyway, I’ve been using them as one of my notebooks ever since early 2022, when I decided that I should also have a physical version of my gratitude journal. Since I’d previously been given a 13cm x 21cm hardback Moleskine – with a black cover with liquorice allsorts printed on it – by a relative, I decided to use this for the journal. Unlike the cheaper “ordinary” notebooks I use everyday, it felt important and prestigious.

Since then, I’ve bought three more 13cm x 21cm “Classic” hardback Moleskines (for about £10-15 each) and I have complicated feelings about them.

For starters, astute readers will have noticed that 13cm x 21cm is NOT a standard paper size. It works well enough and you can actually find other hardback notebooks in this size (like the cheaper Moleskine-inspired plain paper ones made by Cambridge and typically sold on Amazon for £4-5).

Still, if I was being cynical, it almost seems like the weird size is the closest thing to “proprietary lock-in” that you can get with a notebook – since, if you switch to other notebooks, then they will probably be a different size, and will look weird on a shelf or whatever. So, the unusual size sort of makes you want to stick with them if you’re using multiple notebooks for the same purpose.

Plus, although I prefer plain paper notebooks for most things, the thin ruling in a Moleskine allows for a decent amount of writing compared to “ordinary” ruled paper. At the very least, it compensates for the pages being 1.8cm less wide than standard A5 paper.

There’s also the issue of paper thickness as well. When I started using Moleskines, I wanted to use a bolder and higher-quality pen than the ordinary cheap ballpoint pens I used for everyday writing at the time. This was the fanciest notebook I owned, and using a biro felt like sacrilege.

Since I’m not really a fountain pen person and I don’t find gel pens fun to write with, this meant liner pens or rollerball pens (since I use these for art anyway...). The thing about Moleskines, at least in the early-mid 2020s, is that they use fairly thin paper. Yes, this allows for a higher page count in a relatively small space, but it also means that you might only be able to use one side of each page.

Even ballpoints and 0.2mm liner pens may still leave a faint ghost of what was written on the other side. If you use anything even vaguely heavier than these, then expect the other side of the page to be ruined.

For example, here’s the other side of a page written on with a 0.5mm Uni-Ball Eye Needle rollerball pen. This isn’t that much of a heavy pen – compared to, say, the 0.7mm Pilot V Ball rollerball pens I use for writing in one of my other notebooks these days, or a fountain pen.

Here’s the other side of a Moleskine (purchased in 2022-3) notebook page when paired with a 0.5mm rollerball pen.

In other words, despite the prestige of these notebooks and the slightly premium price, they probably work best with cheap ballpoints or basic pencil if you want to use the notebook’s full capacity. Yes, the paper has a classy faded colour to it and it isn’t “bad paper” in technical terms (it’s acid-free, for starters) but it also isn’t as substantial as you might expect.

Plus, on the latest example I was using at the time of writing, the build quality – whilst still good – didn’t seem quite as good as earlier examples. The spine/cover sometimes seems to audibly creak when I open the book. Plus, some inner pages which were plain in earlier examples are now half-covered with unnecessary space-wasting blurbs (“Our Manifesto”), QR codes etc… (wasting useful space) in this one.

[Edit: A later example, a myrtle green one which I bought at a discount from a large online shop sometime after preparing the draft of this article, appears to be of even lower quality. It broke about halfway through using it! The pages began to separate from the cover at the back, leading to a hasty bodged repair with some nearby sticky labels…]

Yet, I still use them – albeit not as my main notebook. But why are they so popular?

Part is probably just the branding and sales tactics – even though there are other higher-end notebook brands (eg: Leuchturm, Rhodia etc...), and even the cheap Cambridge notebook I mentioned earlier has sturdier paper – the Moleskine name is probably the most recognisable.

Not only do they have display stands in bookshops and places like that, but there’s the classy French-style presentation (even though the label says: “Designed by Moleskine in Italy – Manufactured in Turkey”) and they will often release examples with limited-edition cover designs as well. Even the “standard” covers come in a large range of colours.

In part, it’s sort of a “cult-following” type thing. Like how – for reasons I’ve never understood – some people still buy Apple computers, rather than more cost-effective and customisable PCs.

Another part is probably that – despite the thin paper – they still aren’t exactly “bad” notebooks. The binding is reasonably good, they lay flat when opened and – paper thickness aside – they’re a functional and reliable notebook.

Yes, many other notebooks are well-made – even including some cheaper ones – but buying cheap stationery from unknown online brands can be a bit of a gamble in terms of build quality. So, whilst Moleskines might not be the very best, at least you know that you’re getting a reasonable mid-high quality notebook if you buy one.

But, perhaps most of all, there is the fact that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. I’ve written a longer article about this but it’s very telling that virtually all of the cheaper A5 hardback notebooks you can find these days try to imitate the style of a Moleskine.

Go back to the 2000s and cheap hardback notebooks were a lot more basic and utilitarian – square corners, no elastic strap etc… – but, these days, pretty much every budget hardback notebook manufacturer wants to be like Moleskine. They seem to have set the standard template for hardback notebooks these days.

Yes, in all good conscience, I can’t fully recommend buying a Moleskine. The Cambridge notebooks I mentioned earlier are less than half the price and, though noticeably “cheap” in some subtle ways, offer more substantial paper (which handles rollerball pens better...) and a relatively similar experience to using a Moleskine.

And, although I haven’t really tried out other higher-end notebook brands, at least some of them apparently offer sturdier paper than Moleskine too. Still, saying that, I don’t entirely regret using Moleskines either, they’re “fancy” in a fun way and not entirely bad. Again, I have a love-hate relationship with them.

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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂

University Stationery Doesn’t Have To Be Fancy – A Ramble

Well, I was in the mood for rambling about stationery again. This is mostly because, back in mid-August, I happened to stumble across a Youtube video from a popular stationery channel where the presenters were talking about the fancy stationery that they wished they had used at university.

Anyway, this suddenly made me think about my own university days back in 2006-10. As well as random nostalgic memories of parts of the campus, I ended up thinking about the stationery that I used back then and – honestly – it was pretty basic. I had a cheap A4 spiral-bound ruled notebook (for lecture/seminar notes), a cheap A5 hardback plain paper notebook (for writing story drafts by hand and doodling between lectures), a folder with plastic sleeves in it (for photocopies, handouts etc...) and a few retractable black ink ballpoint pens. And that was about it.

None of these things were fancy, and they didn’t need to be. They were things that I could just throw into a backpack and not really think about much. The pens were reliable enough and I could also clip one of them to the spiral binding of the larger notebook. Yes, taking lots of notes with a ballpoint could be exhausting but I didn’t really have to think much about the pen I was using or how legible my handwriting was. I didn’t have to wait for ink to dry or anything like that either. I could just write as quickly as I could, trying to keep up with the lecture.

The retractable pens meant that I didn’t have to worry about losing pen caps and I could start writing almost instantly. I’d usually take a few of them with me in case one ran out, but they lasted for quite a while. Because they were relatively cheap, it wasn’t the end of the world if I had to lend one to someone, if one ran out or if I lost one.

The thing to remember about lecture notes is that – whilst you should take them – they often have a relatively short “shelf-life”, at least in humanities courses. At the absolute most, you might need to look at them again later in the term or module but – after a few weeks or months, you’re unlikely to need them again, at least in humanities courses. I mean, I’ve still got a few old spiral-bound notebooks from university and I haven’t looked at them in over a decade. In other words, it’s better for notes to be practical and functional – rather than stylish or fancy – since they’re only useful for a relatively short time.

There’s a large difference between stationery that you use “for fun” at home and stationery that you carry around for practical purposes. During the later years of my time at university, I’d have rollerball pens and – even briefly – a fountain pen (with purple ink cartridges) in my room. These days, I use very “inky” 0.7mm rollerball pens and A5 plain paper notebooks for everyday “fun” writing at home. Slightly fancier stationery is a lot of fun to play around with at home, to collect and/or experiment with.

However, if you’re at university and going to campus – then focus on “cheap and practical” instead. In these sorts of situations, the main point is being able to write down information rather than having fun with stationery or showing off with it. So, go for “zero maintenance” things like ballpoint pens that you can just write with, which last for ages, which you can carry spares for etc… Yes, some ballpoint pens are better than others but, as long as it writes, then use it.

Again, go for low-cost practicality. For example, I chose a ruled A4 spiral-bound notebook for lecture notes not only because it was cheaper, but because there was more page space and I could fold the notebook over itself to save space too. It was ruled because this was what was readily available at the time, and it probably also helped to keep my miniscule handwriting vaguely legible too. I could also easily remove pages from it if I needed to as well. Not my ideal notebook for “fun” writing, but more useful for taking lots of notes very quickly.

Keep your stationery fairly cheap in these situations too, mostly so that you don’t feel too “precious” about it. Most of the spiral-bound notebooks I used at university ended up getting a bit crushed and battered from being rattled around and dropped in my backpack. But it didn’t really matter because they weren’t really that fancy to begin with anyway. As long as it stayed in one piece, which it did, then it didn’t matter.

Of course, this is probably all moot these days. It has been over a decade since I last set foot on a university campus, and I imagine that things in 2024 are probably very different to 2008 or whenever. These days, I imagine that most students probably take notes with laptops or record the lecture on their phones or the university records it for them or whatever.

They might even be allowed to cite Wikipedia as a source and find the idea of physical libraries laughable and photocopiers hilariously quaint. They probably don’t have large desktop computers in their rooms, or go on raucous late-night pub crawls or any of the other things that made 2000s universities so much fun. So, this article probably more of historical interest than anything else…

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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂

Comparing Two 0.7mm Rollerball Pens: “Uni-Ball Eye” vs “Pilot V Ball 0.7”

Well, since I was still in the mood for writing stationery reviews, I thought that it would be interesting to compare the two 0.7mm rollerball pens that I’ve had the most experience with – namely the “Uni-Ball Eye” (or, in the US, “Uni-Ball Vision”) and the “Pilot V Ball 0.7”.

I’ll be looking at the black ink variants of both, although they are both also made in a variety of other ink colours too. And, yes, this is exactly the sort of pointless connoisseurship that I criticised in this other article. It’s still fun to write though…

Here are the two pens. There’s the “Pilot V Ball 0.7” on the left and the 0.7mm “Uni-Ball Eye” on the right.

If you’ve never heard of rollerball pens, they have the same “ball in a socket” nib as a ballpoint pen or gel pen, but they use thinner fountain pen style ink instead. They’re like a more practical and user-friendly alternative to a fountain pen. Yes, they have some of the downsides of a fountain pen (eg: the ink can bleed through thinner paper) but they write really smoothly and boldly, and are just really fun to use 🙂

As for the two pens, they’re fairly similar in a lot of ways but each one has advantages and disadvantages. Here’s a writing sample from each pen:

Here’s some text and scribbles written with each of the two pens. Remember, don’t write on thinner paper with these pens (since it’ll cause “bleed through”).

The “Pilot V.Ball 0.7” is the smoothest-writing of the two and it is an absolute JOY to write with, gliding across the page with barely even a thought. It feels very slightly more “precise” too.

In the looks department, the black ink version has a seriously cool-looking black and gold body too. With other ink colours, the body and cap are the same colour as the ink, making it easy to tell them apart at a glance.

On the downside, the ink isn’t waterproof – making it much more suitable for ordinary writing than for any type of mixed-media art. Likewise, whilst there is technically an ink level viewing window near the top of the pen, it practically requires you to hold the pen up to a bright light source to actually see it… and it also only allows you to see about the top 1.7cm – 3.4cm (it’s a transparent band with a small niche in it) of the ink reservoir.

On the other hand, the “Uni-Ball Eye” writes reasonably smoothly, but fractionally less so than the “V Ball”. The ink is very slightly darker than the “V Ball” too – and the pen is slightly more “inky” too.

It also has the advantage of being both waterproof and fade-proof, making it a great choice as an art pen – since you can draw line art with it and then add watercolour or whatever afterwards. However, looking at this video online , only some – but not all – ink colours are waterproof (personally, I’ve only tested the black, blue and red varieties – all of which are waterproof). If an “Eye” pen has the words “waterproof/fade-proof” printed next to the ink viewing window then it will be ok, but if it doesn’t then it isn’t.

It has a much larger and clearer ink level viewing window, allowing you to see more of the reservoir and get a better idea of how much ink is left. However, in the looks department, the “default” version of the pen is a boring utilitarian grey. Looking online, there is also a 1.0mm variant which has a cool gold/copper body, but this is a review of the 0.7mm version – which only seems to come in drab-looking grey.

With other ink colours, this is indicated in a variety of ways which – looking online – seems to depend on production year, manufacturing location and/or nib size. Sometimes the whole pen is colour-coded, sometimes just the end caps are colour-coded (like the blue and red examples I have left-over from a multi-pack) and sometimes you can only tell by looking at the viewing window and nib casing.

Both pens are a similar length when capped, with the “V Ball” being 13.5cm long and the “Eye” being 13.8cm long. The extra length of the “Eye” seems to be due to the design of its end-cap and I don’t know the exact amount of ink that each pen contains.

As for pricing, this is a difficult one to compare. From my experience with buying these pens online, the prices can vary wildly depending on special offers, quantity, individual sellers etc… Sometimes it is cheaper to get one and sometimes it is cheaper to get the other. If you find a good deal, then you’ll typically be paying 70p – £1.70 per pen with either type, though some sellers charge more for them.

In general, both pens are pretty solid. Which one is better for you will depend on what you are looking for. If you just want to write stuff and want to look stylish whilst doing it, then go for the “V Ball” because it is the smoothest and coolest of the two. If you need waterproof ink, if like your ink as dark as possible and/or you like to know how much ink is left in the pen, then go for the “Uni-Ball Eye”.

The “V Ball” is a pen that is just FUN to write with and makes you feel cool whilst using it, whilst the “Uni-Ball Eye” is a more versatile and utilitarian pen. Still, the differences between the two aren’t that large if you’re just writing with them. So, if you’re interested in writing with rollerballs, just choose whichever one of these two is cheapest and/or easiest to find.

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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂

Why Do People Use Gel Pens?

Well, I thought that I’d talk about stationery again. Whilst I’m much more of a fan of ballpoint and rollerball pens, I thought that I’d look at some of the reasons why people might choose to use gel pens instead.

Here are three gel pens. From top to bottom: A Uni-Ball Signo, a “W.H.Smith” own-brand gel pen and a very old 2000s (?) Pentel EnerGel pen. Out of the three, the EnerGel seems to be the best, since it still writes after at least a decade of disuse and has the best – or least-worst – “feel” on the page of the three. The white ink version of the “Signo” is a good art pen though, for adding highlights and rain to paintings after the paint has dried.

If you’re not sure of the difference, all three types of pen use a “ball in a socket” nib – but ballpoint pens use viscous oil-based ink, gel pens use gel ink and rollerball pens use thinner fountain pen-style ink.

Because of this, each type of pen also has a subtly different ink reservoir and/or feed system as well. Ballpoint ink is viscous enough to be stored in a thin tube, using capillary action and surface tension. Gel ink requires a wider storage tube and a clear gel “follower” at the end to stop the ink leaking. With rollerball pens, the ink is too thin for a tube and the body of the pen instead serves as an ink reservoir. In addition to this, rollerball pens use a fountain pen-style feed mechanism too.

Ballpoint pens are practical, cheap, long-lasting and quick-drying pens that can write on almost any type of paper, but can be a bit “scratchy” to write with and the ink can look slightly less bold too.

Rollerball pens are more like a genuinely fun and user-friendly alternative to a fountain pen, with many of the same advantages (eg: smooth, bold writing) and disadvantages (eg: you need thicker paper, they cost more, the ink takes time to dry etc…).

And, in practical terms, gel pens sit somewhere in between these two extremes.

From my limited experimentation, they write more smoothly than a ballpoint but less smoothly than a rollerball. The ink has a weird consistency, but it allows for bolder lines than a ballpoint without the “bleed through” you can get if you use a rollerball on thinner paper. Gel pen ink takes slightly longer to dry than ballpoint ink, but less time than rollerball ink.

In addition to this, gel pens are the most recent type of pen – emerging during the 1980s. If you grew up during the 1990s or 2000s, you’re probably also aware that gel pens come in a wide array of different ink colours. Whilst you can also find ballpoint pens in different ink colours, gel pen ink is much bolder. Likewise, whilst you can get rollerball pens with different ink colours these days, this seems to have been a relatively recent development and they cost more than the equivalent gel pens.

But, whilst gel pens can be really cool art pens – I remember having some metallic ones when I was younger, as well as neon orange and lime green ones – they are less versatile than ballpoint or rollerball pens for different reasons.

If you’re making art with a ballpoint, then you can do things like varying the pressure in order to create pencil-like shading – and you have a lot more precision too. If you’re making art with a rollerball – then some common types (like the black, blue or red ink “Uni-Ball Eye” pens) use waterproof ink, which allows you to add watercolour afterwards if you’re drawing on watercolour paper. Gel ink isn’t usually waterproof and you can’t use gel pens for fine pencil-style shading either.

Again, gel pens are a weird middle-ground between ballpoint and rollerball pens. Whilst I personally see them more as a “Jack of all trades, master of none” type of pen, I can see why some people find them to be a good choice for either everyday writing or for making ink-based art with.

If you’re just using or carrying one pen, then I can see why you might just want a “middle-ground” pen. They’re a bit more “fancy” than a ballpoint and almost as practical. The ink is bold like a rollerball pen, but they’re less fun to write with.

At the end of the day, it’s all personal preference. Still, whilst gel pens are a middle-ground between ballpoint and rollerball pens, I’ve personally found it better to just use one of each of these two types of pens for different tasks.

But if you want a single “all-rounder” pen, then I can see why you might go for a gel pen. It will write on thin paper without much “bleed-through” whilst also looking bolder than a ballpoint. Again though, personally, I find them to be less practical than ballpoint pens and less fun to write with than rollerball pens.

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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂