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We recently received this email: “Would be nice if your website offered more information. The links show graph or lined paper. How many squares per inch? Wide ruled or college ruled? Maybe a glossary for potential new customers who are searching for quality paper, but do not understand what L+M means.” 
I asked a blogger friend if this level of detail was important. She felt it was. “When I do journal reviews which had lined paper, I would include the ruling width,” she said. “To people that write big or small, that’s important. I’m not a fan of graph paper, so I’m not sure why people would want to know the dimensions of the squares but if it helps, by all means include it! I say in circumstances like this, more is better.”
What is your opinion? What product specs do you find most valuable for notebooks and journals?
BTW – “L+M” means means “Lined with Margin.” The thumbnail photo next to the caption was supposed to illustrate this, but obviously it didn’t for this person. We’ll change the website to make title clearer.
Comments
US graph paper is different from European graph paper, with major divisions every inch, sometimes semi-major ones every half-inch and minor ones every 1/8″. Euro graph paper is usually 6mm x 5mm or 8xmm x 8mm. For someone who needs to make 1:1 graphs, knowing this information matters.
Another good indication to provide would be the whiteness and brightness index of the paper, and its opacity. See this article for an explanation:
http://www.moxicopy.com/printing-paper-guide.htm
When it comes to providing information about the paper a notebook contains, you really cannot give too much!
A common complaint uttered by connoiseurs of stationery the world over, is that a good many online vendors dedicate all their item descriptions to the external details or designs of their products, forgetting that those of us with a penchant for the paper-esque are just as (if not more) concerned with the GSM, colour, tooth and quality of the paper INSIDE the notebook. We want to know the colour of lines, the width of the lines, whether the lines go all the way to the edges of each page, is there a margin, how large is the gap between the top line and the top of the page, is there a satin sheen to the paper, has it been cold pressed, does it take fountain pen ink well, is there any bleeding or feathering, does the spine lay flat, can you write easily on both sides, will the paper take watercolours or allow you to build up coloured pencils…we’d even love to know what the notebook smells like!
I know, it sounds pedantic, but if like me you spend a LOT of time and money trying to procure the perfect notebook, you want to have as many facts as possible about your potential purchase, laid out clearly for you to peruse, in an attempt to prevent you from picking up that which does not suit your taste or needs.
When you’re passionate about paper, the devil is in the details so the more the better please!
(From someone who has purchased about 15 Rhodia notebooks – one selection box, one 5 pack of A5 grid reporter and another 5 pack of A5 lined reporter! – in the past three days and cannot WAIT to get her carefully selected purchases!
Karen,
I agree that more is better in this instance. This is especially true since a lot of folks don’t get to handle Rhodia products before they buy them.
If I recall correctly, there is a page at the end of the master catalog that gives an explanation for all the ruling types. Perhaps it would be useful to make a scan of that page available on the Rhodia website?
People (like myself) would want to know the dimensions of the graph paper (i.e. squares per cm/in) for much the same reason people like to know rule width. Personally, I dislike 4 sq/in, as it is too big, but 5 sq/in is perfect.
I’ve regretted many purchases online because of this.
Rebecca, I hear you! have you seen my other blog? http://www.biffybeans.com/
The 8mm spacing of the Quo Vadis Habana turned me away. The 7mm spacing of the Rhodia Webbie is about where I draw the line (get it?).
Yes, details matter when people are going to spend $20 on a notebook!
Well, considering your audience, I think the more details you offer, the better. Line spacing, paper weight, cover stiffness and thickness, brightness of the paper (some folks like bright white, some don’t).
For “boutique” brands like Rhodia/Clairefontaine, it’s especially important since a number of us can’t just run out and find examples in brick & mortar stores locally.
What Rebecca said – agree 100 %
Very definitely, the more detail the better! Considering all the possible variants of rules and squares and dots, just saying “gridded” becomes meaningless.
[As a quick example - what's the difference between "Seyès" and "Seyès C"?]
Yes, more detail! I get very frustrated when a notebook description does not adequately describe the ruling. It matters.
Everyone, thank you very much for your feedback. We will add ruling sizes, colors of lines, spacing of grids and dot grids and other detailed information as we prepare the new catalogs this fall. I will also add this information to individual products on rhodiapads.com and quovadisplanners.com. On our main website – exaclair.com – the detail will be able to be viewed on the catalog pages in pdf and flash. Kindly note – I will only be adding that info for Rhodia, Clairefontaine and Quo Vadis products we manufacture, import or distribute in the U.S. Some of our retailers, Goulet Pen, for example, special order products from France. While this is a wonderful service, we do not include special-order products on our websites or catalogs. If you need further detail on these particular products please ask the retailer directly. Thank you so much again for your valuable input. We will implement these changes as we go forward.
Absolutely include that sort of info. I remember before making a decision to buy my first pad of Rhodia graph paper, I scoured around on the internet for some time before I finally found a blog whose owner was thoughtful enough to note that the squares were 5×5 mm.
Having that info was important to me for knowing whether I could comfortably write on adjacent graph (horizontal) lines.
I remember thinking at the time I couldn’t fathom why a site (Rhodia Drive) dedicated to everything you ever wanted to know about Rhodia products wouldn’t include something as basic as the graph grid spacing or the line spacings on the ruled pads.
And now since I’m already writing, maybe you can tell me why the vertical margin rule on the lined #16 pad (which is what I generally use) is set so far to the right? I’d sure be a lot more pleased if it were somewhere around 18 mm.
Well, I have my work cut out for me on adding details to rhodiapads.com and the Exaclair catalog this fall.
To answer Cerement’s question, “Seyes” is French-ruled, and “Seyes C” is French-ruled with a border around the edges.
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