Kokuyo Campus Design Notebook - A4 (8.3" X 11.7") - 3 mm Graph - 30 Sheets - Yellow

oops, I accidentally submitted an incomplete review before.

As I was saying, I love the Design notebooks! The paper is excellent and a dream to write on. The paper's texture is smooth as silk, no grainy or scratchy feel, and both pencil and pen ink write smoothly with no bumping/skipping or scratchiness.

The graph lines are printed in a non-obtrusive brown-gray or taupe-ish ink color that complements the slighyly off-white pages. I can't say for sure if the graph lines are affected by an eraser, but they look permanent and consistent, with no variation in the lines' thickness or darkness. I have never thought about this before, but Design Notebook's graph rule LINES UP from page to page, unlike cheap graph paper that's cut from a large pre-printed sheet. It looks great, and may have spoiled me forever. No more cheap-o, 4x4 or 5x5 blue-ink office supply graph paper for me!

I'm using one of these notebooks as a journal because the 3mm graph lines are the narrowest-ruled paper I've seen yet. Its possible to write VERY tiny on this 3mm ruled paper, especially with Uniball Signo Bit 0.18mm point gel pens.

Finally, the notebook is really well-made and professional-looking, although the binding method results in a weird pocket/layer, like a halfway-attached page inside the front and back covers. All three of the notebooks I bought have the pocket-thing, so its not a defect. Unfortunately, the aforementioned pocket prevents the book from laying flat when you fold back the cover to use one page at a time... It must be used open flat on a desk with two pages exposed.

Warning: DO NOT TRY TO FIX IT like I did, by tearing/cutting off the pocket...because the stitches in the binding will start to unravel and the cover eventually falls off, then the stitches fall out. I messed up my yellow cover notebook exactly like that. & now its just loose folded paper w/no cover. :-(

Oh well. Now I have to get another one! :-)