A4 Journal Layout

June 26, 2012

The journal is the Quo Vadis A4. I am REALLY impressed with this journal. Thinking about ordering a 10 year supply

How do you find the drying time with the Quo Vadis? I've got a mid-sized lined one (pretty close to B5, I think) and the paper is kind of slick and takes more than a bit of time to dry, which is why it's never made it into my permanent notebook rotation. It's a first iteration QV: I know the paper in the US versions changed and has now changed back since I first bought mine, but I think the paper has remained consistent here in Canada and in the rest of the world. Slicker and longer drying than Clairefontaine, in my experience.

Ryan.

June 27, 2012

Neels, thank you very much for the templates. Your journal looks very attractive indeed.

I'm also going to start using A4 size for journaling and will give this layout a try. The only question that needs to be answered for me is to use which journal. I'm waiting for Leuchtturm 1917 A4 in the mail and hoping for the paper to be as good as Quo Vadis paper because I like the concept of extra features of Leuchtturm in addition to higher page count compared to Quo Vadis. If you have first-hand experience with them I'd love hear your thoughts as well. There are lots of confusing reviews for these journals here on FPN.

June 27, 2012

The journal is the Quo Vadis A4. I am REALLY impressed with this journal. Thinking about ordering a 10 year supply

How do you find the drying time with the Quo Vadis? I've got a mid-sized lined one (pretty close to B5, I think) and the paper is kind of slick and takes more than a bit of time to dry, which is why it's never made it into my permanent notebook rotation. It's a first iteration QV: I know the paper in the US versions changed and has now changed back since I first bought mine, but I think the paper has remained consistent here in Canada and in the rest of the world. Slicker and longer drying than Clairefontaine, in my experience.

Ryan.

Well, I might not be the best person to advise you regarding drying time, since I journal with fine or x-fine nibs. So for me it is quite fast drying. Compared to CF paper I actually find it longer drying since it doesn't seem to absorb ink as much as CF. But the advantage of that is that lines stay true (my F doesn't become an M). At first I did not like the off white colour as it does not reflect the ink colour truly, but I now choose my journal ink to complement the paper colour, so I'm not too worried.

June 27, 2012

Neels, thank you very much for the templates. Your journal looks very attractive indeed.
I'm also going to start using A4 size for journaling and will give this layout a try. The only question that needs to be answered for me is to use which journal. I'm waiting for Leuchtturm 1917 A4 in the mail and hoping for the paper to be as good as Quo Vadis paper because I like the concept of extra features of Leuchtturm in addition to higher page count compared to Quo Vadis. If you have first-hand experience with them I'd love hear your thoughts as well. There are lots of confusing reviews for these journals here on FPN.

Hi,

I have no experience with Leuchtturm journals at all. From what I've read here and in blogs it has a slight tendency to feather, but that is hearsay on my part. Let us know how you find it. As for the page count, to me the QV has just the right number of pages to open nice and flat. If the Leuchtturm journals have thinner paper, that would not be a problem, although show through might be an issue. From my A5 journaling journey I have only this to say: Once you've started, stick to it until it is filled up. Otherwise you end up like me with 3 or 4 journals with 10 pages each

Neels

June 28, 2012

Neels, thank you very much for the templates. Your journal looks very attractive indeed.
I'm also going to start using A4 size for journaling and will give this layout a try. The only question that needs to be answered for me is to use which journal. I'm waiting for Leuchtturm 1917 A4 in the mail and hoping for the paper to be as good as Quo Vadis paper because I like the concept of extra features of Leuchtturm in addition to higher page count compared to Quo Vadis. If you have first-hand experience with them I'd love hear your thoughts as well. There are lots of confusing reviews for these journals here on FPN.
Hi,

I have no experience with Leuchtturm journals at all. From what I've read here and in blogs it has a slight tendency to feather, but that is hearsay on my part. Let us know how you find it. As for the page count, to me the QV has just the right number of pages to open nice and flat. If the Leuchtturm journals have thinner paper, that would not be a problem, although show through might be an issue. From my A5 journaling journey I have only this to say: Once you've started, stick to it until it is filled up. Otherwise you end up like me with 3 or 4 journals with 10 pages each

Neels

They only "feather" with certain inks. If you go to the paper etc. review section there is one for the Leuchtturm journals and it shows like weird micro lines splitting off from the ink...It really only has done that to me with a couple inks...I use mostly fine or smaller nibs, haven't seen the problem with my Lamy 2000 M with an Iroshizuku ink it it. And I haven't tried my TWSBI B on it yet. I am going to try using this template though, looking forward to my stuff looking nice and even...Thanks for the PDF.

June 30, 2012

On the topic of Leuchtturms and feathering, it really depends on your individual notebook. I used to think that it mattered whether I bought the squared or the dotted, but it might just depend on the batch you get.

My first purchase of A4 Leuchtturms consisted of one Squared and one Dotted. The Squared didn't feather but my pen did not glide over the pages very smoothly; the pages felt thick & velvety under my pen. The Dotted ones did feather, and the pages seemed to pick up fingerprints (that would repel ink), but my pen glided over the pages and the writing experience was nicer for me. I ended up choosing the Dotted notebook as my primary notebook, eventually buying six more over the next year from US sources, being careful to handle pages only at the edges so as not to leave ink-repelling fingerprint areas.

However, I recently bought a couple of the Dotted ones from European sellers, and they have the same non-feathering but not-as-smooth-to-write-on paper as my original Squared one. It is not at all the same experience as writing on the old Dotted ones, and I surprised myself my ending use of one of them after one page, not because they're bad but because all my other projects were being done in the smoother US-bought Dotted version, and I had learned from having the old Squared one that having one notebook that was different from 90% of everything else you wrote on was a huge distraction. You spend the whole time thinking about how different and unpleasant the writing feels instead of focusing on your work, and I was grateful when the project I was doing in the Squared notebook finally ended a month or so ago, and wasn't going to put myself through that again.

February 1, 2014

Hi Folks,

This is a great thread, at least for those of us that value aesthetics of the entire work (penmanship and paper). One of the posters asked about adopting the templet for other paper sizes. I understand that in theory this should be simple for the ISO standard paper sizes, but I can't help but wonder if it is really that simple. For example: I want to use the 9x9 on the Rhodia webnotebook, A5. Is it really as simple as reducing the A4 templet by half?

If it is, then it's great because I can even do that directly from the PDF.

I guess the questions are: Is an A5 templet half the size of the A4? If not, how we can adapt the A4 to get a templet that uses the golden mean and does fit A5? I quite like Rod Graves moleskine writing templet, but it's not set-up for A5.

Cheers,

- SteveN

February 7, 2014

So, anyone with an A5 layout?

February 9, 2014

A5 Journal Layout.pdf

February 11, 2014

A5 Journal Layout.pdf

Thanks!

Out of curiosity, is it a half-size A4?

February 11, 2014

If you're asking whether I just scaled the A4 layout down to A5, then no; this was newly constructed for A5 using the 9x9 system. Line spacing is the same as in NeelsK's A4, so there are fewer (and shorter) lines.

This sort of thing is very easy to do in a vector drawing application. :-)

May 15, 2018

It has been a while since this topic was discussed. I recent brought up the topic of a journal layout for the Rhodia webbie, which has a slightly different size than A5. 8mm to be exact, but enough to need a layout specific to the webbie. I have one, and thought it came from here, but sadly cannot find the soft-copy, and the hard copy is beyond scanning or photocopying.

Does anyone have instruction on how to easily construct this 9x9 grid so that one could easily create a writing guide for any size notebook? I know there are some at incompetech, but they are only writing guidelines, and do not help with page layout. Rod Graves templets are for moleskine, which is quite a bit narrower. There must be an easy way to create these (or so it seems).

Does anyone have a page layout guide for a webbie (14x21cm), or an easy way to create one?

May 15, 2018

nunez, Neels offer this instruction higher up the thread

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/223044-a4-journal-layout/?p=2372056

May 15, 2018

nunez, Neels offer this instruction higher up the thread
https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/223044-a4-journal-layout/?p=2372056

Ah! So there is. I do not know how I missed that. Thank you. That should do the trick.

May 16, 2018

Right, so I have created a 9x9 templet with OmniGraffle and created a PDF. Happy to share, except I cannot find a way to add an attachment. I remember adding attachments in the past; do not know why it is not here now. If anyone wants a writing guide for the webbie sized notebooks, message me and I will send.

May 16, 2018

You may need to create a link to an off-site source. DropBox or something similar.

Thanks for OmniGraffle. They have a 7 day trial. I try to figure it out to make an A5 12 x12. Same propotions but smaller margins. More writting space for the smaller page size.

Edited May 16, 2018 by Karmachanic