For What Is French Ruled Notepaper Used?

[GouletPens]

Wow, it's amazing how old this thread is! I'll continue to keep it alive here. I just wanted to update from my post a WHILE ago that I did end up ordering the Clairefontaine loose sheets from France, and I have them for sale right now: http://www.gouletpens.com/Clairefontaine_Loose_Sheets_p/c1750.htm They were sure a bit of trouble to get, and I likely won't get any more when I sell out due to the logistics and the 3+ month delivery time. But for those who want it, I'm likely the only retailer in the US who has any...

[jgrasty]

Wow, it's amazing how old this thread is! I'll continue to keep it alive here. I just wanted to update from my post a WHILE ago that I did end up ordering the Clairefontaine loose sheets from France, and I have them for sale right now: http://www.gouletpens.com/Clairefontaine_Loose_Sheets_p/c1750.htm They were sure a bit of trouble to get, and I likely won't get any more when I sell out due to the logistics and the 3+ month delivery time. But for those who want it, I'm likely the only retailer in the US who has any...

 

I bought some of the French Ruled paper from Brian. It is very nice paper to write on, but I still haven't a clue what all the lines are for... :roflmho:

[GouletPens]

 

I bought some of the French Ruled paper from Brian. It is very nice paper to write on, but I still haven't a clue what all the lines are for... :roflmho:

I keep meaning to do a video on using French-ruled paper, I really need to! I'll post it here when I do

[Fuddlestack]

I bought some of the French Ruled paper from Brian. It is very nice paper to write on, but I still haven't a clue what all the lines are for... :roflmho:

 

Guide lines for learning to write. We had something similar at primary school in fifties Norn Iron. Re the purple ink someone mentioned, my kids always used standard Waterman Blue Washable cartridges at school here. Last time I went into a stationer's in Haguenau and asked about their range of ink colours, they convinced me that they didn't know it came in anything but black, blue and red, like a good tabassage.

[esterbex]

I bought some of the French Ruled paper from Brian. It is very nice paper to write on, but I still haven't a clue what all the lines are for... :roflmho:

 

Guide lines for learning to write. We had something similar at primary school in fifties Norn Iron. Re the purple ink someone mentioned, my kids always used standard Waterman Blue Washable cartridges at school here. Last time I went into a stationer's in Haguenau and asked about their range of ink colours, they convinced me that they didn't know it came in anything but black, blue and red, like a good tabassage.

 

No black eyes I hope....

[bigstick]

I bought some of the French Ruled paper from Brian. It is very nice paper to write on, but I still haven't a clue what all the lines are for... :roflmho:

I keep meaning to do a video on using French-ruled paper, I really need to! I'll post it here when I do

 

Well done, Brian. I have a mort of A4 loose, and a pack of A4 double seyes as well. A milliard of uses. All those holes, bound to fit something.

[jgrasty]

I bought some of the French Ruled paper from Brian. It is very nice paper to write on, but I still haven't a clue what all the lines are for... :roflmho:

 

Guide lines for learning to write. We had something similar at primary school in fifties Norn Iron. Re the purple ink someone mentioned, my kids always used standard Waterman Blue Washable cartridges at school here. Last time I went into a stationer's in Haguenau and asked about their range of ink colours, they convinced me that they didn't know it came in anything but black, blue and red, like a good tabassage.

 

I'm just kidding. I really bought it to teach my 8-year-old how to write cursive. What they teach is school is so rudimentary I think it confuses the kids more than helps.

[cubic archon]

I love the idea of schoolchildren being told to use an ink called "Moon Dust".

 

When I was taught to write in the early 80s here in the UK, we were made to use fountain pens, but "fountain pen" basically meant "Parker Vector". Even now, Parkers are the pens you will see in every high street stationery shop, though at least now they often also stock Lamy. Also, "ink" meant "Parker Washable Blue" which is the most boring anaemic ink ever. Even now I have a huge prejudice against all blue inks.

[rikki]

Anne-Sophie explained the method in which Séyès ruling is used quite thoroughly in one of her posts (thank you) but for anyone who wanted more of a visual aid...

 

Cursivécole is a resource site for teaching cursive in schools. You can generate PDFs of phrases, whole documents, et cetera in French cursive, with Séyès and other rulings. Here is an example of what the document generator can create.

 

Specifically of interest to this thread might be the Affiches Abécédaire section, which contains PDFs of both miniscule and majuscule cursive letters. There are also downloadable fonts which Google Translate tells me are available for non-commercial use, but it'd be nice to hear from someone who understands French on that.

[tfwall]

Cursivécole is a resource site for teaching cursive in schools. You can generate PDFs of phrases, whole documents, et cetera in French cursive, with Séyès and other rulings. Here is an example of what the document generator can create.

 

 

Great find!

 

 

Specifically of interest to this thread might be the Affiches Abécédaire section, which contains PDFs of both miniscule and majuscule cursive letters. There are also downloadable fonts which Google Translate tells me are available for non-commercial use, but it'd be nice to hear from someone who understands French on that.

 

The statement at the top of the page advises you that, in general, you can use the fonts for non-commercial purposes, but you should check the individual author's pages for specific restrictions.

[rikki]

The statement at the top of the page advises you that, in general, you can use the fonts for non-commercial purposes, but you should check the individual author's pages for specific restrictions.

 

Thank you for the confirmation, Chemyst.

[lingling]

Although this thread is kinda old, I can't hep but want to say something as well. Reading all these posts about the different schooling systems and the emphasis on penmanship kind of make me depressed about Singapore's educational system in terms of penmanship.

 

I study in Singapore (still am). It is compulsory to use pencil for the first few years of primary school and the only time we have dotted paper and the like to practice our writing on is during (depending on your school) penmanship classes or the first few lessons of English class. The penmanship classes only last for a while only too. All the other subjects, we can write however we wish as long as the teacher can read it (some students don't and the teacher,frankly, don't care much either). The teachers themselves don't have very nice handwritings either. Even for Chinese classes, after a few penmanship classes the emphasis on handwriting fades away.

 

We use lined paper in school and after the first few years of pencil (either mechanical or the normal kind), we are then allowed to use pen. Ball point, gel, etc but i have never seen anyone use fp before. Classes and taught and notes are taken with a mixture of lined foolscap paper and lined notebooks for English.

 

We are only allowed to use black, blue, or (when in secondary school and older) dark brown since it looks close to black for school work. Green is for corrections and red for self marking. Our personal notes can be of any colour.

 

I think this lack of emphasis on penmanship is the reason why so many Singaporean (the ones I know and myself included) have bad handwriting. Most don't care too. Eg. My cousin have such horrible handwriting that you need ages to figure out what's he is writing.

 

I wish Singapore's system could place more emphasis on handwriting. Even if computers are very commonly used, one's handwriting shows one's personality and characteristic! It's important.

[Sonny Boy Havidson]

There is another existing patern (at least in France) for the very early beginning of handwriting lessons. It is almost the same as the "French ruled" one except that the space between lines is bigger. So far I can remember, I only used one such notebook at school and then the teacher made us carry on on "regular" paper (with "French ruled" patern). According to me, the main idea of the margin is to leave space so that the teacher can use plenty of red ink.

 

It is really the first time I learn that it is typically French. For those who wants to revisit French school:

- Before 1965: penholder with "Sergent Major" nib and "Violette Pensée" ink from Herbin

- After 1965: Yellow BIC but many of us switched to fountain pen a few years later (mostly Watermans or Reynolds) with Florida Blue Waterman ink. I remember that the classy pen at shool was the Waterman Graduate.

[Graebel]

Another seller of Seyes ruled paper.

 

http://www.shopwritersbloc.com/

[geoduc]

Another seller of Seyes ruled paper.

 

http://www.shopwritersbloc.com/

 

Unfortunately they're out of stock on the white looseleaf paper right now.

 

I just ordered 500 sheets from Papeterie Nota Bene in Montreal and was very pleased with the transaction. It took about a week to get to me in the U.S.

[magnet]

Another seller of Seyes ruled paper.

 

http://www.shopwritersbloc.com/

 

Unfortunately they're out of stock on the white looseleaf paper right now.

 

I just ordered 500 sheets from Papeterie Nota Bene in Montreal and was very pleased with the transaction. It took about a week to get to me in the U.S.

Nota Bene is a great store with wonderful customer service. I picked up a French ruled notebook at the Marche grocery store in Marigot, St Martin. It was discounted and featured a photograph of Jean Alesi (French Formula 1 driver)so I bought it. A few years later, when I decided to improve my handwriting from illegible scrawl to fairly neat, I used that notebook.

 

Reading this thread has been very instructive, but when I opened that notebook, it seemed pretty intuitive. In a way, it reminds me of Doane's paper now, although I would probably use the French paper for its quality.

[Phormula]

Thanks to everybody for the great explanations.

 

Here in Italy we have a similar system, but the lines change with the years, like in Germany.

From the 4th grade on we switch to traditional one line notepaper.

 

As far as pens go, when I was a child we used either Bic crystals or cheap FPs, nowadays they use erasable BPs (which IMHO is the worst way to learn to write cursive, as those pens usually require a lot of effort because of poor flowing ink) in the first 2-3 grades, and then move on to any BP or RB.

 

As far as color is considered, I was allowed only blue (black from secondary school on) and I remember having to write essays leaving about 1/3rd of the page indent, to allow space for teacher's corrections. Red was out of the question and other colors were allowed only for underlining and outlining purposes.

[raycosm]

Argh, I was so excited when I saw that Papeterie Nota Bene had loose leaf sheets for a pretty good price ($11.49 for 200 doulbe-sided sheets), but the shipping is $15 (Canadian I assume)! I'm surprised that it's $10 for Canadians, is shipping around Canada just horribly expensive, or does Papeterie Nota Bene just want you to buy lots at once? The fact that Exaclair doesn't supply them here doesn't make things look too good either...eventually shopwritersbloc will run out, and I guess that means that they won't restock loose-leaf paper. Someone needs to supply it regularly!

[CatBookMom]

At least you can print your own....

 

link to a previous posting, with a selection of templates

 

It doesn't have the gee-whiz hole punches, but I'm using these, printed from my inkjet onto both sides of the paper, and getting some good useful writing paper at a cheap price. Without shipping

Edited April 8, 2011 by CatBookMom

[StephanieJmnz]

Wow! I have been seeing lots of French ruled paper since my interest in the paper world was sparked. I am glad Anne-Sophie could give such great history and examples of how to properly use French ruled paper. Reading this thread makes me want to purchase some French ruled paper and try to learn how to write correctly. I am sure my writing would slow down quite a bit, but it would be worth it to have such clean and beautiful handwriting:) Thank you all for being so informative!