アピカ Apica CDS120S Premium CD Notebook, Grid Ruled, B5

I am very excited to receive this!I would have given 5 stars but I took off points for delayed delivery and mild damage. my beef isn’t with the notebook, it looks absolutely beautiful the paper feels smooth and looks promising! my beef is with whoever the middleman is, because my original order got cancelled and refunded idk why and so I had to reorder it and I have been so excited and waiting for it to come and i had to wait like an extra week!regards the mild damage! its a soft cover journal, the covers feel like 120 lb card stock, so I don’t expect it to be protective, but mine did arrived slightly damaged from transit which is fine bc it was going to get its corner squished eventually but still :( I think the corners are pretty vulnerable damage? anywayz, the good news is that the red card stock covers have a subtle metallic/glittery quality to them that’s really low key but super pretty under direct light.the front cover looks good!! if you want to be picky— the gold premium stamp is a *tiny* bit crooked. also I didn’t process that it would say “Choose the paper like you would a good pen” on it but thats my bad for not looking at the picture better.anyway!!! I’m so excited and hopeful for this notebook!!!! it looks beautiful! cant wait to play with it!!!

I really only use fountain pens so this may temper my review somewhat. However, most of this review should be applicable from a general point of view.The binding on this notebook is quite nice. The pages are bundled into small packets which are then stitched together. There is then a tough, fabric-tape-thing which goes over the whole spine. This lets the pages open flat and makes it easy to write on. So far, the binding has held up to use and doesn't show significant wear.The covers of the book are made of paper. It's thicker paper, but by no means does it feel like a durable cover.I can imagine it surviving trips through my backpack with a few wrinkles and folds, but this won't hold up to much rough handling. I have it sitting happily on a shelf all day long so it doesn't really get worn or torn. -0.5 stars.The packaging wasn't super great with this notebook. The covers are enclosed with a plastic wrap and it sort of flopped around during shipping. This resulted in one of the corners on the front of the cover getting bent slightly out of shape. It still retains that bent position even after a week of rest and pressure from other notebooks on top of it. -0.5 stars.The paper is actually quite nice. It's normal-ish Japanese nice paper. It has a slight sheen to it and it feels like a slightly more "paper-y" Clairefontaine paper. For those who aren't familiar, Clairefontaine is a very glossy and smooth type of paper, this paper has texture to it. For almost any writing situation, I like the Apica paper more just because it gives a more feel to the pen.Fountain Pen specific section:I've used a variety of inks on this paper. In general:Pilot Iroshizuku (tried all of em): They write a bit wet, shade decently, take about 15-30 seconds to dry.Noodlers (Heart of Darkness, BSIER and BSIAR): Behave nicely, a little bit of feather for the black swans.The rest, Diamine, Sailor, R+K, Lamy, and a few others all work generally fine. Sometimes, a wee tiny bit of feather, but inks behave fairly well.The paper sort of reminds me of a thicker Tomoe River. It's less cheap feeling, thicker by about thrice, and isn't quite as good as the TR at handling really wet ink. On the flip side, ink dries far, far, far faster than Tomoe River. Showthrough on the other side is limited because it's thicker but if your ink is dark enough, it's still fairly visible.

After trying a long list of notebooks from misc Japanese companies, I've finally found a notebook that I absolutely adore. The page thickness is perfect, the texture is spot on, I am so pleased to have finally found a notebook that I can order confidentially in the future.

For me, this is close to the perfect notebook -- much better than the other name brand quality notebooks. The white paper is of high quality with negligible tint, the notebook opens flat throughout, and the 7mm ruling is perfect for my preferred writing size. The B5 size is smaller than the sometimes clunky letter-sized books and larger than the less roomy pads and pocket notebooks giving the avid writer plenty of space for expression while not feeling like you are burning through the pages. The only downside for me is the covers are soft -- a feature that is likely a plus for others -- but a good notebook cover takes care of that and doesn't detract from what is the best notebook I've ever used.

I LOVE this notebook!!! I saw it on some list of great notebooks. It's the softest, silkiest paper I've ever touched and it makes me want to study all the time. Worth all the money.

I have purchased several of these and have been pleased with each. The paper is great for fountain pens. I write on both sides of every page without bleed-through problems. I use different color inks to keep my job notes easily recognizable and no colors or "wetness" inks have been a problem. Ink flows smoothly. This is really high quality paper.

The most awesome paper for fountain pens ever. I only gave it four stars because it is a notebook and what I really want is loose sheets.

My second favorite Fountain pen paper! Smoother than Tomoe river paper (my personal #1), Rhodia Premium, Claire Fontaine or Quo Vadis. About the same thickness as all of the above except the Tomoe (which is almost tissue paper thin and also a joy to write on). Using a Broad nib on a TWSBI 580 and Iroshizuku Shin-Kai: no bleed through but a bit of show through. I wrote on both sides of paper and it looks great. Again, this paper is so smooth my pen just glides across it without a peep.

Expensive but you certainly get what you pay for! They are B5 in size, smaller than A4 but larger than A5 and in a slightly more square format.The paper may not be of the highest weight but it has the smoothest surface of any paper ever handled (a past career in the paper trade provided considerable experience) other than on coated product.Bought on recommendation for use with fountain pens, the paper appears not to allow much show-through even with dark-coloured inks when used with broader and wet-writing nibs.

LIFEノートと比べて良いところはノートの表紙の丈夫さ、コストパフォーマンスですね。こっちのほうが表紙がかなり丈夫でぼろぼろになりにくいですね。LIFEノートのほうが良いと思う事は鉛筆で書く事においては、物凄く描きやすい。こちらは少し描きにくい印象がありました。万年筆やボールペンで書く方はこっちがオススメです。こっちのノートはインクがにじみません。以上の事を考慮して☆四つとさしていただきました。

ボールペンで書くのには、とてもなめらかで書き心地は最高です。が・・シャープペンシルや鉛筆で書くと最悪の書き心地です。一度試してみればすぐに分かると思います。

このシリーズはとにかく上質で書きやすいのが気に入ってます。ただ、ちょっと薄いノートが欲しい時もあり、ページ数が多い分厚いものしかないのが残念。よくある学習ノートのページ数の薄いタイプもぜひ発売してください(^^)

紙が上質で厚いです。