We like notebooks, we even tried to start a company analog.is around notebooks. Recently, we’ve been making a different style of notebook and given a few to friends. The feedback has been great, so it’s time we write a bit more about them.

There is a company in Japan KOKUYO who makes Campus notebooks. They have won Japanese Stationary awards for their projects. It was probably here that we first saw half sized notebooks. Their’s are smaller B6 sized notebooks, similar to an A5 notebook. What made these unique was that instead of the spine being on the long side and opening portrait orientation like the books we’re used too, it was bound along the shorter side and opened landscape.

Imaging taking one of those detective pocket notebooks with the spiral-bound top and turning them on their side.

This is an evolution of usage. Kokoyou observed that students were studying in front of a computer with a full-sized notebook sitting awkwardly to the side. They created notebooks were shorter, opened landscape and could sit comfortably underneath the keyboard.

We proceeded to make a few of our own A5 prototypes. To make your own notebooks doesn’t require any specialized tools.

Take an A3 sheet of paper and fold it in half to make an A4 sheet. We did this with 5 large sheets of A3 and made a 20-page A4 notebook. We have heavier A4 card stock that we taped together on the long side and put all the folded A3 leaves inside. After stapling, that makes an A4 notebook that opens to an A3.

To make a half notebook, you cut that A4 notebook in half horizontally through the middle. Now you have two A5 sized notebooks but they open on the shorter side and unfold to the width of an A3. These fit nicely under a keyboard and in all the spots you’d expect an A5 notebook to normally fit. It’s the side that’s bound for opening that makes the notebooks different. It’s the shorter side opening landscape rather than the long side opening portrait.

Quarter Sized Notebooks

As a test, we sliced those A5 notebooks in half horizontally again! They are no longer part of an A-series paper size and the first person we showed them to said “Oh, a checkbook!”. (Admittedly that reference is lost on most people.)

This size fit even easier under your workspace, but the height-to-width ratio is pretty extreme! Only through usage, doodling and taking them on the road will we know if they are useful compared to their half sized siblings.

📖 The future is analog.