Sizes, Pockets and Widths
What size do you need?
Choosing a size is a bit of a nightmare for many folks.
It is all a very personal thing but here are some general guidelines:
Large Sizes Like A4, Moleskine XL, B5 / Composition Size are generally better for desktop use for most people. They make fabulous sketchbooks and watercolour or art journals, and if you like to write or collage a lot, these might be for you.
Medium Sizes like A5, Cahier, and B6 are reasonably portable (so long as you have a roomy bag or purse) and are good all-round for art, journaling, and general planning.
Medium Narrow Sizes like Standard, B6 Slim, and Hobo Weeks are tall, but lighter to carry (especially versions without pockets). Good for planning, travel journaling, and art if a tall narrow format is your thing.
Smaller Sizes like Passport, Field Notes / Pocket Size, and A7 are great for everyday carry. Good for notes on the go, small scale planning and tracking, really good as wallets, and there are lots of people who keep written journals in them too.
A8 is tiny but surprisingly useful--try a watercolour or doodle a day, a gratitude journal (a page a day--even on a bad day it's easy to fill a page with good things), mini-notes, or rise to the challenge and try actually planning or journaling on a tiny scale!
A Visual Guide to Sizes: The Squirrel Charts!
A4, B5, Moleskine XL Size
The Coke can is 12.3cm x 6.6cm (4.8 ins x 2.6 ins).
A4 is 21 cm × 29.7 cm or 8.3 × 11.7 ins.
B5 is 17.6cm × 25 cm or 6.9 × 9.8 ins.
Moleskine XL is 19 x 25 cm or 7.5 x 9.75 ins.
These are the actual paper notebook sizes NOT the dimensions of the covers!
A5, Cahier, Standard, B6 Size
The Coke can is 12.3cm x 6.6cm (4.8 ins x 2.6 ins).
A5 is 14.8cm × 21 cm or 5.8 × 8.3 ins.
Cahier size is 13cm x 21 cm or 5 x 8.25 ins. It is also called Moleskine Large, Standard Wide, and A5 Slim.
Standard is 11cm x 21cm or 4.33 x 8.25 ins. It is also called Regular, Midori, Narrow, and Traveler's Notebook size.
B6 is 12.5cm × 17.6 cm or 4.9 × 6.9 ins.
These are the actual paper notebook sizes NOT the dimensions of the covers!
B6 Slim, Personal, Weeks Size
The Coke can is 12.3cm x 6.6cm (4.8 ins x 2.6 ins).
B6 Slim is 11cm x 17.6 cm or 4.3 x 6.9 ins. Be aware this is a non-standard size and other makers' dimensions may vary widely.
Personal size is 9.5cm x 17.1cm or 3.75 x 6.75 ins.
Weeks' size is 18.7cm x 9.4cm or 7.36 x 3.7 ins.
These are the actual paper notebook sizes NOT the dimensions of the covers!
A6, Field Notes / Pocket size, passport, A7, A8 Size
The Coke can is 12.3cm x 6.6cm (4.8 ins x 2.6 ins).
A6 is 10.5cm × 14.8 cm or 4.1 × 5.8 ins.
Field Notes / Moleskine Pocket size is 9cm x 14 cm /or 3.5 x 5.5 ins.
Passport / B7 size is 12.5 cm × 8.8 cm or 5 x 3.5 ins. This is international passport size.
A7 is 7.4cm × 10.5 cm or 2.9 × 4.1 ins.
A8 is 5.2cm × 7.4cm or 2.0 × 2.9 ins.
These are the actual paper notebook sizes NOT the dimensions of the covers!
About Spine Widths
Width isn't about the size of the actual notebook, it's about how many notebooks you can fit into your cover.
The best way to find out what you need is to pile up the stack of notebooks you want to fit in, and measure the height of them.
Our normal widths are Standard, Wide, and Extra Wide.
As a general guide for B6, A5, Cahier, Standard, B5 and A5 sizes:
Standard width is 4cm / 1.5 inches, and has 4 elastics. It will hold 4 softbacks (more with jump bands) or a combination of a hardback, a wallet insert, and an extra softback insert.
Wide width is 6cm / 2.3 inches and has 8 elastics. This is our most popular width and will hold 8 softbacks (more with jump bands), or a combination of wallet insert, softbacks, and hardbacks.
Extra Wide width is 8cm / 3.1 inches. It has eight elastics and will take multiple hardbacks, 8 - 12 softbacks (with jump bands), multiple hardbacks, or a very well stuffed wallet insert along with plenty of inserts.
Jump bands are strands of elastic or ribbon that allow you to tie the back cover of one insert to the front cover of another, thus hanging up to three notebooks on one elastic in the cover. We think they are awkward and unwieldy to be honest, but each to his own.
Smaller sizes like Field Notes / Pocket size, Passport, A7 and A8 have slightly narrower spine widths (though we can cut to whatever width you need).
Typically Standard Width is 3cm / 1 inch or 4cm / 1.5 inches, depending on the type of leather, with four elastics.
Wide and Extra-Wide are the same as the larger sizes, though tiny books with large spines are very chunky, like housebricks, so make sure that's what you want!
A8 is always 3cm / 1 inch, since anything wider is unwieldy.
Do you need pockets?
If stickers, ephemera, tickets, bits of paper and accumulations of Stuff are your thing, you might find pockets helpful.
If you want to carry small amounts of Stuff, then pockets stitched into your actual cover will do the trick--they are ideal for stickers, photos, tickets, and other lightweight things. Cardholder pockets are handy for bank cards, ID, and business cards.
If you need to keep your phone, many cards, chocolate bars, pens and even small watercolouring supplies with you, then consider adding one of our leather or fabric wallet inserts to your set up.
About basic pockets
Here's some doodle pockets in a working TN to give you the idea of Elrohir's standard pocket shapes. These are the choices on our made-to-order listings, though obviously there are all sorts of other possibilities. If you want something different you can always contact us to ask for it!
The card pockets have lots of variations, especially in the smaller sizes where we won't be able to fit in three stacked pockets. We resisted painting all the possibles, but below there is a Pockets Gallery to give you some ideas...and also because to be honest we couldn't think of a more plannergeek thing than to actually have a gallery of pockets. So here it is!
