Blotter on the landscape

Sometimes there are things which many of us just prefer to do with the the tactile technology of a notebook rather than the pocket computer. But here's something which an 'app' simply can't do: testing fountain pen inks.

There are all sorts of ways to compare how inks behave, from the deck of cards on a ring to the dedicated paper-based blog about purple (OK, OK, maybe that one's just for me). But this new solution to the age-old problem comes as a handy little notebook, in standard pocket size (90x140mm) too. 

One of the great things about this is that it really works. The paper is thick enough to test for bleeding, sufficiently high-quality to give a fair picture of performance re feathering, and the grid captures every lovingly obsessive point of order that one could wish for. It allows space for 48 ink samples, too, which is a sensible amount by any estimation - even if I plead guilty to needing three of them just to cover the purples.

The second actually very cool thing indeed is that it's made by a genuine real-life fountain pen fan, beavering away in tiny little Rutland ('tis a silly place), and the engagement with fellow enthusiasts to develop something truly usable and useful has evidently paid off. Expect great things of this brand...