does size matter?

[maxegb]

Hi all,

The reply that biffybeans gave me about the size of a Canteo notebook got me thinking:

I personally do not like to write on small journals. i feel crammed and confined by the size of a page that is not at least A4 in size..it may have to do also with the fact that being a man and using briefcases i'd rather go for a wider but thinner pad instead of a smaller but thicker one ( so there is a practical reason as well)

 

Also, i feel that bigger pages give me more space when i need to switch from plain writing to sketching or mindmapping, especially if it's a job related issue ( i am a service engineer, so no poetry on the job, but loads of schemes,assembly list and so on).

If i need to work on a big project with big ideas i switch to whiteboards ( or whiteboard size pads )for the same reason. i like to have a Phisical reminder of the fact my thoughts can expand beyond the space of a page.

 

What about you?

do you feel the size of the page influences your thinking process?

do you like to look a a big , blank space or are you scared of it?

Edited January 1, 2009 by maxegb

[CharlieB]

It all depends on what I'm writing. I keep Rhodia pads of all different sizes on my desk and use the appropriate size paper for the task at hand. Short notes go on small pads. Grocery lists go on the long skinny pads. More serious writing goes on larger pads, either 5x7 or 8x11.

[Ghost Plane]

I can't make up my mind between 6x8 and 8x11. The smaller cramp my style too. But I need more pages. Habanas are about half the thickness I'd prefer, but a good size.

[hollyuk]

It all depends on what I'm writing. I keep Rhodia pads of all different sizes on my desk and use the appropriate size paper for the task at hand. Short notes go on small pads. Grocery lists go on the long skinny pads. More serious writing goes on larger pads, either 5x7 or 8x11.

 

You lucky thing - I can't seem to buy Rhodia anywhere near to me!

[Pjake]

I agree with Charlie's approach. My desk looks like a Rhodia sample display....I just pick and chose at will.

 

Peter

[JohnS-MI]

For engineering work, or working out any kind of problem, I prefer larger paper, US letter, A4, or at least a composition notbook or B5 notebook (around 7" x 10") as a minimum.

 

For scribbling notes at my desk (phone calls, etc) I like steno pads (6" x 9") or 5" x 8" halfpads (A5 is OK). I prefer something bound so the notes don't get lost, and I prefer top bound, so steno pads are perfect (I don't know shorthand)

 

Smaller paper gets used only for lists, or when I absolutely, positively have to have something that fits my pocket. For that I mostly use 3" x 5" cards in Levenger pocket briefcase. If it is a list, I can discard it. If it is important, I can file it in a 3x5 card file box. I have no interest in small notebooks.

[Newtown]

I always like my journals pocket-size, but with a nice amount of pages.

[kookychick]

Yes, size matters! But...um...I like 'em small, so I'm not sure what that says about me! :embarrassed_smile: :roflmho:

 

I prefer 3"x5" and 4"x6" journals for making notes and my personal journal. I'm currently using the small, US-made Quo Vadis Habana as my regular journal and a "pocket-sized" C. R. Gibson Markings journal for jotting down notes and random things. I'm writing a journal for someone else, and decided to go wild with a 5"x7" so I could paste in pictures and snippets of things in the book.

 

I like the smaller pages (and ruling) because I find that my handwriting is a bit neater in small spaces with ultra-fine nibs. I like a fresh new page for each entry. With a huge page, I feel overwhelmed--there's no way I could fill the whole page! But with a small page, it's very easy to fill them up and not feel like I'm wasting a bunch of paper at the bottom if I only write a few lines that day.

[HDoug]

My preference is for big (A4 or 8.5 X 11) unruled pages. I just like filling pages with many straight lines of small writing. There is probably some kind of strange psychological affliction associated with this, and if anyone knows what that is, I would greatly appreciate your keeping it to yourself.

 

Doug

[Pink Ink]

US Letter and A4 are too big to fit in most my bags. And then, US Half Letter and A5 are too small to write comfortably on. I think B5 and composition books are the perfect size. If Claire Fontaines came in composition book size, I’d buy them in a heartbeat, I wouldn’t care how expensive they are.

Edited January 2, 2009 by Pink Ink

[Titivillus]

I do rough work on 11 x 17" sheets and notes on 8.5 x 11" notebooks at work

 

For my personal journal I use a Pocket Moleskine because I can carry it pretty much anywhere with me where a larger book might get left or lost. I also try to spread out my writing in the smaller journals.

 

K

[nkk]

Umm...my dorm room walls are covered with kinematics equations, Biot-Savart law problems and associated diagrams, and the court cases that shaped the incorporation of the Bill or Rights to the states. Oh, and there is some calc there. And programming. And possible a half complete periodic table of elements. And there may or may not be some of Maxwells glorious equations. :embarrassed_smile:

 

I love big spaces. For writing, 8.5x11 or A4 is fine, but for math and physics, I use the walls or whiteboards or something. For those, I just need a huge space.

 

Oh, as a side note, my roomate asked me what some random equation was b/c it was written in the middle of the wall I had not written on since the last cleaning, and looked to be associated with nothing. I told him it was the answer to some other problem on another wall, b/c I thought of it while walking and had to write it on the closest surface. Just to give you an idea of why I need huge spaces.

 

-Nkk

 

PS: TO make myself feel better, do any other of you science degree holders/students out there do this with your work?

[Deirdre]

I tend to like the half-letter or A5 size.

[Scrybe]

I select a size based on the task.

 

A4 for serious work stuff, and for particularly long letters. I also use this size for composition sketches, although I use A3 for the finished version of my compositions (purely because I happen to have the last remnants of a large stock of both papers in good quality and printed staves from when I studied music formally).

 

A5 or Post Quarto for letters. And also for any casual stuff (notes, song lyric ideas, journalling, etc).

 

Anything smaller than this is good for To Do lists, shopping lists, and the required carry-everywhere notepad for the random ideas which only ever come when you're socialising and/or not officially working.

 

I also carry a cahier for grabbing any phone numbers, jotting down dates for arrangements, etc., as I would lose these if I noted them in my "ideas notepad". That said, my current two cahiers are still in pristine condition as my iPhone renders them pointless.

[dmmcf]

I find US letter or A4 to be convenient for most purposes. When I've tried to use 5 x 8 inch legal pads, I've ended up giving them away. I may subdivide a larger page, especially for something like a to-do list, but starting with smaller paper feels confining.

 

I keep a journal in an Apica 6A10 (B5 size?), and I'll sometimes use an A5 Rhodia pad for letters.

 

Now that I think about it, I seem to favor larger paper for documents whose structure is important; straight prose can go on slightly smaller sheets. (So that's why math never looks right on those smaller pads. )

 

Michael

[matt385]

My pet peeve is being able to lay flat. If the binding is so tight I can't use all of a page then that was a waste of money. Presently I have a mid size moleskin that works fine.

[HelzBelz]

A4 for drafting essays: ideas just don't flow properly in A5 format. A5 for the Filofax and my journals, though. I'll tolerate large Moleskines, but smaller than that feels way too small for me.