Well, although I’ve compared cheap 2000s and 2020s hardback notebooks before, I thought that I’d focus a bit more heavily on the modern style of notebook today. This was mostly because, in 2023, I ended up switching over from using spiral-bound sketchbooks and traditional 2000s-style hardback notebooks to pretty much just using the modern style for everything.
The key features of the modern style – seemingly inspired by Moleskine notebooks – are that the covers have rounded corners, there’s a vertical elastic strap around the notebook and there’s – often, but not always – a cardboard pocket on the inside back cover. Older-style hardback notebooks just looked more like ordinary hardback books.
For illustration, here are two visual examples of modern-style hardback notebooks/sketchbooks:
Here are two examples of modern-style notebooks/sketchbooks. Note the elastic strap and rounded corners on both books. This style is probably the most common for hardback notebooks these days. And, yes, the gold one is technically a sketchbook rather than a notebook.
Both were relatively cheap, I can’t remember how much the purple one cost, but they typically cost about £4-6 from Amazon. Still, the few examples of 2000s-style hardback notebooks I could find online these days weren’t that much cheaper, so the cost is less of an issue than you might think. Especially since, even at these prices, they’re still significantly cheaper than higher-end examples (eg: Moleskine, Leuchturm etc…).
As for the design, the rounded corners are probably more of an ergonomic thing since it prevents the book from snagging on anything if it is dropped into or pulled out of a bag or backpack. On the downside, if you are scanning pages from these books – especially sketchbooks with this design – you’ll often get annoying dark areas at the corners thanks to the rounded edges. Yes, this isn’t too difficult to cover up with image editing software or to crop around, but it’s mildly annoying. Still, if you aren’t scanning anything in these books, it isn’t really an issue.
The elastic strap is another mixed blessing. Yes, it technically stops the notebook from falling open, but I don’t really remember this being that much of an issue with old 2000s-style notebooks (just hold them closed, store them flat or upright, don’t drop them, put them between other things in a backpack etc...). And, whilst removing the strap every time you open the notebook takes less than a second, it’s a mild hinderance. I guess the strap could be useful for keeping things in the cardboard pocket safe, but the only real use for it is if you’re using the book as a sketchbook.
Case in point, when I started a second sketchbook – mostly for fan art and stuff like that – last year, I initially made ballpoint pen art in an old A6-sized W.H.Smith notebook I had left over from the 2000s. Literally just a plain, simple “hardback novel” style book. And the sheer amount of page curl with this book got ridiculous after a while. Whether it was the pressure on the pages or the large quantities of ink I was putting on the page, the book bulged like a concertina when I was done with it.
Conversely, when I switched over to smaller modern-style 9cm x 14cm “Talens Art Creation” sketchbooks with better paper, I started using watercolours in these sketchbooks. As any artist will know, watercolour paint can often warp or crease the page slightly when it dries. Yes, painting on both sides of the page also helps, but this is where the elastic strap really helps. Even when completely filled with paintings, the book still remains reasonably flat Again though, like with the scanning thing earlier, this is sort of a slightly “unusual” use-case for many notebook owners.
I can imagine that the small cardboard pocket at the back of many of these notebooks is probably a useful thing to have in some circumstances. But, if you’re carrying the book in a bag, backpack or pocket, then you can probably just use that to store things in instead. It’s what I used to do back in the 2000s when I travelled more and had notebooks without pockets. Still, even though I don’t really use the pocket, it’s a neat feature to have regardless.
Whilst paper quality and binding quality can vary between brands, the few examples of modern notebooks I’ve had hands-on experience with all seems to have fairly decent lie-flat binding. The purple notebook in the image earlier – which I don’t use as a main notebook – requires a little bit of a “push” to get it to lie flat. Whilst there probably are bad examples – which use “paperback novel” style binding – they, from my limited experience, seem to be less common than in older hardback notebooks from the 2000s.
As for paper quality, it always varies between brands and always has. And it really does seem to follow its own logic. Case in point, my “everyday” notebook is a cheap 13cm x 21cm plain paper Cambridge notebook (typically about £4-5 each on Amazon) and the paper is substantial enough to handle 0.7mm rollerball pens fairly well. On the other hand, more expensive Moleskine notebooks these days have notoriously thin paper which – if you use anything other than a cheap ballpoint pen or a pencil – will often render the other side of the page unusable due to ink bleeding through.
In conclusion though, notebooks are notebooks. Both old and new ones have pages that you can write on. Whilst the modern style has some small advantages (eg: the corners don’t snag on things, sketchbooks bulge less, they’re more likely to have lie-flat binding etc…) and some small disadvantages (eg: annoying if you want to scan the pages, takes a second longer to open, mildly more expensive), so did old-style notebooks.
The differences are subtle enough that it’s difficult to say whether or not they are better. Still, as mentioned in the other article I linked to at the beginning, they’re designed for different purposes. In the pre-smartphone days of the early-mid 2000s, notebooks were common, utilitarian everyday items which were meant to be cheap and practical. On the other hand, thanks to smartphones, notebooks are less common these days and are often seen more as leisure or prestige items (eg: journals, executive diaries, “commonplace books”, sketchbooks etc...), so the slightly fancier style of even most cheaper notebooks reflects this.
Still, notebooks are notebooks. Both old and modern ones have small advantages and disadvantages, but they’re still just books that you can write in.
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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting