Review by Laura Cameron
When I went on my shopping spree on JetPens last month I also picked up a couple of Apica CD Notebooks ($1.75 each) to try out.
I chose the Apica CD11 A5 notebook in Light Blue and Black (which in person appears slightly more grey).
These great notebooks have cardstock covers that come in a variety of colors (Red, White, Sky Blue, Navy, Mustard, and Light Green as well). The notebook is 28 pages of 81.4 gsm white paper, and these are ruled (7mm) with light grey lines. There do seem to be other similar notebooks in grid and blank paper as well. The notebooks are thread bound, and open to lay flat.
The paper is also described as acid free and fountain pen friendly, and I’m happy to say it excels there. Throughout my testing I was impressed by the quality of the paper – there is a bit of ghosting, but I’d actually use both sides of the page in this notebook, which I can’t say about many of the notebooks I review.
If you’re looking for a quick all-purpose notebook to slide into an A5 carrier or planner, I’d say this one is pretty compelling. It doesn’t have the style or panache of some notebooks, but at $1.75 I’d be hard pressed to find a better substitute!
DISCLAIMER: The notebooks included in this review were provided to us free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
I’ve done paper comparisons and price comparisons and found Apica notebooks to be the highest quality paper for the price. By far the lowest cost per page. They are now my go to notbooks for my Bullet Journal (CG53) and my Traveller’s Chapter journals (CD11’s). Great paper; super affordable!
Thanks for reviewing them!
I want to love Apica notebooks, but the binding is a complete dealbreaker for me. Once you pull back the cover and pages to write on them, they never lie flat again. The paper sticks straight up in the air at a near 90 degree angle. The binding also makes it difficult to write on the back of pages (writing near creases normally doesn’t bother me, but it’s extreme in Apica’s case).
The paper is nice for the price, though. If you want Apica paper, I strongly recommend using their spiral bound notebooks instead.