Not long ago, Moleskine and Milk announced their collaboration to create custom printed photo albums in Moleskine format. I was intrigued, but disappointed that only larger sizes were offered. Now there’s another way to print your own customized Moleskine book, this time in a pocket sized Japanese album format:
“Your digital drawings can now be brought to a Moleskine notebook at the touch of a button with new initiative Book.If you use Paper by FiftyThree, digital drawings created on your iPad can be printed on the pages of a Moleskine notebook. Just press the print button right from within the app and your sketches, notes and ideas will be brought to life in the first Moleskine notebook to match the 4:3 ratio of the iPad screen. Within a couple of weeks you’ll receive your Book: analog-digital ideas on 15 pages of accordion-folded, sustainable matte ivory-coloured paper, with elastic closure and your own custom cover or the classic black.”
I don’t use the Paper app and am not sure if you can add photos to it or if it’s just for drawings. I’d be more interested if you could include photos. For me, if I wanted to put a drawing in a Moleskine, I’d just draw in the Moleskine, rather than drawing on an iPad and then paying $40 to have it printed in a notebook, unless I had a need to make multiple copies. They also talk about how great it is that the page format preserves the 4:3 aspect ratio of the iPad screen, but that means the resulting notebook doesn’t have the same exact 3.5 x 5.5″ size that is my favorite thing about Moleskines. I haven’t seen anything that actually gives the measurements of the Paper notebook, but it would be slightly wider than the proportions of a pocket Moleskine, and it looks that way in the photos. It might be taller than 5.5″ too. So chances are, I won’t be trying one of these, but it’s a nice idea. I hope they continue to offer new ways for individuals to custom print Moleskine notebooks in other formats.
Read more at FiftyThree Moleskine
Downloaded and examined at the superficial level.
The basic 53 Paper app is free. It comes with a fountain pen tool ONLY. Each other drawing tool is at least a $2.00 purchase so filling the tool tray with intuitive and useful media will run you $10-20. I found the fountain pen fun to play with but realized creating anything useful or worth printing was going to cost lunch money.
User reviews are mixed, running from “Eh,” to “Way cool.”
There is no way to import photos or anything else into the app so it’s designed for iPad illustrators, sketchers and wannabes only.
Printing a foldout molie with fifteen pages and a custom cover was going to be $40 plus shipping. The app says it takes a few weeks. Take note of that: custom molie cover. Yes. You can design your own cover for your very own Moleskine foldout book and you can get one for $40 which is about twice what a stock Japanese notebook will cost you. But it’s got a cover you created.
There are many other apps that will print photos or other art into lovely molie-like bound books. I’ve used Mosaic. I thought the book was a bit expensive but the recipients absolutely loved it. However, I have not had occasion to justify purchasing another.
I don’t agree, look at that: http://andybrandt531.com/2012/12/notebook-alternatives-to-moleskines/
Best regards, Artie