A few months ago, I wrote about the launch of Plotter USA, but lamented that they were only selling larger sizes, not including the 6-ring “Mini” pocket size they sell in Japan. Happily, they are now introducing the Mini size Plotter notebook for the US market. And even more happily, I received a free sample from Plotter USA to review!

After salivating over the Plotter notebook from afar, it was pretty exciting to open the box they sent me. Their design aesthetic is so snazzy, and the packaging I received didn’t disappoint. The black Plotter-branded tissue paper! The orange and black box holding the binder! Everything just looks sharp and cool.

I received a binder in brown Pueblo leather. This leather has a slightly scuffed texture, and is very thick and substantial. It is similar in some ways to the leather of my Travelers Notebook, but a bit stiffer, at least at this point in its life. The Travelers Notebook has a softer exterior texture due to its nubuck finish. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what the Pueblo leather reminded me of, but I showed it to a friend who has done a lot of riding, and she said “it’s like a saddle. The smell reminds me of a saddle shop.” She’s exactly right– the leather has the toughness of Western riding gear, which gets smoother and shinier with use.

I can’t wait to see how the Plotter notebook’s Pueblo leather ages– in the brief time I’ve had it, I rubbed at part of the cover and could begin to see how skin oils will be absorbed, making the surface softer and a little shinier. This is the type of leather that will get better and better with time. In the short term, it’s going to feel a little stiff– the cover springs open now, but I’m sure it will lie closed once the leather relaxes a bit more. (I would imagine that in the larger size Plotter notebooks, the leather’s own weight would keep it closed, even before it’s totally broken in.)

The brown cover is complemented nicely by the distinctive Plotter-branded metal strip on the outside, in a matte gold color. (Other Plotter leather types are paired with different types of metal.) It’s nice that the metal strip is narrow and allows the binder to remain rounded on either side of it, rather than having a squared-off, wider spine. I’m not sure exactly how everything is held together underneath the metal strip– all you can see on the inside is the usual little tabs that grip the ring assembly at each end.

The rings, which are a gold color to match the spine, snap open and shut very solidly. The bundle I received included a leather protector to be slipped around the rings, to prevent them from making dents in the binder. This seems to only come in black– it would have been nice to have a brown option to match the binder.

I really like Plotter’s plastic ruler/protractor page, which has a tab that extends at the top so you can use it as a bookmark. The holes are open so it can be moved without opening the rings. I’m not sure how much people use the font size and line thickness guides on it, but it certainly looks cool!

I’m also not sure how I’ll use the Project Manager inserts, but I love the way they look. The idea is that you can use them to isolate a few pages that relate to a particular topic, and archive those pages in the folder when you take them out of the binder. The colors and texture of the folders are just gorgeous.

The other refills I received are a grid pad and to-do list pad. The tiny 2mm grid is very light and subtle. A fine red line runs along the top, and there’s a slash in the corner that you could use for page numbers or dates. They glue-bind the refill pads so it’s tempting to just use them as stand-alone notebooks! I’m torn (pun intended) as to whether to tear out refill sheets or just leave the booklet intact as is. I did rip out a couple pages of the to-do list refill to stick inside the project folder.

The paper is super smooth and lovely to write on. Everything about it seems so sharp and precise, I almost hated to defile it with my Super Sharpie. There were some teensy specks of bleed through in a couple spots with my fountain pens but spots where I bore down to flex the nib were fine. There was also some feathering with a few pens, including rollerball pens. On the whole, I would say the paper is very fountain pen friendly, and about average in terms of show-through. But it will depend on what your favorite pens are.

Plotter notebooks are expensive: $98-145 for the mini size binders. If you aren’t sure about committing to the leather binder, you might want to try the refills first. At 5″ high by 3 1/8″ wide, they will fit almost any standard 6-ring pocket size looseleaf notebook. My tiny DaVinci notebook, which has smaller rings than the Plotter, will hold the inserts, but the page edges stick out beyond the edge of the binder. Plotter may be one of the only options for fountain pen friendly inserts for refillable notebooks in this size– DaVinci/Raymay inserts are surprisingly not fountain pen friendly, in my limited experience. Nolty has some under their Bindex and Pagem brands, but I haven’t tested them to see if the paper is as good as what’s used in their planners. Filofax says some of their inserts are fountain pen friendly but I haven’t tried any Filofax paper made in the past decade, maybe even longer!

For me, the only drawbacks to this Plotter notebook relate to my personal preferences for slightly different proportions– I like a somewhat narrower binder size, and wish the Plotter didn’t have such a big overhang beyond the pages. If they made a “slim” Mini size, I’d be head over heels. Another matter of personal preference is how minimal the binder is. I love the simplicity, but sometimes it’s nice to have pockets. The Plotter notebook can’t be used as a wallet the way a Filofax can. (Unless you add some non-Plotter inserts.)

I still want to find a way to use my Plotter notebook, though. I may look into getting one of the inserts that adds an elastic that you can use to close the notebook, which would allow me to stuff more pages into it. I love the look of Plotter binders (and Travelers Notebooks) when they are broken in and fat with lots of inserts. I gave up on my Travelers Notebook before it got to that point, but maybe I can stick it out with the Plotter! A couple of Field Notes tucked in, and an elastic from a Smartwool socks package, and I’m already loving this chubby bundle!

Many thanks to the folks at Plotter USA for providing me with this sample to review!