Apica Notebooks Overview
Above: Apica brand overview. I show the different sizes of Apica CD and Basic notebooks. For full product details, it's best to check out Gouletpens.com where I have everything laid out in a more browsable (is that a word?) manner than I can post here on the blog. The notebooks range in size from a 2.75"x4" to 7"x10". The main idea with these notebooks is that they're relatively thin, and great for single-subject or single-topic applications. Sheet count ranges from 28 to 52 sheets in the CD, 50-100 in the Basics. The CD's are the thinner notebooks, and the Basics are more like lab notebooks.
Below: Apica Paper Test. Okay, so my video on the brand overview ended up being really long, so I broke out the writing test into a separate one. The CD paper is good, similar to Rhodia in smoothness and performance. It's not quite as ink resistant with wetter pens and inks, but it holds up about as any non-Rhodia paper I've seen. The paper is slightly different in the CD than the Basic notebooks. The Basics have a lightly gray tinge, and have a longer dry time than the CD paper. Still pretty darn good stuff, but it is different enough where it was worth comparing in the video.
In this video, I tested:
- Pilot Custom 823 medium with Pilot Iroshizuku Ama-Iro
- Pilot Metropolitan medium with Diamine Red Dragon
- Pilot Custom 74 medium with Noodler's 54th Massachusetts
- Pelikan m200 italic with Noodler's Southwest Sunset
- LAMY Vista fine with Noodler's Black
The CD notebooks come in a variety of colors including: Navy, Light Green, Sky Blue, Mustard, Red, Black, Light Blue, and White. The smaller CD-7 or CD-5 notebooks come in assorted colors in either Bold or Pastel color designs.
None of the paper is perforated, and it's all lined. The line rulings range from 6-7mm, and the paper is all the same weight, about 80g.