I’ve had a few reader questions recently about the Staples Arc system as compared to the Levenger’s Circa notebook system.  In this review we will take a quick look at the Staples  Arc system and then compare these To Do pages to Levenger’s as well as take a look at the paper quality on both.

Comparing the Staples Arc and Levenger Cirica paper size

Here we have a writing sample with various pen and ink types in the Staples Arc system notebook paper.  The To Do lists come printed on both sides, with 26 lines that measure about .7cm wide, and about 4 1/32″ long.  The overall size of the page is 8″x5″.  In the scan (click it to enlarge it) above you can see that of all the pens that I wrote with on this paper they all performed very nicely.  Each wrote smoothly with no skipping, feathering, or noticeable spreading of the line of ink.

Staples Arc and Levenger Cirica Compatibility

A comparison of the Staples Arc System to the Levenger Circa pages showed that they are almost identical in size.  The Staples version of the pages are about 1/64″ wider but it does not impact their functionality at all.  The mushroom shaped punch outs used to bind the paper to the discs are also different sizes on both brands.  The stem of the mushroom appears to be the same size on each but the dome of the mushroom is larger and wider on the Levenger paper.   The Staples Arc and Levenger Cirica pages and discs are definitely interchangeable with only very minor differences in how tightly they attach to the discs.

The Staples Arc system To Do sheets have 26 total lines for your tasks compared to the Levenger sheets that have 31 lines.  The lines on the Staples Arc paper measure .7cm high, and 4 1/32″ long and the Levenger rulings measure .5cm high and 3 1/16″ long.  The only other differences are the layout of the top section where you would write the date and title, and the fact that the Stalpes Arc system has one check box per line, while the Levenger Circa pages have one check box for every two lines.  Writing on each sheet with the same pens felt extremely similar. Unless you are SUPER sensitive to the surface texture of your paper you probably wouldn’t notice that the Staples version seems to have a very slightly smoother finish to it.  This is probably what results in the Staples page having a significantly longer dry time for the ink I tested on it.

Staples Arc System vs Levenger Circa Cost and Quality

The next scan shows the results of the writing sample on the reverse side of each sheet.  Sorry for the confusing scan, I swapped sides on this scan as compared to the previous scan that showed the fronts of each paper.  The caption on the photo has it labeled correctly on each.  The results here might be the deciding factor for many of you, because as you can see, the Staples paper actually resists the show-through better than the Levenger paper.  I pretty much never have an issue with the show-though on the standard Levenger Circa notebook paper.  In this case if you wanted to use both sides of the paper the Staples Arc paper definitely showed better results in my test.   For what its worth, the Staples Arc refills are significantly less expensive at about 1/2 the price.  This is definitely an interesting new line from Staples.  Based on what I saw from the previous Rollabind line that they carried the quality here is significantly better.  The Staples Arc System is definitely worth a closer look so expect more reviews here from us.