Normally when I buy something for a review on the site, I’ve got all kinds of thoughts in my head about how I’ll use it, but in the case of these Wide Landscape Legal Pads (via Amazon) I really had no clue what I would use them for. To be totally honest, after having them in my hands I still don’t really know what I’d do with them that I wouldn’t do with a regular legal pad. Before we get much further I want to also point out that there is also a version of the Wide Landscape Legal Pads with Graph paper too. (also via Amazon)
To start, lets take a look at the features of the Wide Landscape Legal Pads, the above is for the smaller 8″ x 6″ version, but there is also a larger 11″ x 9.5″ version. For the smaller 8″ x 6″ version, those dimensions are for the entire surface area of the pad (binding tape included) but the available writing surface actually measures 8″ x 5″ and the same goes for the larger 11″ x 9.5″ version and the writing surface being 11″ x 8.5″. Each of the pads, regardless of size come with 40 pages of college ruled paper made of a minimum of 30 percent post consumer waste.
Wide Landscape Legal Pads Writing Samples:
My favorite feature besides the unique landscape legal pads orientation is that they actually handle fountain pen ink pretty well. The majority of the writing sample above was done with my Pelikan Souveran M805 with Medium nib and Noodler’s Bernanke Blue ink and there was absolutely no feathering and I didn’t notice any significant spreading of the ink when it hit the page. All of the other inks handled as expected, and the paper even held up well to the demands of using a pencil eraser on it too; with no degradation of the paper when erased.
Here is a closer look at the writing sample for the paper in the Wide Landscape Legal Pads that includes a test of fountain pen ink and some eraser testing on light, medium, and dark pencil markings which all came back pretty clean.
The above photo shows the backside of the paper in the writing sample for the Wide Landscape Legal Pads. Although I’m fairly particular about show through on any paper, I’ve come to expect that you are always going to get show through with paper in legal pads, it seems to be an accepted characteristic for this format. In my case I don’t personally like how much shows through, but I have to say its as good or better than most legal pads that I’ve used.
Overall I’m impressed with the quality of these Wide Landscape Legal Pads. They handled fountain pens well, resisted any pencil eraser damage, and the perforated tops all ripped off quite smoothly. I am however still stuck on what I’d actually need these for. The writing experience was a bit different in the sense that its nice to fit so much on a single line of paper with all the extra horizontal space. One other thing that was specific to me I think was getting used to where the center of the page is. When I write “.com” at the top of most of my writing samples, I instinctively know where to start in order to get the full name to be centered on the page but with these note pads it took me more attempts than I’d care to admit to get it centered. Again, thats a pretty specific issue that most people wont have. One interesting point mentioned in the Amazon description was that these do fit nicely on an airplane seat back tray, so thats something if you are a frequent traveler. I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you would (or do) use these, I just honestly thought it was cool to see something like this that I never knew existed. If you are looking for something like this, you can grab them over on Amazon and don’t forget that although I didn’t get one for the review, there are graph paper versions available on Amazon too.
©2017, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.
