Posts filed under Index Card

Ugmonk Analog Cards Review

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

Apparently it’s been well over a year and half since I last did a review of index cards, which I did on the Foglietto Memo Cards x Box, so I thought it was about time to do another one! As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not much of an index card user, and being a Bullet Journaler, my to-do lists live in my Bullet Journal and not on separate cards, but this still looked like a cool product to check out. Much thanks to Pen Addict Slacker, Tommy S., who sent these to me for funsies a couple years ago when he found out that I wanted to find fountain pen-friendly index cards. I still can’t believe our beloved Nock Co. index cards aren’t available anymore (sniff sniff). I wonder how many times I have to repeat this before The Bossman caves in and makes more just to get me to hush up, lol.

The Ugmonk Analog Productivity System is designed to be the “physical companion for your digital tools that helps you prioritize your most important tasks” and its main component is the Analog Card Pack. The pack contains 3 “decks” of 3”x5” (76mmx127mm) cards, and each “deck” contains 50 cards, along with an additional card that explains how to use them.

There are 35 white cards for Today, 10 cream cards for Next, and 5 brown cards for Someday. In addition to the color, the front of the cards also indicate which card it is (Today/Next/Someday) on the upper left. There is also room for the date or other info like project or name etc., as well as 3 small circles that you can use however you like. For example, if you filled in the top circle, these might be your high priority tasks, two filled circles average priority, three low priority. The rest of the card has space for 10 items. The back of all three cards is in small dot grid (approx. ⅛” or 3mm).

The concept behind the system is that you jot today’s tasks on the Today card and use the circle next to each task to indicate progress and/or completion. You can carry any remaining items to a new Today card or move some of them to the Next or Someday cards as appropriate. You can then use the items on the Next card to help you plan either the next day’s Today card or save it for later work. The Someday cards can be used for jotting down ideas, goals, inspiration, etc. You then periodically review the Next and Someday cards and move items to new cards as needed. You can read/watch more about their Analog system here.

Ugmonk Analog Cards Instructions — *Front of the cards, including the instruction card.*

Ugmonk Analog Cards Dot Grid — *Back of the cards in a small dot grid - I appreciate that the dots are visible but not super dark.*

The cards are 100# weight, or approximately 270 gsm (the Foglietto Memo Cards I reviewed last time are 260 gsm) so they have a nice feel to them; thicker than the typical index card, thinner than a playing card. The paper is fairly smooth but not glassy. It didn’t feel bumpy or particularly fibrous either, so I was hopeful that they’d work well with fountain pens.

They felt nice to write on with fountain pens, but more of my pens/inks feathered than didn’t, which was disappointing. The white Today card performed the worst, with the cream Next card faring a bit better. Wetter inks and pens made the feathering the worst but there was no ghosting or bleedthrough at all. I was surprised that the brown Someday card performed the best. That one was actually FP-friendly and showed no feathering except for the bit of flexing from the Leonardo, and even that was minimal.

Ugmonk Analog Cards Writing — The feathering on the Today card was pretty noticeable with almost all the pens. I expected more from the M800’s IB nib but it was less than other pens that had wetter inks (like Kobe or Teranishi). It was ok with a very light, unflexed writing from the Leonardo Momento Zero with an EF flex nib.

*The Next card did better with more inks but still feathered with flex writing or wet inks.*

*The Someday card was surprisingly good. I was expecting the worst feathering and there really wasn’t any!*

Aside from the feathering, you can get some regular shading (Van Dieman’s Woollawarre Bennelong and Pelikan Edelstein Moonstone) and the shimmer from FoFoF wasn’t a problem. I did not expect, nor did I see any chromashading (Van Dieman’s and Sailor 162). The ink colors were accurate, even on the brown Someday cards.

Thankfully, standard pens and pencils seemed to be just fine. Neither the Sharpie nor Tombow marker produced any feathering, ghosting, or bleedthrough.

Standard pens (and pencil) used: Parker Jotter BP, Zebra Sarasa Clip 05, Pilot G2 07, Lamy Tipo, Uniball One Gel 0.5, Pilot Frixion; Uniball refill in Spoke Pen; Caran d’Ache 849; HB 3.15 lead in Franklin-Christoph Model 90 pencil; Sharpie (Fine); Tombow ABT Brush Marker.

*All standard pens and pencil wrote without any problems. I even did an erase test with the Frixion and it mostly erased cleanly (that’s more of a Frixion thing and not a paper issue.)*

Pros:

The Someday card was FP-friendly. The other two cards need fine FP nibs and drier inks to minimize feathering.
Standard pens, pencils and markers behaved fine.
No ghosting or bleedthrough.
Lightly-colored dot grid on the back is a nice touch.

Cons:

Today and Next cards are not very FP-friendly.
Price is a bit steep at $13 for 50 cards, or $39 for 150 cards. A 3-month subscription (one 50 pack per month,) brings the cost down to $10 per pack, or $30 for the three months. For context, a pack of 80 larger Hamelin cards costs $7 and a 100 pack of 3” x 5” index cards from Exacompta costs around $4.

Neutral:

The Analog system of to-do/item tracking isn’t for me personally but I can see that it can be useful.
Cards can be sold separately - I like that you can buy additional packs that have all 3 cards or just Today, Next, or Someday cards.

Overall, these cards work well if you don’t plan to use fountain pens with them (or use very fine nibs and drier inks), and while they are pricey, they have fit that neat aesthetic (that my desk definitely doesn’t have), especially when paired with their Analog Wood Card Holder.

(Disclaimer: The Ugmonk Analog Cards were given to me by my friend and fellow Slacker, Tommy. All other products used are my own.)

Posted on November 1, 2024 by Kimberly Lau and filed under Ugmonk, Notecard, Index Card.

Clairefontaine Exacompta Index Cards Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)

I have lately found myself in the position of having to find a new favorite notecard, for REASONS, but I'm happy to say that I think I have done so. I picked up this pack of Clairefontaine Exacompta Notecards with blue grid when I attended Anderson Pens' grand reopening a few months ago, and they've been a permanent part of my day ever since.

Being Clairefontaine, it goes without saying that they are very fountain pen friendly. I have had no bleeding or feathering with any types of ink or nibs, and they do just as well with a variety of pens and pencils. The one paper issue I did notice is that the surface definitely absorbs hand oils, making it more difficult to write across areas that have been handled. That's trickier with a card than with a notebook, as these loose sheets have to be held--there's no cover to grip, and using a hand guide isn't practical on such a small rectangle. The whole purpose of cards is handheld notes. Still, while there was a small effect on the ink's interaction with the paper, it wasn't a deal-breaker.

The cardstock is pure white, so all writing appears very crisp, and the blue grid is faint enough that it doesn't get in the way, but bold enough to provide structure. Blank and lined cards are also available, as are pre-hole-punched versions for use on rings or rolodexes. You can also get different ink colors or multi-colored cards. The cards are obviously printed before they're cut, as the grid pattern is not identical across cards. Some have a full square at the edge, some a partial. I'm trying not to let it bother me. Trying.

Despite this small nitpick, the cards are endlessly useful. I've used them for plotting stories, for making notes for a speech and presentation, For to-do lists or shopping lists, as bookmarks, or for leaving love notes. They're ideal for when you need something that's just a step above scratch paper, but can be tossed when you're done with it.

The standard white grid cards are only $7 for a pack of 100, which is amazingly good value. At that price, I don't feel shy about burning through a pack in a few months. These will continue to feature in my daily use, hopefully for a very long time.

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Posted on November 9, 2023 by Sarah Read and filed under Clairefontaine, Index Card.

Foglietto Memo Cards and Archive Box Review

I saw these cool Foglietto Memo Cards on Brad’s Twitch stream a while back and bugged the Bossman to send these to me for review. Even though I’m not a big index card user, I’ve embarked on a mission, albeit a very slow one, to find fountain pen-friendly index cards since our beloved Nock Co. index cards aren’t available anymore (sniff sniff).

Despite its Italian name (Foglietto means leaflet in Italian), Foglietto is actually a French stationery company that started in 2019 and their products are now sold in many European countries as well as North America. Up for review today is a pack of the Foglietto A7 Memo Cards and the Archive Box in Terracotta.

Each pack of A7 note cards contains 120 cards (this pack has 40 each in yellow, pink, and blue). They also come in a variety of styles like dot grid, grid, to do, blank, mixed, etc. The pack I have is the Organizzazione (which means Organization in Italian). The tops of each of the cards says “Titolo” (Title) and each color has a different layout. The yellow card is a to-do list, pink is plain with metric measurements on the side/bottom and blue is dot grid.

The cards are 260 gsm so they have a nice heft to them; slightly thicker than the typical index card, thinner than a playing card. There is a slight texture to them which I noticed with my finer nibs (like the Sailor 21k Fine). Overall, the cards held up moderately well to fountain pens, though the notoriously wet Diamine Writers Blood feathered quite a bit. Shimmer and shading were pretty much unaffected but the sheen of Diamine Jack Frost was diminished on all the cards (and Rhodia too). I was surprised to see a little of the chromashading properties from Sailor Manyo Fuji, especially on the yellow card. There was also zero ghosting or bleedthrough, not even from a Sharpie.

My least favorite color card to write on was the blue because the colors are much flatter and my 2H pencil was almost impossible to read on it. While FP inks did pretty well, none of them had problems with other writing implements either. And while FPs are my preferred instrument of choice, I was surprised to find that I enjoyed using the Lamy Tipo and Retro 51 rollerballs the most on these cards.

The Archive Box is made from cardboard, measures 118mm x 80mm x 200mm (~4.75”x 3.5” x 8.5”) and stores about 4 packs of A7 note cards. It comes in other colors including grey and green and costs 10GBP (~$12 USD).

Pros:

Fairly FP-friendly
No ghosting or bleedthrough
Good variety of card options
Box is fairly sturdy for being lightweight

Cons:

Finer nibs (especially anything finer than Japanese Medium) may catch on the cards
Wetter inks will likely bleed
Blue cards made ink colors look duller and pencil was harder to read
Price is a bit steep for 120 cards (18GBP or ~$22USD). For context, a pack of 80 larger Hamelin cards costs ~$7 and a 100 pack of 5x3” index cards from Exacompta costs ~$4.

Neutral:

Card sets seem to be sold in multi-colored packs. This may be good if you like a mix of colors or an annoyance if you only like or want certain colors.

Overall, these cards work well, and while they are pricey, they have a neat aesthetic to them, especially when paired with the Archive Box.

(Disclaimer: The Foglietto cards and archive box were purchased from Nero’s Notes at regular price for review. All other products used are my own.)

Posted on January 13, 2023 by Kimberly Lau and filed under Foglietto, Notecard, Index Card, Paper Reviews.