Midori MD Cotton Notebook Review 4K

[@Kaylasdaintydesk]

Love to see you review this, these are my favorite sketchbooks

[@BlakesBroadcast]

Glad you like them! Midori makes great notebooks/sketchbooks.

[@EduardoHenrique-nd1ro]

Another great review, Blake! Thanks for sharing!

[@BlakesBroadcast]

Thanks Eduardo! I appreciate it.

[@DrDavidMLevy]

Choice is good but standards are also good. Thanks for the helpful review.

[@BlakesBroadcast]

Hi David, I recommend sticking with the standard MD unless you like the F sizes.

[@Richard_Barnes]

Love MD books. The cotton paper is nice but I do not like that stupid 'F' sizing they use for these books. To make it a proprietary size is just annoying and I don't get that at all. I have the cotton paper in some Traveler's Notebook inserts I enjoy.

[@BlakesBroadcast]

Hi Richard, I do not care for the F sizing either. I don't believe they make covers in the F size, so they sell a "coverless" notebook without a way to cover it.

[@victornicolasfigueroapena4247]

Really excellent paper, absolutely a number one.

[@BlakesBroadcast]

It is a nice paper for sure.

[@kauru3844]

Do you find that there is less shading with the cotton version?

[@BlakesBroadcast]

Yes, slightly less shading. Cotton papers aren't ideal for sheening and shading in my opinion.

[@swe3tpeach]

I think if midori is aiming for this notebook to be for drawing, they need to step up the quality of the cover. I have very high doubts the dinky mesh and cardstock casing will hold up to artistic wear, especially if you're using mixed media to take advantage of the cotton paper. It's a miss for me. I'd rather spend more money on a sketchbook with a hardcover I know will last than this because of that reason. So who they're trying to target this product to is a bit confusing.

[@BlakesBroadcast]

One of the main elements of the MD series is the "coverless" design. So they don't consider it to have a cover but to your point, they don't sell a hard cover and that may be an issue for drawing. I will say that the binding on these notebooks are very strong. The "cover" may not hold up but the binding will.

[@swe3tpeach]

@@BlakesBroadcast The "coverless" design title makes more sense, I suppose. But from a book binding perspective, it's unfinished! LOL. It looks like a text block because it is just the text block at the end of the day. Don't see why people would want to spend money on that kind of thing. To each their own. . .

[@SerabiiBot]

​@@swe3tpeachIt's unfortunate that they don't make their clear covers for this proprietary size, usually I use the clear covers to not only protect the book, but also protect any decorations or art I draw on the covers.

[@impendio]

I had a fairly thick, off-white/cream, moleskine notebook for ink drawing but it had horrible bleedthrough, I’ve gotten a normal blank midori one now and was both impressed at how good it was against bleeding, but also disappointed at how much ghosting/showthrough it has. It is expected at how thin the sheet is, so I’m still on the lookout for a better one. In general I use brush pens of japanese calligraphy practice, and a mix of gel and fineliners for sketching. Any reccs would be appreciated.

[@impendio]

All this to say that yes, I’ve been thinking about the cotton MD but dont really think its the best choice for me.

[@BlakesBroadcast]

Take a look at the Iroful notebooks. These are really nice with brush pens and fineliners as well as fountain pens. thepapermind.com/products/iroful-soft-cover-notebook-a5-blank-96-page

[@iNGk88]

which "F" size is closer to A5?

[@BlakesBroadcast]

The F0 is 140x180 and the F2 is 190 x 240mm. A5 is 148 x 210. So really the F0 is closer but smaller.