It arrived the other day, so here's my review.
Cover:
The cover is a hard cover with nothing more than 2019 in silver on the blue on the front and the teNeues logo on the reverse. The cover is soft-touch synthetic. I'm not a huge lover of that, because I'm trying to reduce my plastic/non-recyclable purchases, but it's understated and fairly classic. That said, I'm in two minds over just removing it altogether, because it takes up thickness in the binder and the pages of the diary don't need protecting if it's in the TN cover.
Inside:
Right at the start is a name and address/personal details page, with pretty narrow line spacing (4.5 mm). I never fill these in, so I don't really care about the spacing.
Following that are two pages on world time differences and international dialling codes. Then there are monthly pages from November 2018 to December 2019, with a line for each day. Moon phases are included and again the line spacing is pretty tight at 4 mm.
After that are the months of 2019 in the box-format mini-calendars (you know, the ones I have no idea what they're for), with a lot of space around them.
After that, the week to view diary starts. The diary starts on 26th November 2018 and goes to 1st February 2020.
After that are monthly pages for 2020, with a line for each day. Right at the back are 37 sides for notes, with a line-spacing of 4.75 mm.
In the back inside cover is a pocket (like the ones in a Moleskine). The closure is a vertical elastic, there is an elasticated pen loop (same colour) and there is a ribbon marker, that could be a little longer as it only pokes out about 3.5 cm from the book.
The diary layout:
The layout is vertical (which is why I bought it). The week starts on Monday and Saturday and Sunday share a column (which isn't ideal, but I'll cope with it!).
Across the top of the page is the month in a variety of languages. The date is in bold, with the day in several languages underneath. Moon phases are indicated too.
The days with a full column have 16 lines, with a line spacing of ~6.5 mm. There are no times marked, so you can use them for a list of to-do, or you can set your own times up. I've already added in a few appointments for next year and have just put them approximately in the right place, - so a mid-morning appointment is written in about a sixth of the way down (though I haven't counted lines!).
I do feel that there is a bit of wasted space towards the top of the page, with the month and then the date and day taking up 2.5 cm of the 13.5 cm height, but that's just me.
Paper is at the yellow end of cream. I'd have liked it a bit brighter/whiter, but again, that's a personal preference.
Pen tests:
Maybe a bit unfair, as this is for a planner/diary rather than for journalling, but I tested a handful of pens - both fountain pens and rollerballs/biros. The paper was actually pretty good! No feathering, no bleed-through and almost no show-through. Far less show-through than I get with Leuchtturm!
Overall:
I like it. It's a little bulky in my TN (though not ridiculously so). I love the fact that the format is vertical, rather than horizontal. I'm less keen on the fact Saturday and Sunday share a column, though it's not the end of the world. There are a lot of notes pages at the back, which would make it less necessary to have a separate notebook in the TN, though I'm still wondering whether to cut the cover off, to reduce the amount of bulk in the TN. Since it starts in December, I may switch over to it for a month, to see if I can get it to work for me. If a month works out okay, I'll stay in it. If it doesn't, I'll label up my blank regular size TN diary inserts and stay in the TN I'm currently in. I really do want to use the undyed TN cover I got from Meadowgate Leather, not least because of the amazing colour it's going!
Keep you posted!
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