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Nakamura Print Shop’s Flat Notebooks: You'll Want To Use Them Forever!

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How do you choose your notebooks? A notebook that was purchased from a small residential printing shop became a huge topic in January 2016 on Twitter in Japan for being easy to use. That notebook is one of Nakamura Print Shop’s Flat Notebooks.

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The Flat Notebooks Created by Two Elders

平平不亂翹 設計建築系與強迫症使用者的好福音 中村印刷所 水平筆記本

President Nakamura, the developer of the Flat Notebooks.

Research was conducted, consisting of questions such as, “Why not create a notebook that is easy to write in even on the margins and bindings?”, to develop the notebook using the keywords that it should be a “notebook that is easy for students to use.

Aside from President Nakamura, other members of the team that developed the notebook included two bookbinding specialists called the “Nakamura Grandpas”. Their surnames, Nakamura, are written in the same way as the President’s surname and are thus called the Nakamura Grandpas due to being older than the President.

After two years had passed, President Nakamura and the Nakamura Grandpas created the Flat Notebook.

The Strange, But Easy to Write In Flat Notebook

平平不亂翹 設計建築系與強迫症使用者的好福音 中村印刷所 水平筆記本

The Flat Notebook is, just as its name describes, a notebook that can be opened flatly and evenly no matter which page it is opened to. The angles in the notebook are obvious when compared to other common notebooks.

平平不亂翹 設計建築系與強迫症使用者的好福音 中村印刷所 水平筆記本

When you think about what’s troublesome about writing in a notebook, what comes to mind is that it becomes harder to write the closer you get to the seam of its binding. Your handwriting becomes messy when forcefully writing into the pages, but it would be a waste to not use the space.

The Flat Notebook solves this annoyance and is easy to write in, even near the notebook’s seams.

平平不亂翹 設計建築系與強迫症使用者的好福音 中村印刷所 水平筆記本

Take this notebook for example. When you open the first few pages, a difference in height is created because the difference in page number from one side to the other has become too large. To get rid of this problem, the difference is removed and levels out when you turn the page. Turning the page of a notebook with a lot of pages will form a semi-circle going downwards from the right side.

Another charm of this notebook is that the other pages won’t be torn when tearing a single page, making it a notebook that can be securely used.

平平不亂翹 設計建築系與強迫症使用者的好福音 中村印刷所 水平筆記本

When printing or scanning, the notebook is made so that it is difficult for shadows to appear from the seams. Because of this, the Flat Notebook became popular among designers and architects as well.

However, this doesn’t mean that this notebook immediately became popular upon its development.

Next Page Next, we will introduce the hardships and successes in the notebook’s development.

Written by

Originally from Chiayi, Taiwan, I majored in history in university. I'm a history geek and otaku living in an old downtown area of Tokyo. I have worked as a journalist for a Taiwanese business magazine, public relations manager for Mos Burger Taiwan, and as a marketer of American skin products in Taiwan. Currently working as a freelance of writer. Visiting castles in my free time. As a storyteller, I only write about things that I saw, heard, and researched myself. Every word of my articles reflects what I personally thought and felt. If you have some time, do read some of my stories.
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