This lovely collection of vintage pen nibs was collected and photographed by Dutch type designer Erik Van Blokland of LettError. They all still have nibs in the boxes. Stunning.
(via AdaLou Vintage)
Finding the best Read Later Option
After a post several weeks ago asking all you fine readers about the best options for reading news and saving articles, I narrowed down the list for the “read later” options to three of the most popular options:
Each offers bookmarklets or plug-ins for popular browsers, each offers apps for iPhone, iPad and Android, and all ofthem will integrate with a number of popular apps. Its gotten so complicated, I’m going to have to make a spreadsheet….
| iPhone/iPad | Android | Other Mobile Devices | Other Apps | Bookmarklet or Web Plug-in | Email to: | Twitter integration? | |
| Instapaper | yes | yes | Kindle, Nook | over 140 | bookmarklet | yes | yes and lots of app support |
| Readability | yes | yes | Kindle | Reeder, Longform, Flipboard and more | Firefox plug-in, bookmarklet | yes | Tweetbot, Twitterific, Echofon, more |
| yes | yes | Windows Phone, Blackberry | a lot incl. Flipboard, Reeder, Longform | Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera plug-in, bookmarklet | yes | yes and lots of app support |
Okay, that wasn’t too helpful unless you are using a Blackberry, own a Nook or you absolutely love having a web extension.
So, do you want my opinion about the options?
Instapaper is the original option and has lots of connections with tons of social networking apps and lots of other places but it is bland as the web interface looks. If you want a simple reader and the option that will most likely to link to all your favorite sites, stick with Instapaper. The web account is free but apps for your mobile device are paid apps.
Pocket is a great option if your “read later” needs lean towards visuals because the interface features a photo from the page if one is available. Pocket is a much more graphic interface, more colorful and pretty easy to read. I thought this was going to be my favorite and I have been using it for several weeks for reminders for the Link Love weekly posts. Pocket is free.
And then I finally started digging into Readability and I fell in love with it. The web interface is clean with beautiful typography but it was the mobile apps with typography from Hoefler & Frere-Jones. The interface on iPhone and iPad are so lovely that I wish Readability would redesign all the ebook apps because the typography and color options for reading in bright light, at night or somewhere in the middle are just fabulous.
See what I mean? Lovely. So, for me, Readability has won out as my favorite “read later” app. Now, if only they add support for PDF and ebook/epub formats I would live in Readability. Readability is free.
Pencil Shaving Art
Fierzo Desk Organizer
This elegant Fierzo Desk Organizer holds notes, photos and other ephemera in its tensioned metal frame. The pale wood base can be used as a pen holder.
Small: 11.5″ W X 2″ D X 6.75″ H, $58.00
Large: 26″ W X 3.75″ D X 10.5″ H, $132.00
Design by Julie Richoz (ECAL), 2012.
By Alessi.
Materials: Beech, 18/10 stainless steel
Vintage office goodies from Life Japanese Stationery
For someone who loves the aesthetics and apparatus of the vintage office, the Life Japanese Stationery products will surely please. Life uses the same featherlight paper stock for their Airmail stationery that they used in 1946 when they opened their doors. They even have matching Airmail envelopes. Airmail paper pad is $12.95 AUD for 50 sheets and envelopes are $9.95 AUD for pack of 10.
If the Airmail stationery does not entice, what about the Typing Bond? The pad is standard A4 sized and includes 50 sheets. Oh, my growing collection of typewriters are going to enjoy stomping little letters across sheets of this fine paper! $8.95 AUD
And no office is complete without a couple steno pads for quick notes. These three lovely pads in subdued vintage colors. The green cover is the traditional Gregg ruled, the yellow with blue lettering is ruled and the yellow with red lettering is grid paper. Each sells for $12.95 AUD.
All products are currently available through Notemaker. Don’t forget to take advantage of the 10% discount at checkout by entering the code “WELLAPPDESK12” at checkout.
Daycraft Folding Tray
This cool little leatherette tray from Daycraft in Hong Kong is a deep teal blue on one side and a bright orange on the other. It ships flat and has snaps on the corner to fold up into a sort of origami bowl.
Snap from one side and the points face into the shallow bowl, snap from the other side and it makes points at the corner. Its a perfect size for your keys or the random bits on your desk.
Its a nice little catchall and is available in a small size (as shown) and a larger size in a couple different color combos. The small is $159HK (about $20 US). The large size is $209 HK which is about $30 US.
(via Daycraft)
Link Love: Lots of Pens with Video Bookends
(video of hand-lettered cards with the lyrics to Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues from Leandro Senna. It looks like it was lettered with an assortment of Pigma Micron and Faber-Castell PITT artist pens)
Fountain Pens
- Interchangeable Lamy Nibs (via East West Everywhere)
- Why Lamy Al-Star/Safari/Vista is a good First Fountain Pen (via Inktronics)
- An Economy TWSBI? (via FPGeeks)
- Five Best Budget Pens (via Lifehacker)
Pencils
- Vintage Sanford American Pencils (via Pencil Revolution)
- Mechanical pencil to wood pencil hardness equivalents (via JetPens)
Paper
- Why Handwriting Matters an excerpt from The Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting by Philip Hensher (via The Guardian)
- A Letter Can Mean So Much (via Baker City Herald)
- Pair fashion with stationery (via William Arthur Sartorial Stationery)
Everything Else
- Three Writing Apps for the iPad (via Wired)
- Jonathan Gilmour’s daily carry (via Rhodia Drive)
(Evan Hecox paints with ink and dip pens for InCase. From The Arkitip Chronicles on Vimeo)
Updated: Fixed the Wired and Rhodia links. Sorry for the snafu! (10/10/12)