Canteo, a brand of Biella of Switzerland, offers notebooks and office products.
They now have a retail presence in Canada, and I recently acquired one of their A4 sized notebooks.
It is an original. I’ll start from the inside in describing the notebook – I ordered a squared (graph paper/quadrille) version – and to my surprise, the squares are an unusual 4mm, rendered in grey ink, on a cream background.
The paper is very graphite friendly, and I’m quite impressed with the way handwriting and drawings appear.
The thread stitched notebook lies flat, and has a very sensible business appearance if that matters to you. It comes with a set of metal clips and a black-dyed pencil as pleasant extras.
The book has a corner elastic, and an internal ribbon. The cover is hard to describe – a sophisticated matte paper fabric.
Overall, I have the impression of a very nicely made notebook, and I’ve already enjoyed using it. Though it is approaching the upper end of what I’d generally like to pay for a mass produced notebook, it seems to offer an appropriate value and quality level. Some examples: The binding allows laying the notebook completely flat, and the paper and journal have their corners rounded with matching arcs. There are statements on the web saying Canteo products are made in Korea. I didn’t find any information about this on the product itself, though the references to Switzerland are many.
I have already ordered another!
Looks pretty good. I just bought myself a few Moleskines. I had a large watercolor MS before, but now I’m going to be taking all of my class notes in Moleskines. It’s a bit expensive, but there is a great durability factor involved.
I find that the A3 size is unusable since it’s so big. For those types of paper, I’d rather work on single sheets.
I tried finding alternatives, but they only stocked Rhodia and a few other brands. The Moleskine had all of the features I wanted.
So where can an American ordering from Canada find said notebooks? I’ve been interested in Canteo for a while since I heard about them on another notebook website.
Nota Bene has them. I’m not sure where else.
Nice thorough photo review of an item that I am not very likely to come across anytime soon. Good thing my collecting obsession is pretty much limited to pencils and their mechanical counterparts, otherwise I might be tempted to add this item to my hunting list. As it is I do enjoy sketching on fine grid paper from time to time, but I think a Rhodia pad would meet that creative itch for a fraction of what the Canteo might retail in the US.
Looks like a nice notebook. I’d like to have some gridded paper like this for sketches. Maybe I will pick one up. Thanks :)
This looks very appealing! I especially like the 4mm squares which seem to be almost like a standard in Switzerland – ELCO has a lot of items with that ruling too.
A quality made notebook, when I was surfing the web learning about, I saw the Conteo as well as Whitelines® from Sweden http://www.whitelines.se/ Its pages are subdued in a very light grey with white lines -here the name- ooffering comfort to your vision for reading and writing, I´ll check if It´s truth but I think it´s a very imaginative item. Now, I am very excited because I just bought “My first Moleskine” It´s ruugged and looks well crsfted.I ask a teacher where did he buy it? for my sorprise here in Colombia, my country, I thought the cost of it would be 3 or 4 times more than the average price but It was well for a student like me.
Thanks all for the comments.
Futural, I hope you will share some information about which pencils and stationery items are popular in Columbia.
Is there any place where I can order it within the USA?
Shai, you may want to contact the manufacturer.