The latest in the Field Notes 'Colors' lineup is the gorgeous Night Sky edition. On the back cover you'll find a set of constellations – including Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Pegasus, Ursa Major/Minor, Draco, Boötes, Cygnus, Lyra, and Aquila – with each cover featuring a different group. These are some of the most attractive Field Notes I've ever seen, but maybe I'm a little…
Longtime readers may remember Mike Rohde's The Sketchnote Handbook, a guide to taking better notes by sketching rather than writing. If you liked the book, you're gonna love The Sketchnote Typeface. Mike created this typeface by scanning actual ink-spread on paper to make it more authentic. Of course, he did it to save himself a lot of work while writing the book…
We live in an age when more and more people are making the attempt to become full-time independent writers on the web, myself included. Shawn Blanc, the editor of this site, has already managed to achieve this lofty goal and is quite successful as far as I know, but most of us are still figuring out how to do the same. This…
I keep a Field Notes notebook in my back right pocket at all times, with my iPhone 5 riding solo in my front left pocket. But what if I could combine these items? Enter DODOnotes. With 30 tear-off sheets of Mohawk Superfine paper nestled in US-made bookcloth fabric, the DODOnotes' trick is right up front — where an iPhone-shaped tray and elastic…
If you're a Mac-owning WordPress user, there's a good chance you're also a MarsEdit user. If so, I doubt you're in the market for any other blogging software, but if you are (or if you're looking for a cheaper option), you might check out newcomer Metropolis. It's got a lot of the same functionality as MarsEdit, such as multi-blog support, HTML and…
Of course, just after I finally bought myself one of their Ultrathin Keyboard Covers for my iPad 4, Logitech has announced a new iPad keyboard: the FabricSkin Keyboard Folio. Rather than having a hard plastic keyboard, its keys are integrated directly into the folio's fabric, which comes in matte leather or woven cotton depending on the color you choose. Both the keyboard…
Look, our love of of Field Notes notebooks is well-documented, but while it may sound familiar, we keep falling in love with the these things. The new “America The Beautiful” series is here, and it's a big departure from previous offerings. The three-set showcases thee different, all-color covers, “Spacious Skies,” “Amber Waves,” and “Mountain Majesty." The paper is ruled (which makes me…
David Sparks, also known on the web as MacSparky, has added a new edition to his Field Guides series, this one focusing on Markdown (which is an excellent writing syntax for the web, for those of you not already familiar with it). It aims to get a complete beginner up-to-speed on Markdown, then ventures into some pretty advanced territory, so there should…
Fixed-width fonts are a major point of contention between nerds. While I use Consolas in my text editor and terminal, not everyone likes it. Well, there's one more typeface entering the fray — Courier Prime. The new (free!) font comes from the guys over at Quote-Unquote apps, a firm all about screenplay software. In fact, Courier Prime is designed for use in screenplays.…
If writing is on your list of New Year's Resolutions, and you use Apple products, you should check out iA Writer. The app is minimal and easy to use. Powered by iCloud (or Dropbox, if that's your thing), it syncs text quickly and easily between devices. It has full Markdown support, but here's the kicker: it has no preferences. Instead, iA Writer…
It's that time again: new Field Notes are here. This time around, the small notebooks come wrapped in a “Antarctic Survey Orange” front cover and “Polar Night Black” back cover. The interior, however, is where the magic is: The whole book is printed on Yupo Synthetic paper, an amazing water- and tear-proof paper extruded from polypropylene pellets in Chesapeake, Virginia. Check out…
I've filled up over a dozen Field Notes notebooks over the last year or so. I keep all of them in a Ziploc bag in my desk, with the dates written on the covers for future use. (I also scan them and keep them as PDFs) Admittedly, it's not a great system, but it works. The guys over at Field Notes have…
One of my biggest complaints about using a stylus with my iPad is having to keep up with it. I already have at least one pen with me, wallet, keys and more. A stylus is just one more thing to forget. Enter the More/Real Stylus Caps. Designed to snap on the end of a pen, the caps are carved from aircraft grade…
It's that time again: the Field Notes Colors Fall Edition is here. Dubbed the "Traveling Salesman Edition," these notebooks harken back to door-to-door salesmen who traveled with ledger books, door to door, for much of the last century. Here's how the guys at Field Notes describe the notebook: The covers of this edition are a lovely chocolate brown from The French Paper…
Speaking of cool notebooks, this special edition Moleskine notebook celebrates Lego, the brand that made many of our childhoods what they were. This 192-page ruled notebook comes with a yellow brick and Lego stickers, as well as a special inner cover and document pocket. If you were a nerd growing up, this might be a great way to show it off today.
Evernote is an "everything bucket" application designed to make keeping large amounts of information organized easily, across almost every software platform out there. The Evernote Smart Notebook is a new Moleskine journal designed to make capturing hand-written pages in to Evernote easier than ever. With the iOS app's updated "Page Camera" feature, Evernote can straighten out pages and OCR the text for…
I spend way too much time in meetings. I've created several different versions of a [form]http://512pixels.net/2011/09/the-capture-form) to take meeting notes, but I still struggle to keep my notes neat and organized. The Rhodia Meeting Book sets out to solve this problem. The 6.5" X 8.3" book has 80 sheets prepared just for meetings notes. Each page has space for the date, notes…
I've always got a Field Notes notebook in my pocket. In it, I jot down anything I need to remember — phone numbers, thoughts, article ideas, meeting notes ... really, just about anything. In an increasingly digital world, sometimes a pen and paper are still what get the job done best. Field Notes's Summer 2012 Edition is here, and it's all about…
There is no shortage of iPad keyboard accessories. I personally use an Apple Bluetooth keyboard and the Incase Origami Workstation. However, there are lots and lots of folks who want a keyboard accessory that turns their iPad into a laptop-type of rig (the ZAGGfolio being a prime example). This new iPad keyboard from Logitech looks very clever. It uses the same sidebar…
When at my desk, my MacBook Air works in clamshell mode while connected to an external display, an Apple Bluetooth keyboard, and a Magic Trackpad. For the times I want to do a lot of writing on my iPad I have to un-pair the Bluetooth keyboard from my Mac and re-pair it to my iPad. And so I bought this AmazonBasics Bluetooth…