The format is about as simple as an object gets: a sheet of leather folded around one or more paper inserts, held by an elastic cord through the spine. Midori made it familiar; the idea is older than the brand.
Almost everything sold as a traveler's notebook works this way, ours included. The differences are in three decisions.
Thickness
We cut Buttero at 2.2–2.4 mm and Pueblo at 2.0–2.2 mm. The leather guide compares the full range.
The practical result is that the cover stands up on a desk rather than collapsing around the block, and you can write on it on your knee without a table underneath. It also means the cover takes longer to break in: a thick veg-tan cover is stiff for the first fortnight and then stops being stiff.
The wrap
The classic format is a plain fold. We also make a trifold, which adds a third panel over the fore-edge — 70 mm of it on A6, 100 mm on A5 — so the block cannot splay open in a bag and the corners stay covered.
It is the more protective shape and the less minimal one. If the appeal of the format for you is that there is nothing to it, the standard cover is the honest answer.
Sizes
The Traveler’s Notebook Standard refill is 210 × 110 mm, which is its own format rather than an ISO one. We make our standard covers in A5 and A6, the sizes used by many sewn softcover notebooks, including Midori MD, Stalogy 018, Hobonichi Techo and Cousin.
If you already use a Traveler’s Notebook Standard refill or another format, send us the block measurements through the custom-size request before ordering. We can agree the dimensions before cutting.
Inserts, and what we include
Each A5 or A6 cover comes with one plain paper notebook insert. Covers made to custom dimensions do not include a notebook insert. Every cover comes with one elastic fitted in the colour you choose and one spare cord. After that the inserts are yours to choose — the format is deliberately agnostic about paper, which is most of why people stay with it for years.
Nothing about the cover assumes a particular brand of insert. If the block bends and the size matches, it goes in.
What stays the same
The elastic, the refill, and the fact that the cover is the part you keep. That is the whole argument for the format, and we have not found a way to improve on it.