A reader named Steve commented on my “Dissecting a Moleskine” post with a link to a fascinating inquiry of his own: what is the actual weight of Moleskine paper? Steve points out that many notebook brands make a selling point of their paper weight, expressed in grams per square meter (GSM):

• Calepino, 90

• Clairefontaine, 90

• Fabriano, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100

• Mossery, 120

• Rhodia (Clairefontaine paper), 80, 90

But Moleskine never specifies paper weight. So Steve did some measuring and calculation– seriously in-depth measuring and calculation! You can read all about his methods and results, including nifty graphs like this:



You may not understand it all. I sure didn’t! But it’s pretty cool nonetheless. The bottom line is that he accounts for a lot of variables that could throw things off and still concludes the paper in a regular Moleskine (not the heavier sketchbooks, storyboard notebooks or Japanese albums) is 71 GSM. No wonder they don’t brag about it!

Read more at Weighing in on Moleskine Paper.