I came across the Cross Jot Zone journals via Amazon one day and I liked the highly contrasting colors against the mainly black covers so I just blindly grabbed one based on that alone. I’m glad I picked one up because they are definitely an interesting journal that was worth taking a closer look at.

The nicest feature of the Cross Jot Zone in my opinion is the built in pen holder which is actually quite roomy but still holds your pen securely. It comes with this small all metal pen that takes a smaller proprietary Cross ballpoint refill, definitely not the standard size though. Its not the best pen Ive ever written with but I guess its nice to know that you can have an extra pen lying around if you pick up this journal.

Once I decided I wasn’t happy with the included pen, the next step was to test out some of my other pens to see what else fit in the pen loop in the binding of the journal. To my surprise, the pen holder comfortably held my Lamy Studio with no problem whatsoever. I was concerned that maybe the larger pen would prevent the journal from closing comfortable, but it had enough space in there that this was not a problem at all.

The outside bottom right corner of the Cross Jot Zone cover is bright blue (although Orange and Navy Blue are also options) and the outside corners of the page match as well. In keeping with the visual elements of the journals design, the elastic closure also wraps around the corner of the notebook right along the edge of the blue highlight on the cover. You can also see the folded over edge of the matching blue ribbon here sticking out from a few of the pages.

The bright blue accents on the Cross Jot Zone Journal continue onto the inside covers of the journal where you also see more of the blue page marker that matches. Each right hand corner of the pages have a fairly large grey shaded corner which I wasn’t totally in love with but I can see how it might be a helpful place to jot additional notes that would be easy to see when flipping through the journal looking for something you wrote down. It just makes things a little more difficult if you want to continue writing in that space because it is lacking any of the rulings to keep your writing in line.

One other unique thing about the Cross Jot Zone Journal is the inside back cover pocket. Traditionally many journals have a back pocket that have an opening that runs the long way across the height of the journal. This one has a more squareish pocket that opens towards the top of the notebook. The usable part of the pocket measures about 6 inches wide by about 4.75 inches deep, and as you can see a regular letter size envelope fits nicely without sticking out of the top of the journal when its closed.

Cross Jot Zone Journal Writing Sample:

Beyond the aesthetics of the Cross Jot Zone Journal, I was actually pretty impressed with its performance when I started writing in it. The 160 pages of ruled 100gsm paper handled several fountain pen inks very well, with a slightly slower dry time than I had anticipated for a few. You can see however that the Pelikan Edelstein AVenturine and the Noodler’s 54th Massachusetts both dried at about 3 seconds. Regardless of the dry time, all of the fountain pen inks that I tried in this notebook handled very well. None of them spread or feathered to speak of and on the other side of the pages, you would be hard pressed to find any slight hints of minimal show through. The paper itself is bright white and the rulings are all a nice muted shade of grey that work well with all of the inks I tried in terms of the contrast and how they look together on the page.

Here is a quick shot to show the inside of the Cross Jot Zone Journal to show that it does indeed open and lay flat which makes any writing session a bit easier and more comfortable. Overall I was nicely surprised by all of the features and the generally nice writing experience that I encountered with my purchase of the Cross Jot Zone Journal (via Amazon). Its definitely worth a spot in your rotation if you want something thats a little different in terms of the design, and that has a nice splash of color to boot.