Strategic Paper Replacement: Adventures in E-Ink, Part I (The Physical Writing Experience)

I have a love-hate relationship with so-called “digital paper”, both the idea and the reality. I've owned some version of Apple's iPad Pro for years, but stopped upgrading it after a while due to general disuse. While it occasionally comes in handy when I need to sign something electronically, mark up a longer document for my day job, or where a hand markup needs to be easily distributed to a wider group via e-mail, I otherwise find the writing experience on the iPad to be (1) far less satisfying than writing on real paper due to the lack of a tactile experience; and (2) subject to the same distractions as a computer, to the point where it's much harder to lose yourself in the work than with a notebook and a pen.

But I'm a reader, researcher, and notetaker by nature, so I’ve continued to experiment. I accumulate a LOT of paper, and the idea behind a digital writing device still intrigues me. I'm not opposed to digital tools where they are the best option and solve a real need, such as minimizing the volume of "junk paper" I generate, and anything that streamlines the process of organizing and archiving handwritten notes is a plus.

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To that end, I acquired two e-ink devices last year, Amazon's Kindle Scribe and the Remarkable 2 e-ink tablet. While I can't say that I've fully bought in to either system, both devices pleasantly surprised me with the extent to which they duplicate, physically and mentally, the experience of writing on paper. While I originally sought to write a single comprehensive post discussing my thoughts on e-ink and these devices as a whole, I quickly realized that such a piece would quickly get too long and unwieldy, so I'm going to break it out into multiple installments. First up: my thoughts on the physical writing experience, including available pen options.

1. Writing on both the Kindle and Remarkable 2 feels more like actual paper than the iPad. The matte screens simply feel better than writing on glass. While the friction requires you to periodically replace the tip of the stylus as it wears down, replacements are generally inexpensive. (As an aside, I have tried the Paperlike screen protector for the iPad, and still prefer the feel of both e-ink tablets.)

2. The pens/styli I have used are more comfortable to use for longer writing sessions than the Apple Pencil. Of the two "stock" options available, I actually prefer the Kindle Scribe Premium Pen ($59.99) over the much more expensive Remarkable Marker Plus ($129). Recently, I've been using aftermarket options, including the Lamy EMR AL-Star and the Lamy Safari "Twin Pen" (a multi pen that also includes a D1 ballpoint refill for when you want to switch writing modes). All of these options use Wacom's EMR (Electromagnetic Resonance) technology - no batteries are involved, so you don't have the battery anxiety that can be an issue with the Apple Pencil during a long working session or if you forget to charge it.

3. I find the writing experience nearly as distraction-free as physical paper. Personal experience may vary, but I can "lose myself" in reading and writing with an e-ink tablet in a way that I've never experienced with an iPad. Whether it's due to digital distraction always being a click away, blue light, or something else, I don't know, but that's the reality.

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The Remarkable 2 allows you to choose from a variety of line options, and vary both style and width. EMR technology is responsive to pressure, creating line variation that corresponds to light/heavy writing pressure. You will also see the “color option” I discuss below.

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EMR pens feature different nib sizes - this is the round tip on the Lamy AL-Star.

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For those who want to write a finer line (or who want to write on “glossy surfaces”, such as a Samsung device), Lamy makes a pointier nib. It will likely wear down quicker on matte surfaces.

The standard Remarkable and Kindle styli both feel very much like a pencil. I prefer their weight and balance to that of the Apple Pencil.

Potential Drawbacks To Consider

1. While there is very little latency ("lag") in the current generation of e-ink tablets, it's still there. I've not found it to interfere with my enjoyment of the overall experience, and I would describe it as “minimal” with both the Scribe and the Remarkable 2.

2. The lack of a color display limits the ability to highlight and annotate documents in different colors. While the settings do allow you to change colors, you'll only be able to view color in exported documents, not on the device. (I know you can change colors with the Remarkable 2 - I've not tried on the Kindle Scribe as Amazon's software makes it fairly difficult/inconvenient to import and organize PDFs and other documents for annotation purposes so I generally don’t use it that way. More on that in a later installment.) Other companies have recently released tablets with color e-ink screens, but they are expensive (i.e., approaching $700).

3. Some might find the technology expensive for a single use device. That said, with as much as I read and write (hours per day), $300 for the tablet doesn't strike me as outrageous. Remarkable-branded accessories can be pricey and raise the price of the device to around $600 if you opt for the most expensive pen and folio, but if all you want is a simple no-keyboard folio cover and a Wacom-compatible pen, there are much less expensive generic options out there that don’t compromise the experience.

So What's Still to Come?

In addition to recommitting to a journaling habit, one of my goals for 2024 is to be a bit more systematic in how I use paper, and especially in how I organize notes so that I'm able to locate them for reference later. I've been using the Remarkable 2 as both a digital notebook and e-reader (mainly for articles that I want to highlight and annotate in pdf form), with the Kindle Scribe as my primary reading device for longer books that I can annotate yet don't want to carry with me when I'm traveling. Both devices allow me to export markups to my computer for archiving.

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The Remarkable 2 software syncs your handwritten notes with the desktop app, and has functions that include handwriting conversion and the ability to type annotations directly into the document from your computer. I’ll go into the functionality in more depth at a later date, but you can export the documents in PDF form to save elsewhere or distribute to others as necessary.

At some point I will do more in-depth installments on the ins and outs of each tablet, including my thoughts on the software and any friction points encountered while integrating these devices into a workflow. To that end, if you're considering purchasing an e-ink tablet, I would carefully consider how you want to use it before making a decision. If you're essentially looking for an e-reader with a large screen that you can use to make handwritten notes and highlights, and use occasionally as a digital notebook, the Kindle Scribe gives you access to Amazon's large library (including Kindle book you already own) with basic e-ink notebook functionality. On most Kindle books the handwriting function is generally limited to "sticky notes" (picture below), but this is already changing as Amazon tweaks their software, and “write anywhere” books are being made available in the Kindle Store. At the moment, the Remarkable 2 has more out-of-the-box functionality and a more intuitive interface, allowing you to read (and annotate) DRM-free e-books, PDFs, and online articles sent to the Remarkable via a Chrome extension. If you spring for the (pricey) keyboard cover, you even can turn the Remarkable 2 into an e-ink typwriter similar to a Freewrite. For those whose primary goal is notetaking and handwriting, I would recommend starting with the Remarkable or something like it.*

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As with standard Kindle highlights and typed notes, Amazon allows you to export a pdf of your notes and annotations.

*Note: I recognize other options are available. I know many people who enjoy their Supernote and Boox tablets, but I'm not currently interested in the ability to add Android apps and I otherwise don't see enough of a difference in the handwriting functionality to convince me to buy another device.

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Workflows: Resources and Recommendations for Working from Home

During the past several months, one of the most common requests I’ve received has been to talk more about my workflow. Now that I’m working from home nearly full time, what tools/products do I use and how do I effectively balance digital and analog in terms of actually getting stuff done? Well, to be honest, I’ve been avoiding the question because I don’t really have a good response yet. Things changed so quickly that I’ve adapted reactively rather than proactively, and my workflow is a mess. In fact, I’m not even sure that I can say that I have one. This past week I actually delved back into my own archive of work-related posts to see if I could figure out how to get myself back on track.

1. Strategic Paper Replacement. The biggest culprit? File organization, namely what to save on paper and what to save electronically. If left to my own devices, I’ll always print something out and work off a hard copy with pen or pencil, but unless the project requires deep concentration or is especially complex, it’s unnecessary. Moreover, I’m left with a ton of “junk paper” that needs to either be filed or shredded. My solution? I’m going back to the iPad Pro/Apple Pencil, and trying to be more mindful of what I actually print out. Sure, it involves an up-front investment, but now that I’m having to purchase my own printer toner and printer paper (and lots of it), not to mention dedicating my own personal space to storing physical files, it will eventually be a wash.

2. Workspace Organization. In the “before times,” my home office served primarily as a library/hobby space, but became a combination law office/library/stationery store/file closet overnight. For the first few months I had piles of notebooks, notepads, journals, binders, printed out legal briefs and exhibits, and more stacked up on the desk and floor, in addition to products for the shop, products for review, and my own collections of books and stationery. Over time, I’ve streamlined my desk setup to a core set of items, and it’s actually turned into one of the most pleasant workspaces I’ve ever had. But in order to further reduce the clutter, I don’t have much of a choice other than to “go digital” in strategic areas.

3. Planning My Time. A couple months ago I wrote about using a planner to structure my days and stay focused, which has helped me in that I actually complete one task before I pick up another. Otherwise half-finished projects start to pile up, adding to the clutter (both mental and physical). Incorporating a timer into my work routine has also helped, though I opt for a gentler hourglass/sandglass timer as opposed to more jarring buzzer or phone timer.

4. Apps. I’ve never actually written at length on things like apps and productivity software, partly because what I use isn’t exciting. I work primarily in Office, PDF Pro, Dropbox, and Apple’s suite of stock apps like Mail, Notes, TextEdit, and Calendar. Sure, “better” options likely exist, but people get so wrapped up in finding the “ideal” tool for the job that they spend all their time (and money) switching between apps and don’t get any actual work done. I do have a couple of specialized writing apps that I’ve used for years, such as Scrivener and iWriter Pro, and recently I’ve experimented with using the powerful (and free) Notion to manage my content calendar for this site. The challenge for me is to mindfully choose these tools when it makes sense, especially for things like notetaking and annotation where I instinctively reach for a pen.

I’m a work in progress, and fixing my workflow has been more of a struggle for me than it probably should. I love working with physical media, and my brain definitely functions better on paper than on a screen. But at the same time, new systems need to evolve where the sheer volume of documents and information we’re expected to process makes this unmanageable. My goal has always been to choose the best tool for the job, and I’m slowly coming to realize that the best tool for a specific job may not always be my preferred tool.

I’ve been advised that the “Fun iPad” is no longer work appropriate.

If you’d like to hear more about these and similar topics, let me know. I’m definitely open to delving deeper into the intersection between the digital and analog areas of our lives, and for a while I published a newsletter, Digital Divide, addressing these issues. I’ve considered bringing it back, but I’ve never asked the readership. Meanwhile, what work from home challenges are you experiencing? Have any of you had success addressing similar issues transitioning to full-time remote work?

Digital Divide Guest Post: Typewriter Reflections

Today's post is a guest submission by longtime reader David Thomson. Many thanks to David for offering us his thoughts on a subject with a lot of meaning to him: typewriters. (It makes me want to go out and order one!)

I have been a long time fountain pen user, having convinced my father to purchase a Montblanc 22 for my graduation from High School 40 years ago.  Something about writing with a fountain pen just worked better for my handwriting.  Ballpoint or gel pens do not work as well for me, and I avoid them.

During my child-rearing years, I almost exclusively used Pilot Varsity pens.  When you have small children around, cheap, disposable, and reliable works well.  A couple of years ago, I came upon Brad’s site, and – as many of us have – fell down the rabbit hole.  After starting with the Safari, and progressing up the chain, I have found a sweet spot with Franklin-Christoph pens, usually eyedroppered with a steel stub nib or Masuyama grind.  I have bought and sold a couple of dozen pens and now have about a dozen with almost 30 inks.  Other than the F-C pens, I have a Lamy 2K, Pilot 912, Pilot CH74 (orange), Platinum Nice Pur, and a three Delta pens.  I’m pretty happy there, and remain a devoted fan of the Pen Addict Podcast, the Anderson’s Blog, and – of course – The Gentleman Stationer.

Like most of us, I have been noticing over the last several years that being a heavy user of technology can be alienating, and can lead to my days being chopped up into tiny fragments, with my attention fractured.  This is not good, since my work – I am a University Professor – requires some concentrated thinking time on a regular basis.  Grading student papers, conducting scholarly research, etc.

In today’s world, however, eschewing technology is simply unrealistic.  We now have an extraordinary research tool, communications device, and source of entertainment at our fingertips.  It would be impossible to do my job – work that I love – without using my devices many times per day.  To respond to student inquiries, to keep in touch with colleagues, to prepare for classes, and to research and write scholarship.  I am a heavy user of Mac keyboards on five different machines. 

But I have felt for some time that something was missing.  That the temptations were sometimes too great at the computer to focus on something other than my writing.  And while I am no crazy lefty or anti-government crank, I have increasingly been made to feel that anything I put into a computer’s memory is somehow immediately discoverable by whichever government (or just plain snoop) might want to drop in and look around.  While I have nothing to hide, most of us like to try out ideas before letting them see the light of day.  It is the way humans operated with ideas for thousands of years, up until the last 30 or so.

My father – also a University teacher for part of his career – wrote me letters every week for 40 years.  My parents divorced when I was young, and he spent many years in journalism after the divorce.  I saw him on Saturdays, and he wrote the letters as a way to keep in touch.  Each one of these letters - approximately 2,000 in total – were typewritten, and I kept every one.  He never converted to the PC or texting, but instead used the same Royal FP typewriter he was issued at his job in 1962 (and given when he retired).  If he had switched to email I might have lost some of them, but I still have each typewritten letter he sent to me stored in plastic tubs in the basement of my home.

My father died two years ago at the age of 89.  He lived a good life, and I miss him, but I really miss his letters.  They were newsy, about his golf game, and about the political scene (he lived in D.C., so hard to avoid that).  When I miss him, I can go get some of his letters from the basement, and hear his “voice” again.

His widow, my step-mother, has avoided cleaning out his study, and I don’t blame her.  A hard thing to do after 43 years of marriage.  But when she gets to that task, she knows I would like his old typewriter.  Just as a memento – I couldn’t type anything on it.  It has been silenced by his absence, and should stay that way.

Thinking about his typewriter got me to do some research on the subject.  And guess what?  There is a surprisingly large and devoted group of typewriter collectors and users, not unlike the fountain pen community.

Typewriters have a few advantages over computers, I have discovered.   For many of us, writing on a computer keyboard allows us to edit and correct mistakes as we write, which can interfere with the writing process.  It is generally much better to write without the ability to go backwards and correct as you go.  A typewriter makes you just keep on writing and then makes editing/reworking your writing as a fully separate step.  As a result, when using a typewriter you have to think more carefully and more deeply while you are writing, and the writing improves as a result.

Many contemporary writers still chose to use a typewriter.  Among them are David McCollough, Robert Caro, Woody Allen, and Paul Auster.  They chose to write first drafts on a typewriter very intentionally – it helps them to think and compose at a pace they believe produces better writing.  There are wonderful video clips of each of these writers describing their process, all easily found.  The actor Tom Hanks is a user of typewriters, and he has a large collection of them.  In an effort to bridge the Analog/Digital divide, he has developed an app that recreates the typewriter experience on the iPad.

There is a terrific recently published book called The Typewriter Revolution, written by Richard Polt, also a University professor and a typewriter collector and restorer.  He created The Typewriter Manifesto, which attest to the benefits of writing “old-school.”  There are Type-ins – gatherings of typewriter enthusiasts – and street poets who use a typewriter to compose poetry on-demand.

I myself now have a growing collection of typewriters, and the first draft of this post was written on an Olympia SM9, manufactured in 1966 - over 50 years ago.  It is a fine machine, all metal and precise German engineering.  I also have an earlier Olympia – the SM3 – from 1958.  And a Smith Corona from 1957 and another from 1934.  Recently I found a Remington portable in an Antique store from 1928.  It is almost 90 years old and it still works perfectly.

The parallels between the fountain pen community and the resurgent typewriter community are seemingly many.  In fountain pens, we appreciate beautiful design, and we are not afraid to adhere to and even celebrate a technology that is perceived by many to be out of date and obsolete.  We appreciate different functionality between different models, as well as designs from many years ago, items no longer made and not likely to be.  And we enjoy tinkering with and fixing up things that many would overlook or discard.  You can get beautiful examples of typewriters on eBay in great shape in the range of 50-75 USD.

There are blogs for typewriter enthusiasts, as you might suspect.  Many of them are “Typecasts” – which are actually typewritten posts of which a digital picture is taken and posted to the blog (that’s Analog/Digital right there!)  Also, there are a few bloggers that combine an interest in fountain pens and typewriters.  And I recently learned on an episode of the Pen Addict that Ana Reinert sold out a small collection of typewriters at the Arkansas Pen Show. 

Despite the growth of Typecasts, one of the great advantages for many is that a typewriter is not connected to the Internet, and thus no one can see or read or judge what you are writing unless you decide to show them or put it in an envelope and affix a stamp. 

So the resurgent typewriter community is exploring the Analog/Digital divide in a number of interesting ways, and has a lot in common with the fountain pen community.  Many fountain pen users have been discovering that sometimes it is better to make the Analog choice, and I have found – somewhat to my amazement – that turning to a typewriter to bang out first rough drafts of my writing and presentation notes to work very well.

I just wish I could tell my Dad.

Disclaimer: The thoughts and writing in this post are all David's, slightly edited by me (Joe) for length and to add links to certain web content and books that he mentions. Some of the links may be to sponsors/affiliates of this blog. 

Digital Divide Volume 13: Strategic Paper Replacement, Revisited

Just over a year ago, I published a piece titled "Strategic Paper Replacement," in which I talked about using the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil as a way to remove "junk paper" from my life. Curiously, this remains one of the most popular posts on the blog, and one that receives a lot of comments and e-mail. More than one person has reached out to me recently to ask how things are going with "the big iPad," so I thought I'd post an update. In short, the iPad Pro has become a tool that I use situationally, for very specific things. Most of my day-to-day computer work continues to be done on a laptop or a desktop, and for most of my notetaking I've continued to revert to pen (or pencil) and paper. While the iPad Pro something that I'm glad I have, it's probably NOT a piece of technology that I'll update on a regular basis.   

Originally, the purpose behind this purchase was to get a device that I could use to help me digitize notes and easily organize and circulate annotated documents to other members of my team, which makes up a huge part of my day job. To a certain extent, it's worked as expected. I use the iPad Pro a fair bit to do quick mark-ups of short letters, forms, and other things that don't require a lot of deep thought or analysis. The Apple Pencil writes small and legibly enough so that others can read my handwriting. In an industry (law) that often still requires a physical signature, it's also incredibly convenient to be able to sign documents directly on the iPad when I'm on the road and instantly attach them to an e-mail, rather than have to find some place to print, sign, and scan. The iPad Pro also keeps me from having to carry a separate briefcase (or suitcase) to lug around multiple three-inch binders of documents when I'm headed to an out of town hearing or deposition.  

But as an overall organizational or serious productivity tool, the Pro is a fail. Some of this is due to the nature of my job - I work with a lot of sensitive data and protected information, so security is an issue and we can't rely on commercial cloud storage providers (i.e., iCloud or Dropbox). In light of these restrictions, I can't simply take all of my notes in Goodnotes (current favorite) or the native Apple Notes app and sync them across all of my devices. I'm always going to have a large volume of material that either needs to be stored in my company's proprietary file system (which operates only on an older version of Windows and is about as Apple-incompatible as you can get) or in hard copy, if I want to store it at all. For this type of stuff, I almost always take hand-written notes and then either destroy them, lock them up in a file room, or scan them to secure electronic storage. 

But there's also a larger issue at play here. As I touched on in my earlier post: 

“The guilt at wasting paper has always been outweighed by my inability to “think on a screen.” ... Many ideas and revisions to thought-intensive pieces such as longer briefs or articles only come to me when I’m curled up in a chair with a pen or pencil and a printed draft (and, depending on the time of day, a cup of coffee or a whiskey).”

— Strategic Paper Replacement, Part I

I thought this might change with the iPad Pro, given the more tactile nature of writing with the Apple Pencil. It hasn't. Writing with a stylus on screen simply doesn't engage my brain in the same way as writing on paper, and an iPad (or any phone or tablet) is an endless invitation to distraction. The New York Times recently published an Op-ed titled, "You're Too Busy, You Need a Shultz Hour", which talked about former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz's practice of carving out an hour each week to sit alone in his office with a pad of paper and a pen and seal himself off from any distraction - which, in his day, fortunately involved only avoiding phone calls and "pop-ins" from office visitors, not e-mail/IMs/Slack/Twitter/Facebook, etc. This "hour of solitude was the only way he could find time to think about the strategic aspects of his job. Otherwise, he would be constantly pulled into moment-to-moment tactical issues, never able to focus on larger questions.... And the only way to do great work, in any field, is to find time to consider the larger questions."

I enjoyed the article, and it goes to the heart of why I will never (voluntarily) give up pen and paper. It's too central to my workflow and the analytical process that allows me to do my job well. If that means I have to sacrifice having the perfect organizational system for my notes and handwritten brainstorming sessions, or that I occasionally accumulate an unruly pile of paper, so be it. I'd much rather focus on the end result than the process. 

What's Up With Digital Divide? 

If you subscribe to my mailing list, you may have wondered what happened to the monthly "Digital Divide" e-mail newsletter, in which I discuss topics of interest to those of us deeply invested in the analog world. Well, after a lot of consideration, I decided to kill the newsletter because publishing in two different formats was causing me a lot of unnecessary stress. Digital Divide will continue, but as a series of posts on The Gentleman Stationer, ideally on a monthly basis but I'm not going to force it if I don't have anything interesting to write about. Also, as of now all previous editions of Digital Divide are now archived on the site. Some of them don't look as pretty as they did in newsletter format, but hey, it's about the content, right? 

I also have a couple guest posts that people have submitted that will eventually work their way into Digital Divide.  If you have an idea, or if you'd like to submit something for publication, just drop me an e-mail to joe (at) gentlemanstationer.com. 

Thanks for your patience as I worked through the future of Digital Divide. I enjoyed writing the newsletter and believe this will give me a way to keep it alive without losing my sanity. 

Newsletter Subscription Options

I've received feedback from several of you on the newsletter, and one option I've set up is the ability to subscribe to either Digital Divide, my monthly newsletter on various topics related to the benefits of using analog tools, OR the weekly RSS newsletter, which will send all posts from the prior week to your e-mail inbox.

If you would no longer like to receive one or the other, you can simply click on "Update Subscription Preferences" in the most recent version of the e-mail newsletter you received.  I thought this option had been set up in MailChimp, but it wasn't.  My mistake, and I apologize to those of you who ended up receiving the RSS newsletter alongside Digital Divide (if that's not what you were looking for).  

For those of you interested in subscribing for the first time, you will see a new signup form on the sidebar, reflecting the different subscription options.  Both are free.  

Thanks again!