A Preview of the new R. L. Allan Journals

The original Allan's Journal was a beauty, then there was a larger second edition, and now the latest versions are available in two sizes. The larger format comes with either a black or brown buffalo grain goatskin cover, the same as the ESV3, while the smaller format is available in black, tan, and brown highland goatskin, like the ESV1. I'm expecting some copies any day now, at which point I'll post more thoughts (and more photos), but here are some advance snaps from R. L. Allan.

First the large format brown journal:

 

And here's a look inside the larger format:

 

Now the smaller format. First black:

 

Then brown:

And now the tan:

 

And here's how the smaller ones look inside:

For those of you who've been anxiously awaiting the journals, it looks like the wait is over. There was some speculation about whether the "Journal" imprint would be dropped from the cover, but based on the photos it seems the answer is no. I'll write more when they arrive, but for now ... enjoy.

Comments

[DavidF]

I'm a little disappointed in the photographs and was hoping that the cover title would be dropped. (I don't like "Holy Bible" printed on Bible covers either.) I ordered 2 journals from Evangelical Bible over 8 weeks ago and am still waiting.

[Michael S. Swoveland]

I like the idea of the Allan's Journal and I am sure the materials used are second to none. However, I have to agree with David's comment above, having the word "JOURNAL" on the cover is a deal breaker for me.

I did just buy a brown "Italian leather" journal from Barns & Noble, it has nice raised bands on the spine and can be re-filled. It is a nice match in terms of size and color to my brown RL Allan Brevier Blackface and should also look good with the Cambridge Cameo that is currently off being rebound.

[Rod Summers]

I love them. Thanks for the pictures and post.

[Vince Ramirez]

i think the highland goatskin should be offered in the larger format like the original journals. the smaller ones i think are too small.

[Steven T. Rogers]

agreed, i really would have liked to get a highland goat skin to mtch my bible BUT i wanted to bigger size and went iwth the buffalo... wtb highland goat skin in larder size w/o the journal wording please

[DavidF]

I received my two journals finally on Saturday--one small brown and one small black. Even though I knew the dimensions, they are a little larger than I expected--more square. They are very nice of course but were packaged in cellophane rather than boxes (although they arrived in a box of course.) There are no markings to indicate that the covers are goatskin or who the binder is. Perhaps they should have stamped that information on them rather than JOURNAL on the cover.

[DougS]

I received a large black Allan journal today. In Mark's photo of the large one, I count 35 ruled lines on the page. In the one I received, there are 47 ruled lines on the page. For comparison, my Moleskine with an almost identical page size (same width, very slightly shorter than the Allan) has 31 ruled lines. In the Moleskine, each line is very slightly less than 1/4" below the previous one. In the Allan, there is right at 5/32" between lines. That is too tight for me to use, I'm afraid. Looks like I'll be sending the Allan back to evangelicalbible.com. Is it possible that the photos of the large and small journals opened are mislabeled? The one labeled "large" looks to have a page size that is closer to square proportions, and the one labeled "small" looks like the one I have in hand, and has the same number of lines on the page. Hmm.

[gary]

Dealbreaker: lines