Editing Notebook (section)

=== Legal pad ===
[[File:Legal pad and pencil.jpg|thumb|Legal pad and pencil]]
According to a legend, Thomas W. Holley of [[Holyoke, Massachusetts]], invented the legal pad around the year 1888 when he innovated the idea to collect all the sortings, various sorts of sub-standard paper scraps from various factories, and stitch them together in order to sell them as pads at an affordable and fair price. 

In about 1900, the latter then evolved into the modern, traditionally yellow legal pad when a local judge requested for a margin to be drawn on the left side of the paper. This was the first legal pad.<ref name="NPR interview">{{cite news |title=The History of the Legal Pad |author=Madeleine Brand |newspaper=NPR.org |publisher=National Public Radio |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4673512 |access-date=26 July 2010 |author-link=Madeleine Brand |archive-date=16 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211016105312/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4673512 |url-status=live}}</ref> 

The only technical requirement for this type of stationery to be considered a true "legal pad" is that it must have margins of 1.25&nbsp;inches (3.17 centimeters) from the left edge.<ref name="NPR interview" /> Here, the margin, also known as down lines,<ref>[http://boingboing.net/2006/09/19/inventing-the-yellow.html David Pescovitz, 19 September 2006. ''Inventing the yellow legal pad'' "The legal pad's margins, also called down lines, are drawn 1.25 inches from the left edge of the page. (This is the only requirement for a pad to qualify as a legal pad, though the iconic version has yellow paper, blue lines, and a red gummed top.) Holley added the ruling that defined the legal pad in the early 1900s at the request of a local judge who was looking for space to comment on his own notes"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100314063742/http://boingboing.net/2006/09/19/inventing-the-yellow.html |date=14 March 2010 }}, Retrieved 9 November 2010.</ref> is room used to write notes or comments. 

Legal pads usually have a gum binding at the top instead of a spiral or stitched binding.

In 1902, J.A. Birchall of [[Birchalls]], a stationery shop based in [[Launceston, Tasmania]], Australia, decided that the cumbersome method of selling writing paper in folded stacks of "quires" (four sheets of paper or parchment folded to form eight leaves) was inefficient. 

As a solution, he glued together a stack of halved sheets of paper, supported by a sheet of cardboard, creating what he called the "Silver City Writing Tablet".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-culture/2018/03/10-aussie-inventions-that-make-your-life-easier|title=10 Aussie inventions that make your life easier|author=Frick, Erin|date=7 March 2014|work=Australian Geographic|access-date=27 July 2016|archive-date=20 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210820230710/https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-culture/2014/03/10-aussie-inventions-that-make-your-life-easier/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-06/end-of-an-era-as-173yo-bookstore-birchall27s-to-close/8165770|title=End of an era as 173yo Birchalls book store to close|author=Carla Howarth|date=6 January 2017|access-date=6 January 2017|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|archive-date=30 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211030205952/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-06/end-of-an-era-as-173yo-bookstore-birchall27s-to-close/8165770|url-status=live}}</ref>