A drawing board is one of the most useful drawing aids there are and even with the latest advances in technology, and art and graphics software such as Photoshop, Photoscape, Adobe and more, professionals still turn to the drawing board for professional results. A drawing board will clip your piece of paper in place and is available in various sizes depending on how big you intend your artwork to be. The wonderful thing about a drawing board is that it can be positioned in pretty much anyway, in terms of height and tilt. Drawing boards also tend to have a grid on them making them ideal for use with technical work helping with better placement.

Popular among drafters, architects and even some structural designers, drawing boards are used to prepare neat and accurate drawings. However in order to guarantee an absolutely precise drawing, it is imperative to make sure you have the best quality instruments to prepare them. A good drawing board can be adjusted in height and tilt before you use it which is great for freehand drawing, and can be lowered again for more involved work. It is recommended that you position the drawing board at the right height first so that you can then set the tilt afterwards in order to suit the comfortable angle of the hand.

Our recommended drawing board would be the Rotring Designer Drawing Board which is featured below. It comes as a complete drawing system with drawing board laminated on all sides, anodized aluminium guide track with plastic guide coating, parallel straightedge with STOP-and-GO mechanism, professional drawing head with STOP-and-GO mechanism and adjustable plastic tilter!

• Size: 700 x 600 x 16mm
• Free Delivery!
• £81.68 Off – Now just £161.22!

Rotring is the brand used by people who value the power of ideas and visions and who strive to give these the highest form of expression. Rotring is known as being the brand who provide the best possible product solution no matter what the situation, so wherever you see the Rotring red ring logo, you can be sure that the product boasts excellent ergonomics and design and will enable you to work with precision and accuracy.

When fastening together papers, commonly peoples first thought is to staple the paper or use paperclips as they are the quickest option. These solutions are quick and easy, however are useless if you’d like to bind paper together of a larger quantity or you’d like to be able to add and remove pages at a later date. There are plenty of options out there such as slide binding, comb binding, wire binding and so on, however the simplest preference is for Treasury Tags (aka India tags). These paper fasteners need to be of a certain length in order to hold your paper together securely. Made up of a piece of string, typically around 3 to 8 cm or 1 to 3 inches long, a treasury tag has a metal or plastic bar at each end which is the component responsible for securing the paper. This bar is threaded through holes in paper which have been created by a hole punch and normally start off being threaded through a front cover and finish through the back cover. Treasury tags come in various different lengths of string so that depending on the thickness of the stack of pages, the appropriate length treasury tag can be used. The bigger the stack of paper, the longer the string will need to be, just as the fewer the sheets of paper, the shorter the string will need to be. Use this guide as an estimate;

• Paper thickness up to 25mm – 25mm Treasury Tags
• Paper thickness up to 51mm – 51mm Treasury Tags
• Paper thickness up to 63mm – 63mm Treasury Tags
• Paper thickness up to 76mm – 76mm Treasury Tags
• Paper thickness up to 102mm – 102mm Treasury Tags
• Paper thickness up to 127mm - 127mm Treasury Tags
• Paper thickness up to 152mm – 152mm Treasury Tags

The featured treasury tags are made by our 5 Star brand and consist of green cord with metal end bars. An economical form of filing, treasury tags normally come in boxes of approximately 100 and have very small price tags! In fact, our range is available with at least 64% off! Remember though people, before punching your holes in your paper, make sure that they are at the left hand side and that they are at least an inch into the paper both from the top and the left. Forgetting this can result in rips and tears which would be a shame, and a pain!

Practical, perfect white paper,

Is peachy for practicing poems,

Pick up a page and preach with your pen,

Part with your pride for the power!

We use paper everyday unknowingly! That may sound strange, but do we ever realise what we’re doing when we’re scribbling down notes, doodling and taking messages? The act of grabbing a scrap piece or sheet of paper is almost unconscious; we can certainly say we take paper for granted! It important however to appreciate its source; we destroy many, many trees every day so that we can have the paper we use without even thinking about it! It’s also quite surprising how big an impact and how much of an impression the quality of paper can have. Thinner, budget paper is all well and good for everyday printing, notes, messages and your kids art, but when you’re presenting an important document, a legal document, an invitation or a letter, quality is extremely important! It’s always better in these instances to go for a thicker option, say 90gsm paper, giving a more firm, smooth and white finish.

Our Color Copy A4 White Copier Paper featured to the right, fits the entire bill! Not only does this paper boast premium quality and super smooth texture, but it’s also environmentally friendly too!

• A range of superior smooth colour laser papers with excellent whiteness designed specifically for use on colour laser printers and copiers
• Ideal for brochures, reports and presentations with the card weights being the perfect choice for report covers and business cards
• Produced using FSC certified fibre from well-managed forests independently certified according to the rules of the Forest Stewardship Council
• Guaranteed for use on mono and colour laser printers and copiers
• 90gsm
• Size: A4
• Packed: 500 sheets
• 66% off! Now just £8.79 a ream!

Color Copy is a brand of paper brought to us by The Robert Horne Group who were founded in London back in 1925 by Mr Robert Horne (of course!). The group has since grown to be the UK’s leading supplier of paper, board and plastics. The company are committed to taking all reasonable steps to fulfil their duties through economically, environmentally and socially sustainable means. They will endeavour to conduct all their activities with integrity and demonstrate the highest ethical standards in any dealings with all stakeholders. Color copy paper guarantees usability on all mono and colour laser printers and is able to boast FSC mixed sources SGS-COC-0912. The fibre used to make their paper is Virgin wood fibre from South Africa, South America, Scandinavia and Europe and the pulp is bleached using an Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) process. Disposal of the paper can be done through either recycling or incineration for energy.

The Robert Horne Environmental Initiatives

• ISO14001 at Northampton Head Office and National Distribution Centre
• FSC Chain of Custody (SGS-COC-000912)
• PEFC Chain of Custody (SGS-PEFC/COC-0104)
• The only major paper merchant to be a member of the WWF-UK Forest & Trade Network
• Committed to a policy of responsible paper purchasing
• Comprehensive supplier evaluation process, supported by a robust database of environmental product information
• Unrivalled choice of recycled-content and FSC or PEFC certified products
• Committed to a policy of Corporate Social Responsibility
• Environmental Manager available for help and advice
• Committed to a policy of energy efficiency and carbon reduction
• yoyo ‘closed loop’ office paper recycling service
• Waste recycling scheme for Sign and Display materials

We are always happy to be supporting a company who do good in this world and the Robert Horne Group are certainly able to say they do their bit. The brand are proud to support Childline as its nominated charity.

Although A4 is our standard ISO paper size and the most commonly used for most applications, A5 sized paper is a close follower. Popular among schools, offices and homes, A5 paper is perfect for a range of different uses and is also the most commonly found size in notepads and pocket books. Measuring 148 × 210 millimeters or 5.83 × 8.27 inches, A5 paper’s dimensions in PostScript are rounded off to 420 × 595 points and is also sometimes referred to as DIN A5. More often than not used for flyers and leaflets, but also for making greetings cards, A5 paper is highly adaptable. Businesses may find it beneficial to order large quantities of A5 Paper, a good quality printer and to print up their own flyers. This is a good way to cut marketing costs and also printing costs. Another budget yet quality idea would be to print your companies letterhead on the paper for all non-formal communications, this will look both professional and impressive yet would cost you less than having them printed professionally.

Our favorite A5 paper is this Data Copy 80gsm A5 White Paper featured to your right. Featuring;

• The everyday paper you need to keep all your office equipment working hard
• No messing with the easy to open box
• Ideal for volume copying and printing, everyday correspondence, reports and presentations
• Smooth, white paper that gives you great results every time, whether in colour or black and white
• All boxes have the comfy Grab-and-Go handle (excluding four-hole punched)
• 80gsm
• Size: A5 (297 x 210)
• White
• Packed: 500 sheets
• Environmentally friendly – Forest Stewardship Council
• 63% off! Now just £5.21!

The Data Copy brand manufactures paper under the umbrella company, Talk Paper who were formed in 2002 from the merger of MoDo Office and County Paper. Their wholly owned dedicated logistics provider boasts 16 distribution locations around the country, including two central distribution centres and the 14 regional distribution centres throughout the UK and Ireland. The brand was UK’s first dedicated national office paper merchant and are a direct subsidiary of the largest paper merchandising group in Europe – Antalis. Talk Paper are proud to be the only office paper merchant to hold the prestigious Royal Warrant to supply Her Majesty The Queen.

The Data Copy range gives brilliant results on all the latest office equipment – colour, black-and-white, inkjet and laser. The Data Copy Colour Printing paper is an amazingly white and amazingly smooth paper which is perfect for presentations, reports and colour coverage. It produces sharp images and bright colours while giving brilliant results on all colour office printing.

A guillotine paper cutter is an invaluable piece of equipment in both the office and the classroom used for cutting straight edges in sheets of paper. Although the scissors where also a priceless invention changing our lives for the better, they really are only designed for trimming and cutting out smaller articles and pieces of paper where straight line precision really isn’t necessary. There is no other tool which can be used to cut a piece of paper with such accuracy than the guillotine, which offers precise, measured cuts every time. The guillotine paper cutter has an arm which is raised and lowered by hand severing the paper. When purchasing a guillotine it is recommended that you first check the sheet trim capacity in order to make sure you find a machine compatible to your needs, and also the safety features of the product in order to ascertain it’s suitability to the environment in which it will be used, i.e. would it be suitable for use in a classroom?

Our Rexel ClassicCut CL420 Laser Precision Guillotine is perfect for most environments and is currently available with a staggering 45% off at Office 365! Like all Rexel guillotines it boasts self sharpening stainless steel blades and an integrated paperguide. With safety blade locks, clear acrylic safeguards, and laser light technology, Rexel Classic guillotines are designed to meet every requirement. The CL420 model is designed for maximum precision and optimum safety, giving the user total control over their document finishing. Featuring;

• Beautiful design and engineering
• Laser-Light technology for confidence and accuracy during trimming
• Heavy duty see-through base marked with grid lines, measurements and paper guides for A4, A5 and A6 sizes to help paper alignment for an accurate cut
• Adjustable paper edge guide helps align paper for a more precise cut
• Use the Blade Lock when guillotine is not in use for added safety
• Integrated carry handle for portability
• 25 sheet trim capacity
• Backstop for repeat cuts and precise positioning

This Guillotine is perfect for the professional user in environments such as busy offices, businesses and studios. With its multi-application cutting requirements, including unusual format documents up to A3 size, it’s perfect for creating the ideal sized portraits, menus, manuals, stylish documents and more. Plus, for your peace of mind it also comes with a 2 year warranty! The ClassicCut CL420 comes with 2x AAA-1.5v batteries which are required to power the laser-light function, all this for just £162.94 – that’s £133.05 off the RRP! What’s more, buy from Office 365 and get free delivery! Our advice – Grab yours now while stocks last!

If the impression you’d like to give your customers and clients and even your staff is one of class, power and sophistication, then you may like to consider the look of your office. First think, what is it people see first? Normally this is your desk, which many people make the mistake of cluttering! However your desk is your centrepiece and a real reflection of you, your organisational skills and your character. If you’re in a managerial role you’ll need to make sure that you have an elegant looking desk, high quality, suave finish, something which is pleasing to the eye. Your next and most pivotal consideration will be to the organisation of your desk. It’s no good having a beautiful new desk when all you do is leave it covered in mounds of paper work, and let’s face it, that’s no way to keep on top of things now is it? One way of keeping your filing organised would be to file away everything into a cabinet, leaving the paperwork which is incomplete or is needed regularly in a letter tray or desk drawers. This can then be kept at arm’s reach on your desk leaving just enough room for your desk blotter. Now this is a real gem, the queen of sophistication; a desk blotter is THE MD’s dream desk piece!

However aside from their distinguished looks, a desk blotter also protects your desk defending against scratches, heat and moisture and consistently providing you with blotting paper to draw excess ink from your pen. Aimed at professionals and specialists, those who like to experiment in Calligraphy and the art of fountain pen writing would greatly benefit from a desk blotter too.

With your blotting pad, you will of course need some blotting paper (as featured to your right) which is basically a type of paper used to absorb excess substances such as ink or oil. An example of blotting paper’s use is when absorbing excess ink left on parchment when writing with a fountain pen. Blotting paper is also used to remove ink from writing; this writing will appear in reverse on the blotting paper. Blotting paper is most popular when using dip pens and even when using fountain pens and our range of Leathercraft blotting paper perfect for this. Available in Full and Half demy and in colours cream or white, you’re sure to find precisely what you’re looking for at Office 365. Our blotting paper comes in packs of 50 sheets, and are available with at least 23% off the RRP! So grab yourself a bargain today!

It can be difficult getting to grips with our ‘A’ paper formats, especially when you’re used to them being referred to as something else! So if your finding it difficult grasping our paper sizes, read on and I will do my very best to explain. A4 and the other A paper formats are based on metric measurements, with an A0 piece of paper equalling one meter squared. A0 format paper folded in half is then equal to the next size down, A1. A1 format paper folded in half is then equal to its next size down, A2 , and so on, so forth until you reach size A6. All these ‘A’ paper formats have a height to width ratio of 1.414:1.The international paper size standard (ISO 216) is based on the German DIN 476 standard for paper sizes. ISO sizes are all based on quite simply, the single aspect ratio of square root of 2. A4 (210 × 297 mm) is the most frequently used paper format.

To summarise, the ISO 216 definition of ‘A’ paper formats is based on the following:

• The length divided by the width is 1.4142
• The A0 format has an area of 1 square metre.
• Each subsequent format ‘A’ is defined as ‘A’ cut in half parallel to its shorter sides.
• The standard length and width of each size is rounded to the nearest millimetre.

Our most popular papers are the A3 and A4 format papers which we have available from both budget brands and the highest quality brands. Choose from glossy paper to card, water marked to specialist, listing paper to blotting paper, the choice is yours. So for your pick of the best A4 Paper and A3 Paper at the lowest prices on the net, come and take a peek at what we have on offer. Take a look at the chart below for a guide to ‘A’ format papers measurements.

Easters around the corner and it’s time to get crafty! This one’s great for at home, but also in the office to boost morale. With the forthcoming ‘bank holiday season’ just around the corner and quite a bit of time off for the kids, getting crafty is a great way of keeping them entertained that doesn’t need to break the bank. Use this time to make little Easter gifts for friends and family, the kids will love it! Times are tough in the office with very few companies offering anything in the way of pay raises and bonuses so we must make sure to keep the staff’s morale up. Taking a few hours in the afternoon aside in your office can really put the smile back on their faces, as will the fact that your getting crafty with them and doing a non work related task. Take a look at our step by step guide to making microwavable salt dough Easter nests. Basically, with salt, flour, water and some decorations you can make your own beautiful Easter baskets to give as gifts to family and friends or for your staff to use on their desks for bit’s and bobs such as paperclips. On a rainy or cold day, you will probably have these items around the house.

You will need;

• 4 cups flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1 ½ cups of hot water
• Paint to decorate

This should be enough for a team or a family to make their little egg/paper clip nests/baskets. After mixing together the above ingredients, get stuck in! It’s fascinating seeing the different nest shapes take form. Make sure that the ‘dip’ is big enough to hold miniature eggs or paperclips and for the kids, maybe encourage them to make more of a basket than a nest. This way it can be used when egg hunting!

Next using a microwavable safe plate, bake your nests/baskets in the microwave for 1 to 4 minutes, increasing the time by 1 minute increments and keeping a close eye on the microwave as they bake. Microwave power levels differ, so use high power in a less-powerful oven, but lower if your oven heats things very quickly. You don’t want to risk a fire! If you’re making these for office use, remember to take the paperclips out before your microwave! Let ornaments cool completely before decorating.

Are you looking to replenish your art supplies? Do you work in a school and your art and graphics supplies are running low? Are you out of chalk for the chalk board, maybe the guillotines seen better days, or maybe the pencils are down to stubs or have been dropped one too many times? Or maybe you work in a graphics studio and your graphics pens have dried up, you’re all out of covering film or you need a new way to store your work? Alternatively if you’re a professional artist and the tools you’re working with just aren’t up to the job; you need new knives, cutting mats, or maybe some quality pastels? Alternatively, you’re sat at your computer right now just looking for a pack of crayons for the children to keep them amused this half term. Whatever the requirement and whoever you are Office 365 are here to help.

Our range of crayons chalk and charcoal are available in many varieties; we have Stephens Superline Chalk, Bic Kids Plastidecor crayons, Staedtler Lumocolour Omnigraph Marking Crayons, Derwent Academy Oil Pastels and more. With brands such as these, you can’t go wrong.

Our cutting mats are available in A1 – A4 size and also replacement mats for trimmers, plus self healing, anti slip mats too. Used to protect your knife and your table top or surface, our selection of Linex cutting mats are also a useful measuring guide.

Our selection of drawing aids includes items such as compasses for mathematics, drafting, and navigation, for drawing circles and arcs and for measuring on maps. We also have drawing boards and stands made by Rotring in A2 and A3 sizes, sketch pads, geometry supplies including protractors, templates, set squares, rulers, school sets, compasses, stencils and transfers and a selection of miscellaneous items for specialist drawing.

We have a beautiful range of fine art pencils including Derwent Academy Colouring Pencils, Derwent Graphitint Pencils, Derwent Pastel Pencils, Lakeland Colouring Pencils, Lakeland Colourthin Pencils, Lakeland Painting Pencils, Derwent Academy Sketching Pencils, Derwent Graphic Pencils and Derwent Watercolour Pencils.

Also choose from our selection of other graphics supplies with items such as architects and drafters trolleys, clamps, drop mount wall brackets, front load binders, front load wall racks, Quickfile binders and more all made by Hang-a-Plan. We also have Linex drawing tubes, Pelltech suspension tape, R-Kive stands for rolled documents and API Tenza covering film for covering books, maps and documents.

Choose from our quality range of cutters by Avery, Linex and Scotch, guillotines from Avery, Dahle, HSM and Rexel and trimmers by Avery, HSM and Rexel most available with spare parts too.

Are selection of knives are available in blade, disposable and knives & cutters options. Our blades are made by our quality yet budget brand 5 Star, plus other brands including Stanley and Swordfish. Our disposable variety is made by Stanley and Swordfish and our knives and cutters are by 5 Star, Stanley and Swordfish.

Lastly is our range of technical pens which are used by engineers, architects, or drafts people, to make lines of constant width for architectural, engineering, or technical drawings. Our range is by the prestigious brands Edding and Rotring.

Your desk – A monument of yourself, an illustration of your character and a shadow of your home. From my experience it is fair to say that your desk really does reflect who you are; warts and all and this goes for both the office desk and the home office desk! Now as well as having a fantastic range of desks to choose from, made by a quality array of different brands, we also have everything you could possibly need to accessorise it, organise it and  give it a touch of class. If you’re a desk hopper, there’s never time to allow it to get a mess, but if you’ve been lucky enough to have your own desk in the workplace, value it – and your reputation! Many people say that a messy desk is a messy mind, symbolising someone who is un-organised, incapable and out of their depth. Many employers frown upon their staff who cannot keep their space organised and will favour those who can, even in terms of promotion and pay rise. Why sacrifice such benefits and your good reputation when there are products at hand that can help you keep your desk in order?

At Office 365 you will find many desktop accessories which provide homes for all you’re little bits and pieces, making sure that your possessions are at hand when you need them, not under a heap! With desk blotters available in full and half demy options, book and magazine racks to free up space and keep your literature handy, clipboards, desk mats to protect your desks surface, desk tidies for all those bits and pieces, desk drawers, letter trays and filing units for the filing of frequently needed paperwork, hole punches, perforators, pins clips and fasteners, rubber stamps, scissors and letter openers, stamp pad ink, staplers and removers, staples, tape dispensers, telephone indexes and useful telephone arms which are great for freeing up some desk space, Office 365 certainly have everything you could need!

So now you know how to keep your desk tidy, the tools to do so, and where to get them from, you have no excuses. Turn it around now and let 2011 be the year you impress your boss, get yourself organised and further your career.