Leuchtturm 145mm x 210mm A5 Medium Dots Notebook - Black

For all today’s gadgets, there’s a great deal still to be said for pen and paper. It’s cheap, reliable and you don’t need to worry about the battery life. Setting those practicalities aside, I find great pleasure in a beautiful notebook and a fine fountain pen, though my handwriting still leaves much to be desired. I’m not a alone in this pleasure with a resurgence in paper notebooks and the legendary Moleskine has pushed to the fore. Is it the best? Here we have two lined notebooks, one from Leuchtturm1917 and the other from Moleskine – let’s take a look and find out. Both Moleskine and Leuchtturm draw on their heritage. Moleskine’s dates back into the early 20th Century name-checking Picasso, van Gogh and Hemingway. Although originally French, it died out in the 1980s, only to be resurrected in the late 90s by an Italian publisher. On the other hand, Leuchtturm goes back to 1917 (hence Leuchtturm1917) with roots in Hamburg, Germany and a reputation for stamp collecting albums, which continues today. These stories are laid out by both companies in small cream folded inserts that accompany each book. The message is clear; you aren’t buying only a notebook, you are continuing the traditions of culture, history and travel. Physically both notebooks are very similar but there are subtle and useful differences. I’d call them medium or A5-sized notebooks though strictly the Moleskine isn’t wide enough for A5. Both are 21 cm tall with hardcovers but the Moleskine is only 13 cm compared with the the Leuchtturm‘s 14.5 cm. Each has an elastic enclosure band, page marker and an expandable pocket inside the back cover. They also come in wide range of colours and pair well with 7″ tablets, such as the Nexus 7. Opening the notebooks shows that both have lined pages with the same line spacing, but with the Moleskine, that’s about it. Although both have an Owner page at the front, the Leuchtturm goes further with three Contents pages and each page is numbered for easy reference. In addition, there are eight perforated pages towards the back that can be removed, along with some stickers to assist with archiving once the notebook is full. The Leuchtturm1917 is for those who want to be organised! “Datum / Date” is printed at the top of each page too, which may put people off but suits me fine. Both notebooks have lovely paper which is a joy to write on with pencil and ballpoint. However, the Moleskine has a problem with pen ink bleeding from one side to the other, particularly with black ink, which makes the Leuchtturm a better choice for fountain pen writers. Overall, both the Moleskine and the Leuchtturm are stylish notebooks with a great feel both in the hand and under the pen. For me as a fountain pen owner, the Leuchtterm wins out by default, but the contents pages and page numbering make it my choice for those reasons too. Pencil owners and people looking for something a little neater may prefer the Moleskine. Whichever you choose, you’ll never go back.

This is my first Leuchtturm1917 - I got mine in A5 dot-grid (also a first for me) and I have to say I've fallen in love with it. The dot-grid takes a bit of getting used to, so if you've only ever used single ruled or blank paper before, give it a chance before you dismiss it! The paper isn't be-all-and-end-all quality despite many claims; you will absolutely still get ghosting unless you're using pencils or incredibly fine-nibbed pens, but even my XS Faber-Castell PITT artist pen at 0.1mm shows through. That pen is, however, intended to be permanent which could contribute to the ghosting. That being said, I've also used felt tip markers in it (going over some spots three or four times) and I've yet to see bleed-through. If you can live with ghosting, this is a fantastic notebook. There are two ribbon markers, one plain and one bi-coloured. The elastic matches the cover and is springy enough to make sure your Leuchtturm stays closed without threatening to snap at every movement. There is also a pocket on the inside of the back cover, which I am currently keeping the handily supplied Leuchtturm stickers (three square title stickers, two of which are lined and the other of which is blank, and a few spine stickers). The pages are numbered, barring the three index pages and single blank page at the beginning. The dot-grid is 5mm, which I find is pleasantly spaced for my handwriting but also means that I can fit a lot of that handwriting on one page - one of the things I dislike about cheaper ruled notebooks is that it always feels like the ruling is too far apart and I'm wasting space. All in all, if you don't mind ghosting, give this notebook a chance. It's fantastic for bullet journalers with its built-in index and page numbering, or if you're like me and want a notebook to jot down ideas as and when they appear while still being able to easily reference them, this could be worth a shot.

I bought this notebook to start my first bullet journal this year. I purchased the A5 size which fits really well into handbags. There is a ribbon bookmark attached to the pages and there is an elastic band sitting on the right-hand side to keep everything together. There is a large pocket at the back where you can store notes and stickers too which I find helpful when I attend meetings. There are almost 250 pages in this book, so if you like to bullet journal you will have a lot of space for your spreads. If not then you have a load of room for note taking and writing in general. There is also a contents page in the front so if you have any important pages throughout the notebook you can list them there and they are easy to reference rather than to flip through it blindly and start looking for it. The only con of this notebook is that the pages are a little thin. I use black fine liners and ballpoint ink pens in my notebook which automatically increases the chances of seeing the writing on the under page it's written on. The ink doesn't sink through unless you draw over the same line repeatedly but I doubt many people will do that. You can just see the faint outline of it form the next page which may bother some people. I also stick coloured card and pictures into my notebook for decoration and the pages take glue and tape very well as I've also used washi tape. I bought the Berry colour and it looks like a darkish pink. It's a lovely feminine colour and it's not too harsh as I don't like harsh pinks. The notebook appeared to be very durable and of a high quality. You are paying for something that can last and looks beautiful too. I've had some compliments on this journal since buying it. It arrived on time and I think it was fairly priced at £13. I will buy another when this one is full. Would 100% recommend.

Very high quality notebook. The dot grid is perfect for notes, sketching and bullet journaling. The paper handles most inks perfectly - I use gel ink and there is little to no bleed across the pages. Offers many stylish colour options all with a premium feel hard cover.

Like several other reviewers, I've become disappointed with Moleskine products because the weight of their paper is starting resemble the pages of my mum's 1950s school bible. I'm stuck with my 2018 page-a-day pocket diary for now, but having just filled a Rhodia A5 dot notebook (which I use for my bullet journals), I thought I'd try a Leuchtturm. This is a first impressions review, but I don't see why my opinion might change over time, so here we go. The notebook is well made with a sturdy cover that's got a *little* bit of flex; nowhere near enough to call it rigid, but certainly protective and of good quality. The product description from Leuchtturm states that there are 8 removable pages in the book -- you wouldn't know without studying them really hard because the perforations are very fine, but they're the last 8 sheets in the book and part of the set that are numbered. However, the very last one of those 8 (the last page in the book) is actually not detachable because it's glued at the spine to the inside back cover. There are two page markers, one patterned and one plain. Quite handy for a bullet journal to have more than one of these. I tested a range of pens on the (second to) last removable page of my notebook. (read: I sacrificed a page, for SCIENCE!) My go-to pen for my bullet journal is a Pigma Micron 05 and I was NOT disappointed at how this notebook stood up to it. There's virtually no show through at all when you turn the page, and holding the page outside of the book after it's detached, you can barely see the ink at all. I found this to also be the case under several other pen types, including roller gel pens, fountain pens, highlighters and markers. So, if you're fussy about show-through, gel pens and fine markers are both viable options -- unlike the pages of Moleskine books which, in my experience, show quite badly under gel pens. I also found that gel dried slightly faster that it does on Moleskine pages -- less ghosting on the opposite page when you close your notebook quickly after scribbling something down and far more lefty-friendly! The only thing I did notice in the minus column for gel pens was that the paper "gave" more under them. What I mean is that there was a mild indentation when I used a gel pen. The Pigma Micron was "silent" on the reverse of the page. The only two pens I experimented with that bled through the paper were a Sharpie marker and a Letraset Promarker, but those suckers bleed through (almost) EVERYTHING! The pages handle fountain pen ink admirably. I tried two kinds and neither showed through. The paper did buckle temporarily in one case (Diamine Shimmering), but it smoothed out again after the ink had properly dried. Of course the quality of your fountain pen's nib will be a factor, but my experience of writing with both a 1940s Parker 45 Flighter (fine nib) and a 2017 TWSBI 580AL (stub) was smooth and virtually drag-free. A 2B pencil showed up well on the page. A Rotring Isograph (0.4) dragged HORRIBLY, no matter how lightly I tried to use it. I've attached a couple of photos of the front and back of the sacrificed page of my notebook, so you can see for yourself the level of show through. Bonus photos of an attachment-free way of letting your notebook keep your pen handy. I don't know yet if I like it enough to switch permanently from Rhodia dot grid notebooks but, overall, I'm very pleased with this notebook. (Note to Amazon: why are some colours of this notebook more expensive than others? Are you punishing people for buying books that aren't muck-coloured?)

Dreadful prices in my local stores drove me to search the Internet for something better. Most posts and most reviews pointed to Lechtturm as the golden standard. That wasn't a lie. The product is slick and crisp. It seems like there has been given a lot of thought into each and every detail. The result being that when you grab this notebook from your backpack you feel special -- like what you're doing is special. That's a rare feeling, for sure. The size is standard, and works good as a notebook. I use mine for my studies, and it works perfect for that. I bought a version with dots (because I felt crazy that day), and was pleased. An other reviewer somewhere wrote that you don't notice these dots when you've written on that page - that is true. The dots are spaced comfortably, but with a denseness that allows you to write in a compact format (ot not), which I love. With the notebook there followed some stickers, which can be used to write your name on the front of the notebook, or the spine of it. Which is a neat idea. The elastic band that wraps the notebook together is just that; an elastic band. Most of my former notebooks had some sort of thread which was static, and would often break. I've gotten the feeling that this is more robust. All in all a gorgeous product. I bought it because it was not much more expensive than what I can buy in my local stores. I also wanted some luxury when I write (which I do most days for hours on end), and I feel like the Leuchtturm Notebook is just that: A symbiosis of luxury, practicality and quality. Which is why, for the first time I've bought anything from the Internet - I'm finding myself writing a review no one will ever read. But if you do, and you're on the fence whether or not you should buy this: give it a try.

Thos was a good product and an excellent delivery.

OMG..... Finally..... I have found the perfect bullet journal notebook (for me!). The size is perfect! It's A5 (I found the larger sizes to big and bulky for carrying around day to day) so it fits perfectly in my rucksack without being too heavy or bulky. The quality of the paper and ribbons inside is very good. I love the dotted pages and there are enough lines to put my monthly logs on 1 page even though the notebook itself is smaller than a previous one I had (I had to previously use 2 pages for the monthly logs!). I have not suffered any ink bleeding (I use Pilot Frixon pens - love these too!) on these pages and the paper feels heavy and of a good quality. The envelope of the backside is useful for little odds and sods and I also love that the content pages are already set up and the pages are numbered. This was lacking in my previous bullet journal and was a royal pain writing them in all the time. All in all ..... I love this notebook! It will definitely be my first choice for my next bullet journal and at this price it's very competitive indeed. Well done Leuchtturm, a name I can certainly now trust for my bullet journal needs!