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.

Love this and the color is fabulous!! Nice and chocolatey! Ha ha! Filling this up right now. Thank you for your service! Very nice!!

J’adore cet article que j’achète chaque année pour réaliser mon bullet journal

To help me reach my end of year targets, this meets the requirements

These notebooks are definitely worth the money. The notebooks are high quality, and having the numbered pages and space for index, along with built-in bookmarks make this the perfect notebook.

Comme dit dans le titre, c'est pour moi l'un des meilleurs produits que l'on peut trouver dans la gamme de la papeterie. J'ai effectué cet achat dans le but de me lancer dans l'aventure du bullet journal, phénomène maintenant très populaire consistant à noter toutes nos petites choses à faire. Après avoir chercher sur le net afin de trouver le meilleur outil possible, je me suis tournée vers le Leuchtturm 1917 en taille A5. J'ai été conquise par le nombreux choix de couleur pour ce carnet ainsi que par les différents modèles : carnet à pointillés ou ligné. Je l'ai reçu en très peu de temps et il était très bien emballé. Le carnet est d'une très très bonne qualité, les pages ne sont absolument pas transparentes et vous pouvez utiliser n'importe quel type de crayon avec, ce qui est l'un des meilleurs points selon moi. La couverture est rigide et ne s’abîme pas, les pages sont toutes numérotées et vous disposez de deux marques pages. Je suis ravie de cet achat et je le recommande vivement.