LEUCHTTURM1917 Master Slim A4+ Dotted Hardcover Notebook - 123 Numbered Pages, Anthracite | Premium Journal for Writing, Sketching & Bullet Journaling - Perfect for Office, School & Creative Projects

These have been my go to notebooks for journaling for many years, both the large and medium size. Until now, I have never been disappointed. I don't know if it is just this specific notebook that is not the same quality as others, or if it is a new method of manufacturing. The notebook does not open with pages laying flat without having to force a crease at the seam for writing. They are expensive, and I have put out the money in the past, because I thought they were worth it... not any more.Since 1999, I have been keeping a writer's notebook in 8.5x11 sized spiral bound notebooks. They line up quite nicely on the shelf, but spiral notebooks covers (front and back) tend to tear-off over time, the spirals get smashed and turning pages becomes difficult, and generally do not lay very flat if you tend to paste things into them. This year I heard about these Leuchtturm1917 Master notebooks and decided to give it a try. I will never go back to spiral bound notebooks ever again. First of all these notebooks are wide enough to paste an entire 8.5x11 piece of paper into the pages without trimming. (see photo for example) A godsend for me, as I often paste computer printouts into my notebooks or letters or emails verbatim into my notebook. Not having to re-size or trim the edges off an 8.5x11 letter-sized sheet of paper again, is a small miracle. Secondly, these notebooks lay very flat, so despite having bulky pasted-up pages in the notebook, I can still write on them without having any problems. Some issues, though, that you should be aware of. These notebooks are much taller than the usual spiral-bound notebook. (see photo for example) So, it may have a hard time fitting into a smaller messenger-type bag. However, if your bag or backpack can fit a larger laptop, fitting this notebook will not be a problem. Similarly, fitting this notebook onto a shelf might pose some difficulties as it is very tall and would have to fit onto a shelf that was tall enough to fit, say a coffee table book. Being hardcover, these notebooks are heavier than spiral-bound notebooks even though the Leuchtturms have far fewer pages. However, I appreciate the hardcovers for long-term storage and use. Lastly, the price of these notebooks are quite eye-popping, maybe 10x more than my usual notebook. But, knowing these Leuchtturms notebooks are not going to rust like my spiral-bounds are doing are worth the price to me. Also, if you have the same hubris as me and think that your notebooks hold information that future generations might find interesting/helpful, you have to go with the much binding and qualities of the Leuchtturm notebooks.Great for journaling or taking notes.I’ve had unlined and dotted versions of this brand before so I figured this would be similar. But nope… it has like a 1inch margin around the squares. So much wasted space :(I bought this notebook and received it 2 days after ordering with free Prime shipping. The notebook is absolutely amazing! I've been a loyal user of Moleskine for many years but I must admit that this brand beats them!The paper is very high quality. Ink doesn't bleed, smear, or show through to the other side of the page, even when I use my dark Sharpie Pens. Same goes with highlighters. The overall quality of the craftsmanship is also incredible. The bounding is study, the hard cover is thick and durable, and even the fabric bookmarks and cover loop are strong.I purchased this notebook for use as our "RN Communication Book" at work. We have 10 hemodialysis nurses that must communicate messages that are often crucial to patient care (and sometimes we don't get the opportunity to relay messages in person to the other nurses, which makes written messages even more vital). I had been searching for a notebook up to the challenge for quite some time and we had all grown weary of the cheap, flimsy day planner we were using. After much research, I decided to go with this because it enables an entire page to be dedicated to each day. Plus, the size HUGE, so we can fit a lot of information into it without writing tiny. (There's enough room to divide each page into seperate patient shifts!) Although I had to manually write in the dates, which was rather laborious, the outcome was worth the effort. We now have a functional communication book that legible (or at least allows for legibility, depending upon the skill of the authors, but that's another topic, Lol).The one issues I had is that there aren't enough pages for an entire year. I could only fit May through September, so it would take approximately 3 of these books to complete an entire year with one page per day. So... I will be looking for one with the same dimensions but with more pages in the future.Using as a pregnancy scrap bookLove this product, it’s the third one I’ve purchased. Cover is sturdy, pages don’t bleed easy, two bookmark ribbons, and a pocket in the back. I use these as a bullet journal/calendar hybrid. I need lots of space to feel like my spreads are effective, and the smaller journals just don’t do it for me. Would definitely recommend this one.I think these are the best notebooks on the market. The best from the point of view of quality and features.The cover is strong, the rubber band as well and the paper is fine, but strong. In terms of feature, I do appreciate the two 'markers' (fabric ribbons), the ToC and page numbers and the stickers that I use to label the many books once I 'archive' them.I do have one dislike and one caveat. Dislike: for me, a loop for a pen is missing and to add insult to injury, you can buy one for £2.50 !!! crazy!Caveat: the variety of these books is mind boggling and the way the Amazon site works, it is very easy to end up with the wrong book depending on availability of your desired combination of plain/ruled/..., colour and possibly size. In my case: I selected 'ruled' paper and went through the different colours to check prices and how the colour looks like on a larger pic. As soon as I hit a colour that is not available with ruled paper, the type of paper switches to what is available, eg plain. Suddenly, I am only looking at plain paper books... This means that you keep toggling all criteria and are also looking at the price (which can differ between colours).This is the third LT A4 I've purchased and used, I use it for my university notes and the paper quality is vastly better than the A5 notebooks, that is to say there is little to no ghosting, the weightier paper makes it suitable for heavier duty work than its A5 counterpart, (which I find unusable even for ballpoint pen or pencil use nevermind felt tip or watercolour use) the size is ideal and the paper colour is easy on the eyes and the dots are the perfect weight, spacing and size for what I use it for. These notebooks are well worth the money if you take pride in your work and appreciate having organised and easily legible work, the page numbers are endlessly useful but there are not enough spaces in the index to write every single page number, which is perhaps the only fault I can find with the books, hence the 4 stars.I use one book per semester, I study law which involves a lot of writing (with 3 modules per semester) and they fill the 123 pages perfectly. This makes for very easy referencing back on old work, particularly as the pages are indexed for ease of finding a particular set of notes.Those Leuchtturm notebooks are great. They come in a whole range of beautiful colours, formats, line patterns ; the cover texture feels nice, the paper is of good quality with a nice slightly yellowish/cream "oldschool" colour, the pages can be opened flat with relative ease. The notebooks also come with additional features such as an index page you can fill, numbered pages with small margin on one side, place to write the date on every page, stickers for labelling the book and a pocket on the last page to store any kind of additional documents. You can buy a small elastic loop to stick on the notebook to hold a pen. All those additional features are relatively discrete however if you like your pages to be clear of anything except your writing this might not suit you. Other than that, it's always a pleasure to store and get those notebooks from the shelf and write something in them, they might cost more than the average (to be confirmed) but I do not regret my money at all.I found the options confusing on the Amazon entry, but ended up with what I wanted. Dots at 0.5cm which gives the option of small writing when that is being done, or larger writing if you want to make use of a full 1cm spacing. The dots are strong and close enough to guide writing and to act as a kind of line, but faint enough not be be noticeable when reading what has been written. Easy to mix graphs, text and images on the page. Lovely to have a physical book for some things, instead of a Word file buried on a computer somewhere. Physical things do have advantages sometimes.I have tried a lot of cheaper notebooks in my time, but I just adore the Leuchtturm. The high quality paper means your pen or pencil glides comfortably, so notes are clear and handwriting stays beautiful. Mine has been dragged around and still looks as good as the day it arrived, including the two ribbon bookmarks and the back pocket. It feels as though I use it all the time, but there are still lots of pages left, as you can use both sides without worrying about ink bleeding through.Why did I ever use anything else?!