I love their B6 soft cover notebooks!
Pen & Paper
This community is all about using pen and paper as a deliberate choice — because handwriting helps memory, deepens learning, sharpens focus, and unlocks creativity in ways screens often can’t. Whether you’re sketching ideas, drafting a to‑do list, or mapping out a semester, the physical act of writing slows things down just enough for the thoughts to really land.
All notebook and calendar types are welcome here: plain bound notebooks, bullet journals, Filofax systems, ring‑ and disc‑bound setups, sticky notes, legal pads, or whatever you throw together.
Privacy matters. With paper you keep control as your notes aren’t tracked, used to train algorithms or so. That sense of ownership makes paper a safe place for brainstorming, personal plans, and messy drafts that you don’t want floating in the cloud.
This is a place to share practical tips, clever layouts, before‑and‑after spreads, and what you’ve learned about staying organized (or unorganized) offline. Post pictures, ask for feedback, swap templates, or just brag about a perfect page.
Come as you are: Neat planner nerds, scrapbookers, list lovers, or anyone curious about slowing down. Bring your spreads, hacks, inserts, index systems, and the little rituals that make your setup work.
I saw some of those in store! But they didn't stock any omes with dotted paper, and thats my preference. But dang if I wasnt tempted
I have, indeed, the dotted ones. The colours are very nice on these notebooks. Wish they did make them with graph. Unfortunately they only do black with graph (at least in B6).
I really love their look and selection of colors but I am always puzzled about people praising the quality of the paper. I tried one of their calendars last year and the paper is so thin that every single pen (gel, ballpoint, fountain, pencil) either completely bled through or was like 60% readable from the back - meaning that it looked really really messy and almost unreadable when the page was full on both sides...
Did I get some kind of faulty one, did I do something wrong?
Without knowing how you write, that's a tricky thing to answer. But since you said that even pencil bleeds through the page, to me that might indicate that you're pressing quite hard when you write. The only times I notice bleed through with pencil on my leuchtturm was early on when I started using them. I would see a lot of bleed near the bottom of the page, because back then I would press harder the closer to the bottom I got (since it's physically closer to me.)
If you still have it, try writing a little softer with it and see if that makes bleed-through and ghosting less of a problem. Especially with fountain pens, just let gravity do the work of dispensing the ink.
Did I get some kind of faulty one,
I mean, I'm not gonna say it's impossible. But my impression from years of use has been that Leuchtturms are of consistent quality. It might just be that they aren't the products you work best with.
This has little to do with thickness, I have some 52gsm paper which has less ghosting (see-through) than the 80gsm Leuchtturm paper. Bleed through isn't an issue with either, but I have some 90gsm no-name paper which suffers from it with some inks, but has very little ghosting. All with a fountain pen, but I suppose it depends a lot on the ink as well. I have no idea how a pencil can bleed through.
They are great, I started journaling earlier this year and the paper really is excellent. I am using, micron 08 archival pens and while they are a little scratchy feeling, they don't smear all that bad as a lefty. Way better than the pilot v5s I had been using.
Agreed! I've noticed that even with wet inks, this paper allows fast enough absorption and drying that it doesn't bleed onto the previous back page when I close the book.
Just realizing how important drying time is for left handed folks, that makes a load of sense! Archival ink sounds like a great option if that's a priority. I'm curious if you've used any tools that use alcohol based ink. I know those are normally coloured markers but they might dry even faster.
I have not played around with them much because they bleed on other thin paper but I will give them a shot again, I like the way they write otherwise. Do you have a recommendation?
The only alcohol pens ive used were brush pens/marker tipped pens. Those ones were gifted to me by my sister a few years ago when she visited Korea and Japan.
I believe the brand was Tombow? The writing experience is different since it's not a pen in my case (though I do know that brand does make alcohol ink pens, so you could look into them!) Even so, I like the brush tip sometimes so I whip it out occasionally.
I've heard people who use dip pens with alcohol based ink. I don't write exclusively at home, so dip pens aren't my thing. Pretty sure fountain pens and alcohol ink don't work since the ink is too thin, but I might experiment with that!
ooh, lovely! I've heard the paper is amazing to write on! A5 and A6 are great sizes!
What do you plan on using them for?
Leuchtturm paper is honestly top tier. Its the lightest paper ive found that doesnt leak fountain pen ink. Also the only brand where I can just assume the pages are numbered and the pages are dotted hah
Agreed on sizing, A5 is just big enough for me to bring everywhere in my bag or carry around in hand without being cumbersome. And I love the colour on it, I nabbed it as soon as I saw it!
The A6 is going to become a pocket book for me, probably to be used for sketches, jotted notes, and notes for talking to people with. The A5 is probably going to become my next diary after I finish with this Miniso book I got gifted.
Its the lightest paper ive found that doesnt leak fountain pen ink.
Try tomoe river paper from japan, super thin (52gsm, Leuchtturm is 80gsm), absolute dream for fountain pens. The notebook I have with that paper was cheaper per page than Leuchtturm.
Ooh awesome and they are not even that expensive either, right? Dotted pages are the best.
The A5 is lovely!
Oh, an A6 can work as a pocket book! I have a home made travelers journal in A7.But I habe tge pages loose so that I can use it as both A7 and A6.
Total price for both was about $60 CAD from a local shop. Not cheap for two notebooks, but not bad considering they're my favourite. Plus I'm happy to pay the premium to a local independent shop selling quality stationary.
Oh dang! That was a lot more than I through.. But still worth every penny! :) It's nice to be able to shop locally! I can happily pay a little more to keep the stores running.
