Notebook Guide: Dotted or Ruled, and What Paper Weight Means

Choosing a notebook comes down to three things: the lines printed on the page, the weight of the paper and the size of the book. The short answer on lines is ruled pages for writing in sentences, squared pages for numbers and drawings, and dotted pages for a mix of both. Paper weight decides how a page handles ink from the pen that crosses it. Size decides whether the book fits a coat pocket or holds a full-page diagram. The sections below explain each choice and the terms behind it (shop notebooks).

Three rulings and who they suit

A ruling is the pattern printed on a notebook page. Leuchtturm1917, the German notebook maker based in Geesthacht, sorts its classic notebooks into four: plain, dotted, ruled and squared. Plain pages are blank. The other three each guide the hand in a different way.

  • Ruled. Ruled pages carry horizontal lines, the pattern most people know from school. The lines keep handwriting level and evenly spaced, which makes them the natural choice for writing in sentences: a diary, lecture notes, letters drafted before they are copied out, or a running record of meetings. The trade-off is that the lines run through anything drawn on the page (shop the Leuchtturm1917 Medium ruled notebook).
  • Dotted. A dotted page, sometimes called dot grid, replaces lines with a field of small, evenly spaced dots. The dots give the eye enough structure to write in straight lines, draw a neat box or line up a column, and they fade into the background when the page is used for a sketch. That flexibility suits bullet journaling, explained below, and the official Bullet Journal notebook uses a dotted ruling (shop the Leuchtturm1917 Medium dotted notebook).
  • Squared. A squared page is covered in a full grid of small boxes, the same idea as graph paper. The grid makes it easy to draw tables, charts, floor plans and diagrams with straight edges and consistent proportions, and to keep columns of numbers aligned. It suits math and science work, budgets, garden plans and anyone who thinks in boxes (shop the Leuchtturm1917 Medium squared notebook).

For a notebook whose purpose is not settled yet, dotted is the safe choice, because the same page can take a paragraph on Monday and a sketch on Tuesday.

Dotted pages and the bullet journal

A bullet journal is a way of using a blank notebook as a planner, to-do list and diary at once, with short entries marked by simple symbols instead of a printed calendar. The official Bullet Journal site says the method was created by Ryder Carroll, a digital product designer living in Brooklyn, New York, who developed it over years of trial and error, and that the website launched on August 18, 2013, with a tutorial video and step-by-step instructions. Because every page is laid out by hand, the system needs paper that can hold a calendar on one page and a list on the next, which is exactly what dots allow.

The same site says that in 2014 Carroll approached the notebook maker Leuchtturm, and the two agreed to create a limited edition designed from the ground up for bullet journaling. They later decided to make it an unlimited edition, and in 2017 a third color option for the official notebook, Nordic Blue, was added. Leuchtturm1917 lists the current Bullet Journal Edition 2 with a dotted ruling and 120 g/m² paper, and describes it as designed with Ryder Carroll. The Medium dotted notebook has two features that suit the method: numbered pages and a blank table of contents at the front, which together let a journal keep its own index.

What paper weight means

Notebook paper is described by a number followed by g/m², sometimes written gsm. Both mean grams per square meter: the mass, in grams, of a single sheet of that paper one meter long and one meter wide. A higher number means more paper packed into the same area. Weight is a starting point for judging how a page will handle ink, though, not the whole answer, as the maker's own notes below show.

Three different problems come from ink and thin paper, and each has a name.

  • Show-through (also called ghosting) is when writing on one side is visible from the other side, even though no ink has passed through.
  • Bleed-through is when the ink itself soaks through the sheet and marks the back of the page, or the page beneath it.
  • Feathering is when ink spreads sideways along the paper's fibers, so a crisp line grows fuzzy, hairlike edges.

How much of each appears depends on the pen as much as the paper. A nib is the metal tip of a fountain pen that lays ink on the page. In a July 2026 guide to fountain pen nibs, Levenger notes that on everyday copier paper a fine or medium nib reduces feathering and show-through, because finer nibs use less ink, and it rates broad nibs as the most sensitive to paper, best kept to premium sheets. The pen and pencil guide covers nib widths in more detail (shop pens and pencils).

Leuchtturm1917 publishes the weights for its classic notebooks: 80 g/m² paper in the Medium (A5) and three other sizes, and 100 g/m² in the Master (A4+) and Master Slim (A4+). The company also makes a 120 g/m² edition and says that on it writing is not visible from the back and each stroke keeps a clear outline because the ink will not run. It credits the paper's very low transparency to adding the right filler, a fine material mixed into the paper pulp, a sign that what goes into a sheet matters as well as how much it weighs. The classic notebooks also use what the company calls slightly chamois colored paper, a soft off-white, chosen to improve readability.

Markus Kuhn's reference page on ISO paper sizes, hosted by the University of Cambridge, notes that usual typewriter and laser printer paper weighs 80 g/m². Levenger's copier paper advice therefore carries over to an 80 g/m² notebook: fine and medium nibs suit it, and broad nibs do best on premium paper. A new pen is best tried on the back page of a notebook before the front fills up.

A5, A4 and why they fit together

Most notebooks are sized on the A series, the international paper sizes set out in ISO 216, a standard from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It specifies the trimmed sizes of writing paper and certain classes of printed matter. Kuhn's page explains how the system works. The largest size, A0, has an area of one square meter. Every size keeps the same proportions, with the long side 1.4142 times the short side, the square root of two, and cutting any sheet in half across its long side gives two sheets of the next size down. A4 measures 210 by 297 millimeters and A5 measures 148 by 210. Kuhn cites a 1786 letter in which the Göttingen physics professor Georg Christoph Lichtenberg described the advantages of the square-root-of-two ratio. Germany adopted the system as DIN 476, a German national standard, in 1922, and it became the international standard ISO 216 in 1975.

That halving rule is why an A5 notebook is so practical. Lay it open and the two facing pages together are about the size of one A4 sheet. The product page for the Leuchtturm1917 Medium (A5) makes the same point, calling a double page a perfect template for an A4 photocopy. Leuchtturm1917 gives the Medium as 145 by 210 millimeters, with 251 pages in the hardcover, and the product page gives it as 5.75 by 8.25 inches.

The "+" in the Master's A4+ means slightly larger than A4: the maker lists it at 225 by 315 millimeters (8.75 by 12.5 inches on the product page), with 235 pages of 100 g/m² paper and a total weight of 1,070 grams. That is a desk book, made to stay put, with room for full-size diagrams, meeting notes and drafts (shop the Leuchtturm1917 Master Classic ruled notebook).

A size and paper card

Paper weight also makes an easy calculation. Kuhn shows that an A4 sheet is one-sixteenth of a square meter, so one sheet of 80 g/m² paper weighs about 5 grams. The same arithmetic gives the figures below, using the maker's own dimensions. A sheet, or leaf, is two numbered pages, front and back.

Format Maker's size ISO size for comparison Paper One sheet weighs about
Medium (A5) 145 x 210 mm A5: 148 x 210 mm 80 g/m² 2.4 g
Master (A4+) 225 x 315 mm A4: 210 x 297 mm 100 g/m² 7.1 g
Edition 120g and Bullet Journal Edition 2 Varies by format Varies 120 g/m² 1.5 times an 80 g/m² sheet of the same size

Features that matter in use

Leuchtturm1917 lists the same set of features across its classic notebooks, and each one solves a specific problem.

  • Thread-bound, opens flat. The pages are sewn together with thread, so the book lies flat on a desk without being held open, which matters for writing across the spread.
  • Numbered pages and a blank table of contents. Notes can be found again by page number, the core of any notebook that grows into a reference.
  • Two page markers. Two built-in bookmarks: one for the current page and one for a calendar, list or index.
  • Eight perforated sheets. Pages that tear out cleanly, for a note that has to leave the book.
  • Gusseted pocket and elastic band. An expanding pocket for receipts and cards, and a band that keeps the book closed in a bag.
  • Sticker set. Labels the maker supplies for labelling and archiving finished notebooks.

A notebook also makes a small, useful gift paired with a pen or a card, and the greeting card guide covers what to write when it goes to someone else (shop Leuchtturm1917). The shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, where visitors can ask staff questions, and products ship nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com.

A notebook earns its place when its page already looks like the work it will hold: lines for prose, a grid for numbers, dots for a life still being sorted out, and paper heavy enough for the pen that will cross it. Matched that way, a notebook stops being somewhere notes are stored and becomes the tool the thinking happens in.

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