Leuchtturm1917: The Notebook That Takes Itself Seriously (So You Can Too)

There are two kinds of stationery shops: the ones that stock Leuchtturm1917 because it sells, and the ones where the person behind the counter has a half-filled one beside the till. We're the second kind. One family firm selling another family firm's notebooks feels about right — they've been at it since 1917, we since 1982, and between us that's a lot of paper.

What makes a Leuchtturm a Leuchtturm

Numbered pages and a proper index, so a notebook becomes something you can actually navigate months later. Ink-proof paper that takes a fountain pen without complaint. Two ribbon markers, a back pocket, a cover that survives being carried everywhere. None of this is flashy. All of it is the difference between a notebook you fill and a notebook you abandon in March.

Choosing your format

Dotted is the quiet star of the range and the backbone of the bullet journal movement — structure when you want it, invisible when you don't. If you're unsure, buy dotted.

Ruled for straightforward writing — notes, journals, minutes, the novel you keep threatening to write.

Plain for sketchers and anyone who finds lines bossy.

Squared for the engineers, and there's always one.

Size-wise, the A5 Medium hardcover is the one to beat: big enough to think in, small enough for any bag. The pocket A6 earns its keep as an everywhere-notebook, and if you're a heavy filler, the Leuchtturm 411 gives you 411 pages of the same paper in one spine — a year of thinking in a single volume.

Bullet journaling, without the pressure

Leuchtturm make the official Bullet Journal editions with Ryder Carroll, and they're excellent — the key, index and future log are set up for you. But I'll tell you what I tell everyone in the shop: any dotted A5 and ten honest minutes with the method will do. The Instagram spreads with watercolour headers are lovely and entirely optional. The method is a to-do list that learned some manners; start there.

Planners and diaries: buy early, genuinely

Every autumn the same thing happens: the Leuchtturm weekly planners arrive in September, the popular colours and formats sell through by late November, and every December someone stands at my counter disappointed. The Weekly Planner & Notebook — a week on the left, a dotted page for notes on the right — is our steady bestseller for good reason: it's a diary and a to-do system in one spine. If you know you'll want one, September is the month. I've written a fuller decision guide in Choosing Your 2027 Diary: Weekly, Daily or Bullet Journal?

Free embossing: make it theirs

Here's the part you can't get from a warehouse: bring any Leuchtturm notebook or planner to the counter and we'll emboss it in-store, free. A name, initials, a date, a quiet joke — pressed into the cover properly, the way this sort of thing should be done. It takes an ordinary notebook and makes it someone's, which is why December queues form for it and why a personalised notebook has quietly become one of our most-loved gifts. Buying online for collection? Add a note with your embossing at checkout and it'll be ready when you are. [CONFIRM: exact embossing details — character limits, fonts/foils offered, while-you-wait vs collect-later.]

Which one, though? Quick honest answers

For students — A5 dotted or ruled hardcover; the numbered pages and index genuinely matter come revision time. More in The Best Notebooks for Students Who Actually Take Notes.

For fountain pen users — any of them; the paper is the reason fountain pen people keep buying this brand. Feathering and bleed-through are close to non-existent with normal nibs and inks.

For a gift — an A5 hardcover in one of the seasonal colours, embossed with their name while you wait, and let them choose the pen themselves in the shop. A notebook is a lovely gift precisely because it assumes the person has something worth writing down.

For sketching — plain pages, though I'd point heavy wet-media people to a dedicated sketchbook; Leuchtturm paper is built for ink and graphite first.

Why buy it from us

Because you can pick it up first. Paper is personal — come in, feel the pages, try a nib on the tester pad, and leave with the right one rather than a guess. Because we carry the full range, not the bestsellers. And because nowhere else embosses it for you on the spot. If you can't get to Belfast, everything on this page ships from the same shelves we sell from across the counter.

Browse the full Leuchtturm1917 range — notebooks, journals, planners and the bits in between. And if you're stuck between two colours, the answer is both; I don't make the rules.