A year of dot grid: notes from twelve notebooks

Last summer I decided to fill one A5 dot-grid notebook every month and switch brands each time. Twelve months later I have a stack of full notebooks and a few firm opinions.

Binding matters more than paper

The paper was fine in almost all of them. What separated the good from the bad was the binding. Sewn bindings survived a year of being thrown into a bag; two glued ones started shedding pages by the third week.

Lay-flat is not a luxury

If a notebook fights you at the spine, you stop writing near the gutter and lose a centimetre on every page. Over two hundred pages that adds up. The notebooks I enjoyed most opened completely flat from the first day.

Dots: lighter is better

Dot grids vary a lot in how dark the dots are. Light grey dots disappear once there is writing on the page; dark ones make every page look busy. I also prefer a 5 mm spacing — it works for handwriting, small tables and the occasional sketch.

The short list

• Sewn binding, opens flat.
• 80–90 gsm, well-sized paper.
• Light, 5 mm dot grid.
• A plain cover you don't mind scratching.

Everything else — numbered pages, index pages, two ribbons — is nice to have, but I stopped noticing it after the second month.