Jump to content

Journals....do You Prefer Dots, Lined, Or Blank? Do You Skip Lines?


PerryJ

Recommended Posts

Greetings all,

I'm trying to get serious with my journal keeping and can't decide what I like best, dots or lines and also do you skip lines when writing on lined pages to keep ascenders and defenders from making a jumbled mess?

I typically prefer a Rhodia A5 type but would like a whiter pager where as the creamy Rhodia changes my inks colors and mutes them too much, suggestions?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 44
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Katana Paul

    3

  • ______Zaphod_Beeblebrox

    3

  • tinta

    2

  • PerryJ

    1

blank only.

I don't like it when others leave marks in my notebook (oddly enough this includes the manufacturer with lines/dots...). I just love the clean look of a fresh page.

 

if there are lines I write on every line (no skipping), but have the ambition to choose my words in such a way so that ascenders and descenders don't interfere, but fill the empty spaces. This makes the process of writing even more challenging and interesting, because you need to know the possibilities of your language :-)

Greetings,

Michael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another vote for blank pages. I don't mind lines but they are rarely narrow enough for my small handwriting, so I will never buy a wide-ruled notebook. Dot grids are okay as a second choice.

 

I find Rhodia paper very white - also Clairfontaine paper - is Rhodia paper available in a creamy colour??

"Life would split asunder without letters." Virginia Woolf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I prefer lined pages, since it makes it easier for me to control my handwriting, and thereby practice it. I find that widely spaced lines are best for me for this purpose - but so few good notebooks come with wider-than-average line width.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like blank for journaling. It's just something about how a clean page looks. :)

Pelikan 140 EF | Pelikan 140 OBB | Pelikan M205 0.4mm stub | Pilot Custom Heritage 912 PO | Pilot Metropolitan M | TWSBI 580 EF | Waterman 52 1/2v

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I too prefer a blank page, and prefer white paper. The whiter, the better for me.

But that does not mean I don't have lined cream paged journals galore, so that every new one is an agony of choice - which one to start in this time - and I find that if lined becomes the choice, then light-colored lines are better than intense color.

In order to have white, unlined paper I will often resort to a sketchbook instead of a real journal. But then I sometimes find the paper too heavy - I like a low gsm value...

a fountain pen is physics in action... Proud member of the SuperPinks

fpn_1425200643__fpn_1425160066__super_pi

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lined paper to control my handwriting and blank paper for drawing. Does anyone know of a journal that has both?

Love all, trust a few, do harm to none. Shakespeare

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Grid. I can keep everything lined up that way.

 

Though, I'm considering switching to lined because the nicer journals don't come in grid format and because writing smaller to fit the smaller grids in the Moleskine notebook is starting to cramp my hands and make long writing sessions uncomfortable.

Edited by Conan the Grammarian

Conan the Grammarian

 

“No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.” ~ Robert Adams

 

“Aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines” ~ Enzo Ferrari

 

Cogito ergo spud. [i think therefore I yam.]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For the moment I prefer lined - Midori - for journalling and blank for sketching. That may change if I get my handwriting under control (I have a tendency to rise going acroos the page).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I prefer blank pages, but it's harder to find journals in the capacity I want with anything other than lined, especially ones that don't cost an arm and a leg *and* are FP friendly.

I tend to write small (even with a broad nib) so I write 2 lines per printed line.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like lined, as long as the spacing isn't too wide. Because I write rather small, that keeps the ascenders and descenders from running into each other.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've always preferred blank, but like Ruth, I have trouble finding blank journals in the right size and price range, so the current journal has light lines - and I have to admit, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I'll still look for blank next time, though. I used to like only bright white paper, but am learning to appreciate cream as well, as long as it's not too dark or yellowy.

 

You can always print a page of dark lines, trim it (if necessary) to fit your journal, and keep it tucked under the page you're currently writing on. Helps you write in straight lines, but lets you write as large or small as you happen to feel like, and leaves the page blank for drawing if you're so inclined.

 

Jenny

"To read without also writing is to sleep." - St. Jerome

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd love to find Rhodia dots in anything other than a stapled pad. The notes I take in meetings just can't fall out or be easily removed and I really need a book type arrangement. All I can find is lined and squares, or blank.

Montblanc Classique 145, Waterman Laureat, Waterman Hemisphere, Lamy Safari

Link to comment
Share on other sites

APICA CD11s. Nice fountain pen friendly notebooks of only 28 lined pages. Usually completed in a month, then I get a fresh new colour. I never get bogged down with a large unwieldy journal of too many pages.

*Sailor 1911S, Black/gold, 14k. 0.8 mm. stub(JM) *1911S blue "Colours", 14k. H-B "M" BLS (PB)

*2 Sailor 1911S Burgundy/gold: 14k. 0.6 mm. "round-nosed" CI (MM) & 14k. 1.1 mm. CI (JM)

*Sailor Pro-Gear Slim Spec. Ed. "Fire",14k. (factory) "H-B"

*Kaweco SPECIAL FP: 14k. "B",-0.6 mm BLS & 14k."M" 0.4 mm. BLS (PB)

*Kaweco Stainless Steel Lilliput, 14k. "M" -0.7 mm.BLS, (PB)

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my case, CHEAP drives the selection, because I write a LOT.

The journals that I have been using for the past 2 years is WIDE ruled paper in wire bound notebooks.

But I find that the colored lines bother my eyes in that it sometimes blends with the ink, making it harder to read. This happens when the color of the ink and the ruled lines are similar.

Also the color and thickness of the ruled lines vary from company to company; grey, blueish, greenish.

But for CHEAP practical use, I take what I can find and adapt to it.

 

Dots would be a good compromise, because the dots are not as obtrusive to the eye as the ruled lines.

 

What I really prefer is based on what I am using for my pen pal letters. White paper with light gray lines.

The lines would be 4 lines per line of text (well 2 are shared lines); tall ascender (which is the decender line for the line above), x height, base line, decender (which is the ascender line from the line below). This 4 line method prevents ascenders from crashing into decenders, which is what happens when I use a standard ruled notebook.

 

On a standard notebook, I could skip every other line and then the ascenders won't crash into the decenders. But I'm too cheap to skip every other line, which would double my notebook usage.

 

The problem with all lined papers is matching the line spacing to what the user wants. My line spacing likely won't match yours. I use wide ruled paper, you may use college or narrow ruled paper, and someone else may use a metric spacing. In fact I have and use guide sheets with different line spacing (7,8,9 and 10mm), depending on what I am writing.

 

Another option is more closely based on my pen pal letters. BLANK paper with a guidesheet below. This way I can use whatever line spacing I feel like using, as long as I can see the guidesheet below. But using a guidesheet is a hassle, and I want to make my journal as easy to use as possible, so that I WILL write in it.

Edited by ac12

San Francisco Pen Show - August 28-30, 2020 - Redwood City, California

www.SFPenShow.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lined. My scrawl goes everywhere if I use unlined and I've yet to wrap my head round dotted grid. Even letter writing finds me using lines under plain paper. But I Luvs me fowntoon pens.

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/606/letterji9.png

 

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

 

Mark Twain

Link to comment
Share on other sites

journals - either lined (mostly) or sometimes grid. For letters, mostly blank with a guide sheet, but occasionally lined. Color? I am not to particular. My Leuchtturm has a cream/ivory paper and dots and my Black n Red has a bright white with lines. I have some nice gray Southworth that I sometimes use for letters. It is almost gone though.

Brad

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind" - Rudyard Kipling
"None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try." - Mark Twain

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33501
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26627
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...