Notebooks & Journals

A notebook is the simplest piece of equipment an artist, a student or a planner owns, and the one they touch most often. It is also the one people most often buy badly, because everything that determines whether a notebook is good is invisible in a photograph. Two books that look identical on a shelf can behave completely differently the moment you put a pen to them.

This page is here to make that decision easy. Below you will find what each page layout is actually for, how to pick a size you will carry, the difference hardcover and softcover really makes, and what paper weight means in practice, which is the number that decides whether your pen bleeds through. Then the ranges we stock, and answers to the questions we get asked across the counter every week.

What to look for in a notebook

Eight things separate a notebook you finish from one that ends up in a drawer. Every product page in this category lists these, so you can compare like with like.

Ruled, squared or dotted: choosing your page layout

Ruled pages carry horizontal lines, commonly between 6mm and 8mm apart. This is the classic writing notebook: lecture notes, meeting minutes, diary entries, drafting, correspondence and anything where you want your handwriting to sit straight without thinking about it. Check the line spacing if you have particularly large or small handwriting, since the difference between 6mm and 8mm is significant over a page.

Squared pages use a printed grid, usually 5mm. A grid earns its keep the moment your content has structure: maths and science working, budgets and tables, floor plans, technical drawing, layout roughs, knitting and cross stitch charts, and study notes that want columns. It also makes an excellent general purpose page for anyone who writes and sketches in the same book, because the lines guide both.

Dotted pages place a small faint dot at each grid intersection and nothing else. You get all the alignment help of a grid with a page that still reads as blank, which is why dot grid has become the default for bullet journalling, hand lettering, sketching, mind mapping and any layout you want to design yourself. If you are only buying one notebook and you are not sure what you will use it for, dotted is the most flexible of the three.

Notebook sizes explained

Pocket and A6, around 9x14cm. This is a capture book: the one that lives in a jacket, a handbag or a backpack side pocket for ideas, lists, phone numbers and quick thumbnail sketches. Small enough that you will actually have it on you, which is the entire point of a pocket notebook.

A5, around 13x21cm. The all rounder, and the size most people picture when they say notebook. Big enough to write and draw properly, small enough to carry every day, and the standard format for bullet journalling, so nearly every spread, template and tutorial online is designed around it. If you are buying one notebook, buy this one.

A4, around 21x30cm. Full page working size. University and TAFE notes, project planning, client work, larger drawings, and anything you want to be able to read across a desk. A4 is also the format that scans and photocopies without reduction, which matters if your notes get shared.

Square formats, such as 20x20cm. A deliberate choice rather than a compromise. A square page has no default orientation, which changes how you compose on it: spreads sit differently, sketches are not pushed into portrait or landscape, and layouts get room on both axes. Illustrators, designers and journallers who find the A5 rectangle limiting tend to prefer it.

Hardcover or softcover

This is the choice people agonise over and it comes down to one question: where does the book live?

Hardcover means a rigid board under the cover paper. It protects the block, keeps the corners from curling, and gives you a writing surface you can use on your knee, standing up, or on a train. A hardcover book will still be square at the end of a year in a backpack. The cost is weight and thickness, and a book that does not roll or flex.

Softcover means a flexible cover, usually a heavy card or a coated stock. It is lighter, slimmer and more forgiving in a crowded bag, it will bend into a jacket pocket, and it is the better choice if you carry several books at once or work mostly at a desk where you do not need the cover as a writing surface. The cost is protection: corners soften and the cover marks over time.

There is no better option here, only a better fit. If the book leaves the house every day and gets written in standing up, buy hardcover. If it sits on a desk or rides in a bag alongside three other things, softcover is lighter and does the job.

Paper weight explained: what GSM actually means

GSM stands for grams per square metre and it is the standard measure of paper weight. It is the single most useful number on a notebook listing, because it predicts whether your pen will bleed through, whether the page will buckle when you press, and how the book feels under the nib. Every notebook in this category lists its paper weight.

One thing worth knowing before you chase the highest number you can find: heavier paper means fewer pages in the same thickness of book. A 100gsm notebook and a 160gsm notebook of the same physical size will not hold the same number of sheets. Choose the weight around the pen you actually use, not around the idea that more is better.

What you can write and draw in them

• Ballpoint, rollerball and gel pen. Comfortable on almost any notebook paper. If you use gel and fineliner pens, anything from 100gsm up will hold them cleanly.
• Fountain pen. Look for 100gsm or more, and for paper described as bleed resistant. Very wet nibs and heavily saturated inks may still ghost on the reverse, which is true of almost any notebook.
• Fineliner and technical pen. Excellent across the range. Pigment fineliners are exactly what most notebook stock is designed around.
• Pencil and coloured pencil. The slight tooth of most notebook paper holds graphite and coloured pencil well, and erases cleanly.
• Brush pen and hand lettering. Choose 120gsm or above, and a dot grid for the easiest guide there is to keeping letterforms consistent.
• Alcohol markers and wet media. Heavy alcohol markers and inks will go through notebook paper at any weight. For sustained wet work, use a sketchpad or a watercolour pad built for the load.

The ranges we stock

We stock notebooks we would use ourselves, and we carry the specifications on every product page so you can compare them properly rather than guessing from a photograph.

Who these notebooks are for

Students. A hardcover book survives a year in a backpack in a way a stapled pad does not, and acid free paper means the notes are still legible when you need them for an exam, a folio or a reference years later. A4 ruled for lectures, A5 for tutorials and reading notes.

Bullet journallers and planners. A5 dotted, undated, so you start on any day of any year with no wasted pages. A binding that lays flat is not a luxury here: it is what lets you rule a spread across the gutter without the book fighting you.

Artists and illustrators. A pocket notebook for thumbnails and idea capture, and a larger dotted or square book for developing work. Pair one with a portfolio when the work leaves the studio.

Writers, professionals and anyone in meetings. Ruled A5 or A4, a pen in the loop, a ribbon on today's page and an elastic band holding the whole thing shut. A notebook that opens to the right page and does not shed paper is a notebook you keep using.

Gifts. A notebook is one of the few gifts that is genuinely useful to almost everyone. Pair one with a set of pens or a brush pen for a complete present.

Buying notebooks online in Australia

Art Shed is an Australian owned art supplies retailer. We ship notebooks Australia wide from our own warehouses, and you can also buy the range over the counter at our Melbourne store at 475 Warrigal Road, Moorabbin, or at our Brisbane store in West End. Orders placed before 11am AEST on a business day are dispatched the same day outside sale periods, every order is tracked, and Click and Collect from Moorabbin is generally ready within 1 to 3 business days. We ship to New Zealand as well.

Express Post generally runs 1 to 2 business days to metropolitan Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, the ACT and Tasmania, and 2 to 3 business days to Western Australia, the Northern Territory and regional areas. Standard Post generally runs 2 to 5 business days and 6 to 8 business days respectively.

If you are building out a wider paper kit, the rest of our art pads and paper range sits alongside this one, including sketchpads, visual diaries, watercolour pads and bristol board, and the full drawing range covers the pens, pencils and markers to fill them.

Frequently Asked Questions