Lined, Blank, Dot Grid, Grid...what Do You Prefer, And Why? =)

[cpmcnamara]

I view dot grid as my "universal" paper. I don't write perfectly straight, but straight enough to make it "writeable". And I tend to write, plan, organize, list all in the same notebook (sometimes in the same page) so it is by far the best for me.

 

Grid paper is OK but something that I reserved more for calculations back in engineering school. I can't get into writing in it.

 

Lined paper is great for pure writing but not nearly as good as dot paper for planning, albeit if the lines are faint enough it can work OK.

 

I'll use all three without hesitation but tend to stash dot grid more than anything.

 

I don't do blank paper anymore. I used to, but I'm just not an organized visual thinker. It took me awhile to realize this, but my deficiency is obvious when I see the types of well-layed out notetaking someone like my girlfriend naturally does.

Edited June 13, 2018 by cpmcnamara

[Newjelan]

I prefer dot grid for evything. The dots are great for planning, diagrams, bullets etc. I also prefer them for general writing, journaling and so on as I need some assistance to write in a straight line but find lined too restrictive. I use blank paper with guidelines for correspondence but even with paper clips, I still manage to mess things up ensuring I’m left with crooked rows of writing.

[DrDebG]

For journaling, I really like the light grid, not dot grid, that is in my Midori MD notebooks ( https://www.midori-japan.co.jp/md/en/products/mdnote/).

 

For letter writing, I prefer a blank page, and generally use Tomoe River paper or, sometimes, Clairfontaine.

 

For work, I prefer lined or grid, depending upon the work I am doing. I use either a bound notebook for anything requiring permanence, Cambridge executive spiral bound notebooks for day to day stuff, or gridded engineer pads for sketches and drafts. And many times, I just use plain old HP copy paper.

 

I used a couple of journals with the dot grids, but I really didn't care for the dots. If I was tired or I had a migraine, the dots would mess with my eyes.

[zslane]

I made myself a template that is college ruled lines to go under the page I'm writing on (I don't always get lines of writing straight). It's a file on my laptop, so when the page gets too grungy I just print off another one (and the previous one goes into the recycling bag to be taken to the bin in town.

 

This is what I do as well. It is a good way to get straight lines of writing on blank paper. Best of all, I can control the line spacing and line thicknesses by making different template sheets with different guide designs.

 

In fact, this is such an obvious and effective solution, I'm surprised that not everyone uses it.