Although notebooks have always been popular for students and the workplace, the meteoric rise in the popularity of bullet journaling over the last few months was not as predictable but this has resulted in a surge in questions. Most of them are based around the various brands who produce notebooks and bullet journals with one of the most frequently requested comparisons that we see being a dedicated dingbats vs leuchtturm article.
With both options being power houses in both the notebook and bullet journaling space, its not surprising that we see so many people reaching out and asking for the advantages and disadvantages of each. Due to so many people asking for a comparison between the brands and both brands arguably being within the top 5 when it comes to notebooks and bullet journals, we wanted to publish this dedicated article.
In our opinion though, both do brands do have their place and have rightfully earned the huge following that they have for their products. There are some specific situations where one will take over the other and visa versa depending on your situation and we will cover these below as we try to help our readers understand what option is best for them.
Dingbats Vs Leuchtturm Comparison!
Dingbats and Leuchtturm are extremely popular for both notebooks and bullet journals with both brands having huge customer bases. We feel that Dingbats are the slightly better option for notebooks where as leuchtturm are slightly better for bullet journals.
The low price, excellent quality, ease of use, and availability of the various Leuchtturm bullet journals has pushed their products to the top of the list with the Leuchtturm bullet journal range currently being the most popular in the world. They have multiple bullet journals that are very popular with a range of notebooks too available in a number of different GSM sizes.
On the flip side of this, the Dingbats bullet journal range is growing in popularity at a solid pace but the Dingbats notebooks are where they really shine. Although there are a huge number of notebooks on the market, the Dingbats range shine through due to their paper rarely bleeding, ghosting or feathering as you write or draw on them.
The Best Option For Bullet Journaling!
Both Leuchtturm and Dingbats offer excellent quality bullet journals in all fairness to them. Leuchtturm are definitely the more popular option at the time of writing although the Dingbats range of bullet journals are rapidly growing their user base even though the do lack a small number of features that comes as standard with the Leuchtturm bullet journals.
This is why we have to award the various Leuchtturm bullet journals the crown when it specifically comes down to the bullet journals that they offer. They are available in a range of GSM sizes and although most people often start with a bullet journal with a GSM of 80, we try to advise our readers to try and go with one with a GSM of over 100 to help stop the risk of bleeding when using them.
Although the Dingbats range of bullet journals are very popular and are excellent products in all fairness to them, they just don’t offer the same pre-printed options as the Leuchtturm range. With Leuchtturm you can get lined, dotted, plan, squared, and triangles prints allowing you to do so much more with the bullet journal depending on your needs.
The Best Option For A Notebook!
Leuchtturm do offer some excellent notebooks in their range but in our opinion, the Dingbats notebook range are the better option when it comes to general notebooks. The Dingbats notebook range offer everything from entry-level notebooks for general use all the way up to robust, hard wearing notebooks for important work.
The binding ribbon on the Dingbats range of notebooks comes as standard too where as it is not included in some of the Leuchtturm range at all. This helps to protect your notes by keeping the Notebook closed when in your bag and ensure the pages don’t get ripped or dirty making them better for important work or school notes.
Although a large number of people do actually use the Dingbat notebook range as a bullet journal with great success, if you are looking to make elaborate bullet journal spreads then they can hold you back. This is due to the lower GSM paper often allowing marker pens to bleed through their paper as they were designed for use as a regular notebook, not a bullet journal.
Should You Use Dingbats Or Leuchtturm?
There is a reason that the notebooks and bullet journals from Dingbats and Leuchtturm both fly off the shelves as they are both great products. Although they do have their own advantages and disadvantages over each other, they are minimal and adding either to your collection should be able to meet the needs of most people, especially the general user.
If you are specifically looking for a bullet journal and you want to use wet writing pens or markers for your bullet journal spreads then the Leuchtturm range does push out ahead in out opinion. The wider range of GSM sizes for the paper inside of the bullet journal in the Leuchtturm range ensure you can get a bullet journal to meet your needs no matter how niche and specialist they are.
When it comes to notebooks, we do feel that you should be leaning more towards the Dingbats range, especially if you are leaning more towards serious note taking for important school work or projects for your job. The Dingbats notebook range are more robust than their Leuchtturm counterparts and will do a better job of protecting your notes in our opinion.
Should You Even Consider Any Of The Other Brands?
Although Leuchtturm and Dingbats are both dominating the market right now, they do have some other solid competitors that offer great products that you could consider too. As we touched on earlier though, the established brands are very similar to each other these days when it comes to their bullet journals and notebooks so the different may be minimal.
As far as we are concerned, the best alternative for the leuchtturm bullet journal range are Paperage bullet journals with some people preferring the Paperage range over the leuchtturm range. This will come down to personal preference though as well as the price of the journals and the number of pages you need in it for your needs too.
There are an absolute ton of notebook brands on the market these days and although most of them tend to be fine for general notes, when it comes to important notes that you want to keep, there are few brands worth their salt. The main competitor to Dingbats notebooks outside of Leuchtturm are probably the Papercode notebooks offering great quality for their prices.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over our Dingbats vs Leuchtturm comparison to a close and we hope that we have been able to help you decide on the brand that you should be going for depending on your circumstances. Both are solid options but we feel that Leuchtturm sneaks ahead when it comes to bullet journals where as Dingbats sneak ahead when it comes to notebooks making the choices a little easier for our readers.
