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what is a dot grid journal?

What Is A Dot Grid Journal? (Should You Even Get One?)

Choosing a particular bullet journal can definitely have an effect on the way you journal and some may not be a good choice depending on how or what you’ll be journaling about. The right paper can give you certain effects that you’ll need to create gorgeous spreads but right now, the most common bullet journal that is used area dot grid journal.

So, what is a dot grid journal? It is the type of paper containing light dots in a grid format that is designed in such a way where it’s not intrusive but is there to act as a guideline to ensure your handwriting stays neat as a lined paper usually would do. This type of format is absolutely useful when drawing tables, creating custom planers, experimenting with designs while also creating beautiful hand lettering fonts. 

If you’d like to learn more about a  dot-grid journal or to decide if another type of journal would be more suitable for you, here’s everything you need to know before buying a bullet journal.

How Dot Grid Journals Are Useful

As mentioned above, a dot-grid journal is especially useful for creating custom designs without the dots stealing the attention away unlike with lined paper.

The paper is also quite thick which is designed to withstand heavy pens and markers and you won’t normally have to deal with ghosting or shadowing as long as you choose one with a high gsm.

Another aspect of dotted grid journals is that they’re quite useful if you find yourself drawing tables or need to keep the thing in proportion. It makes it easier to determine the size of things and measure accordingly.

For example, take a look at this growth tracker:

 

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Because the dots are so light, you’re free to do whatever you want with them. Whether that’s just writing a few things down, creating gorgeous fonts, or even painting!

They can definitely add a special effect to your work and this is one of the many reasons why dot grid journals are so popular now.

We always feel like pictures can do a better interpretation than talking ever will, so here are a few examples of the way dotted grid journals are used and the overall effect of the way a spread turns out.

This will help you decide if you’d like the way these looks or perhaps you’d rather stick with a different kind of bullet journal.

Related: How Much Does a Bullet Journal Cost?

Examples of Spreads Using Dot Grid Paper

Index

 

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Daily Spread

DAILY LOGS BULLET JOURNAL IDEAS

Monthly Spread

decorate bullet journal pages tips

Can You Make A Dotted Grid Paper On Your Own?

Perhaps you like how they look but you’re looking for a much simpler way to bullet journal rather than the artistic route but still want to incorporate a bit of the dotted grid effect in your journal.

Well, then you don’t need to go out and buy a separate dot grid journal just to add a few of these papers. In fact, there’s a really simple way of creating this type of paper which you can just slip into your current one:

Step 1: Head over to Gridzzly

I recently discovered this website, Gridzzly, that has this amazing feature that makes it so much easier to design custom grid papers and you can choose a particular type of paper, size of your dots, color (light grey to dark grey) and it creates a printable automatically for you!

Step 2: Choose Your Print Settings

You can choose how big or small you want to print this out on your printer settings but if you could always use an A4 paper and cut down to size.

Also, the better quality paper you use will determine how it turns out because if you plan to use normal printer paper, at best you’ll get away with light use of pens but do expect paper bleeds on the other side of the paper for heavy artwork since printer paper isn’t quite the best of quality.

However, if you’re planning to just stick this into your current journal, then this won’t really matter too much

It’s really that simple to create your own dot grid journal paper now with this easy technique.

Other Types of Journal To Try

Okay, so there are many other types of journals that you can use to bullet journal with and I’m sure you’re already familiar with them.

Here are a few ways each of these types of journals/papers are used to journal with just to give you a good idea of how your spreads may look, especially if you choose to use any of these 4 mediums.

Each one of these has it’s positives and negatives but you can definitely work with them and make it work to your advantage.

Lined

lined paper bullet journal

Image Source: Study With Inspo

Graph

graph bullet journal weekly spread, what is a dot grid journal?

 Image Source: Study-USSS

Blank

things-to-put-in-a-bullet-journal

How To Choose The Best Notebook For Bullet Journaling

As you can see, there are many options to choose from and almost all of them can be used in a particular way that will work best for you.

In terms of an all-purpose journal, a dotted grid journal will be the right option for you if you want to experiment with paints and makers but if you plan to use a journal for productivity reasons only, then I’m sure using a normal lined paper will work best.

Related: Can You Bullet Journal With Lined Paper?

Try to decide first how you will be using the bullet journal, whether you’ll be including things for fun or having it as a half artistic half productivity journal, then you’ll be able to decide.

You could always print out a page of the dot grid paper to get a feel or things and practice using them and then you’ll be able to decide if it’s the best way to journal for you before making that plunge and buying a dot grid journal.

Either way, whichever paper you do decide to use, bullet journaling is the main process to focus on and any kind of paper can be used to journal. It’s not the paper that matters but more the act of journaling that matters the most!

So have fun and try different journals to discover your ultimate favorite.

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