A regular reader contacted me to share her woes about her favorite notebook brand: Leuchtturm 1917. I’ve reviewed this brand but never used one long-term, so I was happy to be able to share the thoughts of someone who has had more experience with Leuchtturm over the years:
I thought it might be interesting to update you on my current experience with this brand and how the notebooks have lasted over the years. My go-to notebook is the softcover pocket Leuchtturm1917. I initially found one with a white cover in a local bookstore and fell in love with everything about it, in particular the fact that it lies flat and has creamy off-white paper that is very lightly lined and feels soft to the touch. After that I purchased quite a few more from the Kikkerland Design website, which they no longer carry. For a while they even had a light blue softcover version available in pocket and medium size, which I suspect were their “trial” designs that probably did not see enough sales and were discontinued. Softcover Leuchtturm1917s are now sold in a variety of colors, but I have yet to find another softcover in light blue or white; however, the cover color is the least of my woes. I have witnessed how over the course of only three years the Leuchtturm1917 has slowly met the same fate as the Moleskine brand. Sadly, they too have drastically declined in quality. In my humble opinion, Leuchtturm1917, whose motto is “Details Make All The Difference,” dropped the ball and is breaking my heart.
The very first batch of Leuchtturm1917s I have feel like an entirely different notebook compared to what is currently available. This goes for online orders from Amazon or the Leuchtturm1917 website. Even in my travels I have noticed these notebooks are all facing the same fate world-wide. They now have the double bookmark, but apart from that supposed improvement everything else about the notebook has taken a turn for the worse.
The current Leuchtturm1917s have a stamp on the last page that reads “Made in Taiwan,” whereas the original ones did not have any markings as to where it was made. I recently tried out a dotted softcover version and noticed the stamp now reads “Made in China,” and this version has the worst paper and horrible binding that no longer lies flat. In fact, the notebook is so poorly constructed that the cover does not close at all. The binding appears to have more signatures than the original ones, but still the same number of pages. The paper is just plain white and has a rough texture like a regular sheet of paper, and the lines/grid/or dots are all much darker than before. The hardcovers I’ve seen in stores all have cover overhang, a pet peeve you and I both share! Interestingly, I even noticed the older Leuchtturm1917 weight a little more than the new ones, further proving that they have switched to cheaper paper but still charge the same price.
I had written to them on their website to bring attention to the quality issue, but have yet to receive a response. This reminded me of your posts about the Moleskine brand and how you were on a quest to find the “good” ones after they declined in quality. I am afraid Leuchtturm1917, just like the Moleskine, are becoming mass produced and no longer the same great notebook it was when it started.
I have included some photos of my collection to demonstrate comparisons of the old Leuchtturm1917 and the new, unimproved.
Leuchtturm notebook comparison 
Leuchtturm notebook binding comparison 
Leuchtturm notebook index comparison
A coworker of mine recently showed me her new Leuchtturm, having not used one before, she thought it is great but I could see the decline in quality. Sometimes I think brands do not really care about disappointing long term users of their products, because a lot of “newbies” who don’t know what they are missing out on come to replace us in greater numbers.
I am glad I have my little stash of the old versions and just wish I had saved more, had I know this would happen.
I can’t say I’m surprised. I’ve read that the cost of paper has increased a lot recently, and I’m sure every notebook brand is struggling to stay competitive. I’ve written quite a bit about Moleskine’s declines in quality, and in recent years I’ve noticed other brands like HandBook Artists Journals where the stock in stores is not as nice to older ones in my collection. Must all good things come to an end? Has anyone else noticed changes in their favorite notebook brand?
My thanks to our correspondent for her detailed comments and photos.
I tried one years ago: https://jakeseliger.com/2012/05/12/product-review-the-leuchtturm-1917-notebook/ and think Rhodia makes better notebooks.
I stopped using them a couple of years ago. Felt like I was always pushing against the grain of the paper. Rhodia spiral bound and pocket size Oxford notebooks with Clairefontaine paper are far superiorand far more useful Imposible to justify the hefty 1917 price tag anymore.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I entirely agree with your assessment of Leuchtturm1917 as a notebook lover and a seller of notebooks. I used to carry and sell Leuchtturm1917 notebooks, but no longer do so because the quality decline was so drastic that I did not want to sell and promote a product that I would not use. It is such a shame because Leuchtturm1917 has such lovely vibrant colors for their notebook covers. Like the other comments, I use Rhodia notebooks for writing and journaling.
Thank you so much for sharing. I agree, the Rhodia has wonderful paper but I prefer the Leuchtterm1917 in the pocket softcover in its early days. Unfortunately the quality has dramatically declined and I will not be adding any new ones to my collection in the future.
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Thank you for writing this! I have a Leuchtterm1917 white soft cover version from about 8 years ago i believe. It had the smoothest paper that I have yet to find anywhere else. The new notebooks are a huge disappointment.
I still have the old notebook, but I decided i would not write in it until I found another one. I have long accepted that the quality will never return.
Tobias, I feel your pain! It sounds like we have the same exact white soft cover in the medium size. I also help onto mine for a few years, thinking I would write in it when I found another copy but after I noticed this brand declined and I would probably never find a replacement I started writing in it. Now I have written in it for a little over a year and have a few pages left, which is both a treasure to hold but sad that I won’t have another journal like this to replace it.
I wanted to try Leuchtturm last year with an A7 hard cover notebook. Almost every pen bled through, so much that I sarcasticly expected my pencil to feather/bleed through too ;) (which of course didn’t happen).
At first I thought it was because they could have decided to put less good paper in their smaller notebooks like Moleskine do, but it was even worse than Moleskine’s crappy pocket planners paper… Or was it just me…
Well, reading this article makes me feel less lonely. And with one more reason to use the word “Molestturm” for overhyped notebook with bad paper that will only sell well as long as the bullet journal bloggers will push people on them.
Does this person have any “old stock” softcover pocket leuchtturms from their stash that they would be willing to sell? I’ve been on the hunt for some time and can’t find any! :(