Bullet journals tend to have a black cover, stitched binding and yellow pages… boring. So while on the quest for pretty dot grid notebooks with bright white paper, Agendio came to mind. This company will make a completely custom notebook (or planner) for you, from scratch. You choose the front and back cover, all of the inside pages, extra pages, color or black and white printing and many more options (too many to list!)

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase an Agendio planner using my referral link I’ll receive a small commission for referring you.

Quick Facts

• Choose from multiple page sizes
• Can choose whatever inside pages you like – add more index pages (create your own index pages!), if you want checklists then add those. You don’t have to only add dot grid pages
• Can have colorful or black and white pages
• Different dot grid spacing – you choose the size that works for you
• You choose the cover design (and you can personalise it)
• Choose between hardcover or clear plastic cover with cardstock

LET’S TAKE A CLOSER LOOK!

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I wanted to compare the different options so ended up ordering 3 notebooks!

7 x 9″ Hardcover

The elastic band is an optional extra. There are quite a few cover colors to choose from – teal, red, purple, grey, black etc.

You can choose what spacing you’d like for the dots. I went for 0.25″ which is typical for dot grid notebooks.

The hardcover can be folded back on itself but the clunky cover means it doesn’t lay completely flat.

0.25″ grid (although you can choose from multiple sizes)

You can choose whatever combination of pages that you like. I opted for mostly dot grid with a few lined, graph and blank paper.

A5 hardcover versus 7 x 9″ cover

A5 Hardcover

A5 hardbound versus coil bound

The hardcover is way more clunky – definitely prefer the coil bound. Plus the coil bound lays completely flat when folded back on itself.

A5 Coil Bound

You can choose between colorful or neutral. Since the dots don’t stand out that much and it’s just a thin line at the top, I didn’t think it was worth paying extra to upgrade to color printing.

I also added some lined pages

Pen Testing

I did a pen test of another Agendio I purchased in this post. Here are the results (since the paper is the same):

The paper of the planner is so smooth and nice to write on. I tried various balllpoint, gel, fine tip and marker tip pens – there was some ghosting on the back side of the page. I also did some highlighter and stamp swatches. The highlighters also had some ghosting and, as always, the MAMBI stamps bled through the page ?

PROS OF a custom notebook from AGENDIO

• Can choose whatever inside pages you like – add more index pages (create your own index pages!), if you want checklists then add those. You don’t have to only add dot grid pages
• Can have colorful or black and white pages
• Different dot grid spacing – you choose the size that works for you
• Bright white paper that’s smooth and feels nice to write on
• You choose the cover design (and you can personalise it)
• Choose between hardcover or clear plastic cover with cardstock
• No stitched binding! Pages lay flat
• Choose from multiple page sizes

CONS OF a custom notebook from AGENDIO

• Expensive
• Overwhelming number of choices so it does take a long time to order
• Limited cover designs – to be honest, I wasn’t really keen on any of the covers – there’s a very limited range
• The paper could be thicker – almost all of the pens I tried had ghosting on the back side of the page

Would I recommend?

I love custom notebooks but if you just need a simple dot grid notebook (that isn’t sewn bound) I’d go with Plum Paper. It’s a lot cheaper, there’s nicer cover designs, you can also personalise the cover and they have cheap international shipping rates. While it’s not completely custom, it’s still a great affordable & custom bullet journal notebook.

If you’d like to make a custom notebook with Agendio click here (my affiliate link).

Update: see how I used one of these notebooks in this post.

More planner reviews

• Review of the Point Journal (similar to the bullet journal) 
• Scribbles That Matter Notebook
• Dot Journaling: A Practical Guide (Book Review)

Planning tips

• How to choose the right planner pens: what to look for when buying planner pens
• Planner Necessities: My Top 3 All-Time Favorite Gel Pens
• How to make planner stickers for free using Silhouette Studio (Introduction – Video Tutorial)

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