Best College Rule Notebook Reviews 2023

College-ruled notebooks can cost anywhere from $2 to $100 – there are rare occasions where they sell for more than this, though. So, what makes the prices different, after all, aren’t they just notebooks with lines running across their pages? Well, we’ll clear that out for you. Factors like brand, quality of the materials used and the features they have determine to a large extent how much they’ll be sold for. Let’s briefly look at quality; a notebook with flimsy papers and poor binding will not cost as much as one with thick, opaque paper and well-made wire or sewn-in binding. We hope you get the picture; a cheap college-ruled notebook may be an attractive offer but think about falling pages, ink bleeding through and other inconveniences and you’ll have a better perspective.

So how does one tell the best from the rest? We’ll give a few pointers; one thing is for sure, you don’t want to end up with a notebook that will make you sigh in relief when you find a spot to deposit its heavy weight on. No, we don’t want that for you because a notebook is supposed to be a constant companion and not something you’re glad to rid yourself of. So always check the weight of the notebook, they’re generally lightweight but there is always an exception to the rule.

Here are some other features you should take note of:

• Design: is it for lefties, is it cornell note format, is it 3-hole punched etc.
• Pages: the number, are they double-sided
• Rule: wide or narrow, margins or free
• Size: dimensions
• Colors

College-ruled notebooks can come in soft or hardcover; the choice of which is best is up to you. You have to determine how long you’ll need the notebook to be around and how often you’ll be handling it. Hardcovers are generally inflexible yet provide a sturdy layer of protection to the pages within. Soft covers will require some measure of careful handling; we’re not asking you to put them in a glass case and treat them like eggs, no, they’re way sturdier than that. Just don’t put them through what you’d put a hardcover through, that’s all we’re saying. There are also notebooks with plastic or poly covers; these ones offer a water-poof feature to your precious notes.

You’ll find many of these notebooks with 3 holes punched along their length, just close to the binding. These holes make it possible for you to put the notebooks through the rings of a binder for convenient storage and transportation; you can also tear out pages from such notebooks and put them in a binder. This improves organization and increases productivity.

Majority of the notebooks on sale today have double-sided pages which is a great way to maximize space and avoid wastage. The only gripe is that the paper quality must be excellent so that one is able to enjoy this feature. Imagine writing on one page and then you turn over only to find that the next page is already full with ink from the previous page. So look out for notebooks with high paper quality.

Notebooks for lefties are also available but they are not as easy to find as their regular counterparts. They are designed with a right-sided binding; this takes away the discomfort of having to contend with the book’s binding while writing. Sometimes, to avoid this, a lefty might start writing from the center of a regular notebook and sadly watch other half of the page go to waste but with these notebooks they can write conveniently and maximize every page. Watch out for wrongly-placed margins though, the margins should be like in a regular notebook, such that when you tear and hold out pages from each type, you wouldn’t know the difference.

The size of the college-ruled notebook that would work best depends on your personal taste and what you’ll be using it for. Standard-sized notebooks are good for school and taking notes at meetings and at work. They also fit into most bags and cases. The weight is also of importance as you wouldn’t want to lug a burdensome weight around every time you have to take or make notes.

The lines or rules on a notebook can be either wide or narrow. For folks with larger handwritings, the wider rulings are better as there will be more room for you to write on within the lines; folks with smaller handwritings will enjoy the narrow ruled pages as they will be able to get more lines per page than with wide-ruled pages. There is also the issue of margins; they make our work orderly and give you a space to make other notations on while you’re taking notes – much like cornell pages.

On the matter of binding, there are basically 4 binding methods. Notebooks can be sewn together, stapled, glued or held in place by metallic spirals or rings. The spiral and ring binding make it possible to lay the book flat and fold it back for extra support or space management. Sewn-in bindings generally last the longest. As for choice of color, that matter is entirely up to you; notebooks can be found in every color of the spectrum and in just as many patterns.