Page Size and Binding: The Physical Decisions

Layout gets all the attention, but size and binding decide whether a planner comes with you — and a planner left at home is not used.

Page size

Pocket (around A6)

Genuinely portable. Room for a few lines a day. Suits people who need dates and appointments with them at all times and keep detail elsewhere.

A5 (about 5.8 × 8.3 inches)

The best compromise for most people. Fits a handbag or a laptop bag, holds a usable weekly spread, and does not dominate a desk. If you are unsure, A5.

B5 (about 6.9 × 9.8 inches)

Noticeably more writing room while still portable. Good for a weekly spread with a notes page.

Letter / A4 (8.5 × 11 inches)

A desk planner. Excellent writing room, poor portability. Right if the planner lives in one place, wrong if it travels.

Binding

Spiral and twin-loop wire

Lies completely flat and folds back on itself, so it occupies half the desk space when open. The most practical binding for a working planner.

The drawbacks: the spiral catches in bags, and it can crush if the planner is dropped on its spine — a crushed spiral does not recover and pages stop turning.

Bound (sewn or glued)

Looks better and survives a bag well. Sewn bindings lie reasonably flat as they wear in; glued bindings resist and can crack at the spine if forced.

Right for anyone who values how it looks and can live with holding it open.

Disc-bound

Pages with mushroom-shaped notches that clip onto discs. Pages can be added, removed and reordered without tools.

The flexibility is genuine — you can carry only the current month. The trade-off is that pages can work loose with heavy use, and refills are proprietary to the disc size.

Ring binder

Maximum flexibility, most bulk. Suits people who build a system rather than buy one.

Paper weight

The specification that decides which pen you can use.

• Under 70 gsm: ballpoint and pencil only. Gel and fineliner will show through; fountain pen will bleed.
• 80–100 gsm: handles most pens with minor show-through.
• Over 100 gsm: takes fountain pen and marker with little bleed.

Show-through is cosmetic — you see the writing from the other side. Bleed-through is the ink actually passing through, which ruins the reverse page. If you use fountain pen, paper weight matters more than any other specification here.

The details worth having

• A back pocket for loose paper. More useful than it sounds.
• A ribbon marker, ideally two — one for the current week, one for the monthly view.
• Tabs if the planner is thick. Finding the current month in a 400-page book without tabs is a daily irritation.
• An elastic closure if it travels in a bag.

The test that matters

Will you carry it? A planner that is slightly too big to take with you gets replaced by your phone within a month, and then it is a notebook you feel guilty about.

Our listings state page size, binding and, where the manufacturer publishes it, paper weight. Browse the full range.