I forget how I came across this Leitz notebook on Amazon— I might have seen the brand mentioned somewhere else, or maybe it was just some algorithmic recommendation. Whatever it was, it intrigued me enough to spend $19.30 plus tax to try one out!

This notebook is made in China but Leitz is a German company, a division of the global conglomerate Acco Brands. (Mead, FiveStar, Derwent, At-A-Glance, DayTimer, Esselte, and Hilroy are a few of their other stationery-related brands.) Based on the languages and addresses listed on the packaging, the Leitz brand seems to be distributed mostly in eastern Europe and Russia.

The Leitz notebook has a very business-y, serious look to the packaging. It comes shrinkwrapped, with a paper wrapper underneath.

Once I got past the packaging, I immediately noticed the feel of the cover material– it is a slightly shiny cloth, probably nylon, as it feels like the kind of fabric that might be a lining in clothes, or used for an umbrella. It’s odd, but I don’t mind it, or the stitching around the edges. The cover is also unusual in that it has thick boards that don’t extend all the way to the spine.

There’s a debossed Leitz brand logo on the front, and a plainer name and model number on the back. The back also has a plastic rivet that holds the pen loop on, something I don’t recall seeing elsewhere. If you don’t like pen loops, it’s probably going to be hard to remove– I haven’t tried yet. A wide elastic holds it snugly closed. The notebook has a bit too much overhang for my taste but not the worst I’ve seen. The size is said to be A6, but it measures about 96 x 141mm, or about 5-9/16 x 3-3/4″. It’s a little wider than a Moleskine but smaller than true A6.

The Leitz notebook has a little paper pocket in the front cover, and space to write your details. Some other features are two ribbon markers, and at the back of the notebook, 8 plain, perforated pages. The stitched binding is flexible enough that it opens quite flat, but it won’t lie totally flat on its own, at least not when new.

The inside back cover has a metric ruler, gusseted paper pocket, and whoa, silver metallic sticky notes?? That was a cool surprise but they are very slippery so you can’t write on them with most pens– a Uni oil-based marking pen will work, but otherwise I think these are meant to just be page markers.

The page format is not typical for this type of notebook: squares with a header and border all around. I’ve only seen this layout in some Japanese notebooks and planners.

The paper in the Leitz notebook is 100 gsm. It’s not super smooth– it has a pleasant amount of feedback and feels good to write on with all pens. Its performance is better than average on show-through and I only got a few spots of bleeding with the wettest pens. Most fountain pens did great, so I’ll call this fountain pen friendly.

I don’t think I’d go out of my way to buy another one of these, especially given the cost for US delivery, which is now even higher due to tariffs. But for notebook users in Europe where the price is around 11 euros, the Leitz notebook is a solid option with good quality construction, nice paper, and some extra features that distinguish it from its competitors. You can find these on Amazon, where lined versions and other sizes are available.