Make it personal: Custom Journals

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A notebook can serve as a journal, but can a journal serve as a notebook? After all, both are nothing more than a collection of bound pages. What’s the difference? What separates a custom journal from a bland notebook? In my mind, the difference is intention.

When I purchase a notebook, it’s usually for a class or seminar. I intend a journal or diary for recording something specific—like my thoughts on a day, my aspirations, travel experiences, the details of my workout, eating habits, dreams, ideas for my next book, etc.

I find there is something relaxing about journaling. Like coloring, it allows us to take a few quiet moments to collect, reflect, and distill our thoughts before committing them to words on paper. It calms us to think of our day anecdotally or as a series of connected scenes. What happened today that is worth recording? Why is it important? How did I react to something unexpected? What actions or interactions were important today? Did I reach my goals?

journal-template

No matter what information you record in your journal, it’s your information. It’s personal, so why not create a custom journal?

It’s pretty simple to layout pages with writing prompts, lists of daily exercises, fitness or spiritual goals, appointments, or other experiences or feelings you wish to track. Once you’ve got it right, duplicate the page until you have the desired number of pages. You can also design your own cover from your favorite photos and choose from paperback, hardcover, and coil bindings.
 


Custom Journals for Unique People

Why adapt to something you find on a shelf that’s sort of close to what you want when you can easily create something that’s perfect for you?

Thanks to Lulu’s easy-to-use platform and print-on-demand, you can create your journal and order as many (or as few) custom journals as you need with ease!

Want to make it even a little easier?

We’ve got a few basic templates for custom journals ready to go. All you need to do is upload the file to your book project, create a cover, and order a copy. You’ll be journaling in no time!

Custom journals: The Interior

You can create your own file if you’d like, just remember to create the pages in the same dimensions as the journal you wish to print. Also, the total number of pages should be divisible by four.

We suggest one of these four common formats for your journal:

Our recommended sizes for creating a custom journal

Maybe you want some inspirational quotes to keep you motivated? Add them! You can even mix and match lined and unlined pages so your journal can include pages of text and your sketches. The wonderful thing about doing it yourself is that your journal is 100% yours!

We’ve got the templates you need to get started

We’ve created a page just for journals, planners, and notebooks! Check out the amazing templates there, sized for many common notebook and journal designs. This includes a variety of cover templates you can use too.

Many of our interior templates are 100% ready to use; all you need to do is design an amazing cover and you’ve got an original notebook!

Custom Journals: The Cover

Making a cover can be tricky, but oh so rewarding! We like to give you a simple option with our cover templates – allowing you to add text and images to a pre-made cover. Or you can get creative and make your own. Just pay close attention to the specs we provide so the cover fits perfectly and prints correctly.

How awesome is it to have a journal with a picture of your pets or family on the cover? Or a travel journal with pictures from your favorite vacation spots? Or an amazing piece of inspirational art you created? You can do all that and more with Lulu!


Put it all Together

Need a little more guidance or some inspiration? We got you covered with this awesome Journal Page from Lulu.com! Head over there for more advice and step-by-step instructions, template downloads, and a few of our favorite journals on Lulu.

- Archived Author -
Writer extraordinaire and generally amazing guy, Glenn makes sure that every day is the best day ever.

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Where can we see some samples of journal printed by Lulu?

Do your perfect bound journals lay flat like in the picture?

Hi Marjolaine,
Not as nicely as the one pictured. Perfect bound will splay open like a novel, but you want saddle stitch or one of our hardcover options for a notebook that will really lay flat.

can I create a notebook of more than 100 pages? Templates are 100 pages only so I am under the impression that thats the limit
Can you help?

Hey Vadim,

You can certainly add or subtract pages! We offer the templates at 100 just to get you started. But depending on the book binding and size, you can print as few as 24 pages and up to 800.

link is broken

Thanks for catching that! I’ll get them updated asap

When it says 100 pages, does that mean 100 physical pages, printed front and back (so you would upload a 200 page pdf)? Or is it 50 physical pages (100 page pdf)?

Hi June,
100 pages is 50 physical pages; so a 100 page PDF file.

I want to create my own line of journals and notebooks. Is that posible ?

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