A digital journal is a file until you make it something you can write in. That step trips people up more than it should, so here is the whole thing: what to print, on what, how to have it bound, and when not to print it at all.
Before you print anything
- Open the file on a computer if you can. Phone PDF viewers sometimes reflow or crop pages, and what you see is not always what will print.
- Check the page size. If the file is set up for A4, print it at A4. “Fit to page” and “shrink to printable area” quietly reduce the size and eat into the margins you were going to write in.
- Print one page as a test before you print eighty. It costs almost nothing and catches every settings problem at once.
- Decide on single or double sided now, because it affects the binding and the paper you choose.
Paper: the one choice that matters
Standard office paper is thin. If you write in pen — particularly a gel or fountain pen — ink will show through from the other side and, on some pens, bleed. A slightly heavier stock solves it entirely and costs very little more. Ask the print shop for a heavier weight than their default and write on a sample before committing to the whole job. If you are printing double sided, the heavier paper is not optional; it is the difference between a journal you enjoy writing in and one where every page is ghosted with the page behind it.
Binding options, from cheapest to nicest
- Loose in a ring binder or lever arch file. Cheapest, and genuinely practical — you can add pages, reprint one you spoiled, and lay it flat. Punch it yourself or ask the shop to.
- Comb binding. The plastic comb most print shops have on the counter. Inexpensive, lies reasonably flat, and pages can be added or removed if you have the machine.
- Wire or spiral binding. The best all-round choice for something you write in. It opens completely flat, folds right back on itself so it takes up half a desk, and it is hard-wearing. If you ask for one thing, ask for this.
- Thermal or perfect binding. Looks like a paperback and reads beautifully, but it will not lie flat and it fights you when you write. Lovely for something you read, poor for something you fill in.
Home printer or print shop?
Print at home if the guide is short, if you want it in the next ten minutes, or if you would rather print a section at a time as you work through it. Use a print shop if it is long, if you want double sided done properly, if you want heavier paper, or if you want it bound — and it is worth knowing that for anything of length, a shop is often cheaper than home printing once ink is counted honestly.
When you go to a shop, take the file on a memory stick and email it to yourself as a backup. Tell them the page size, whether you want single or double sided, the paper weight and the binding you want. Ask to see the first page before the whole run.
Printing in sections
You do not have to print the whole thing. Printing a month at a time keeps the journal light enough to carry, lets you replace a section you have filled, and means you have not spent on the whole guide before you know you will use it. A ring binder suits this approach perfectly.
Or skip printing entirely
- On a tablet, any PDF app with annotation lets you write straight onto the pages with a stylus, and the file is backed up automatically.
- A tablet is searchable, which paper is not, and it weighs the same whether the guide is ten pages or two hundred.
- It needs charge, though, which in a country with regular outages is a real consideration — a printed copy works by candlelight and a tablet does not.
- Some people find writing by hand does something that typing does not. If that is you, print it.
A few small things that make a difference
- Print a couple of spare copies of any page you will use repeatedly — a weekly review, a prayer list — and slip them in at the back.
- Write the date you started inside the front cover. You will be glad of it later.
- If you are gifting a printed copy, spend a little on the binding. It changes how the thing is received.
- Keep the original file. You can reprint the whole journal whenever you want to start it again — a new year, a new season, or for someone you are walking alongside.
If a download link has expired or a file will not open, get in touch with your order number and we will re-issue it. Check the email address you used at checkout and your spam folder first — that resolves most cases immediately.