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  1. I use a pad with a very heavy and stiff backboard with heavyweight bond by Mead. Cambridge is also on the cover. I has 140 sheets (280 pages).  Light green tone.

    MeadWestvaco Consumer & Office Products, Dayton, Ohio.  However, I purchased 3 from Amazon.  (I, too, am 73.)

  2. You go, John G!! I feel your pain. I haunt thrift stores at least once a week, and I ALWAYS pick up old steno pads, even if they are partially used, for the exact reason you are talking about – quality!! Sometimes I get lucky and find a whole stash, but usually it's just one here and there. Never thought about making my own. From one senior to another, you're my hero of the day!

  3. Very nice!  My gripe is with the paper– I like to use fountain pens and the paper tends to bleed when fountain pen inks are used.  A custom pad would be a lovely thing!

  6. I used a version of Gregg during grad school and my working career to take notes, and wound up just writing into a lab notebook.  I notice in the Anniversary books that they don't adhere to the narrow columns.  It worked reasonably well, and I was able to use books that took fountain pen ink.  I'd like to hear other peoples comments, but it seems to me that the reason for narrow columns was to avoid moving the hand from side to side to maximize speed in an office dictation environment.  If you're just looking for an efficient way to take notes as opposed to verbatim dictation, I think a notebook is adequate. 

    1. I don't have a problem with using regular notebooks for notetaking in shorthand as long as the spacing between lines is wide enough to accommodate the outlines. That's how I took my lecture notes when I was in college. However, college-ruled notebooks (9/32") are way too narrow for me — I used the wide ruled (11/32") notebooks.

  7. I use the National Brand steno notebook, with a brown cover and green "eye-ease" paper.  It's available from Amazon in the US for less than $2.00 a pad.  National Brand products have been around for decades.  I always used their notebook paper in high school and college, in the 1960s and 1970s.  

    They come with either 60 or 80 sheets per pad.  The 60-sheet pads are $21.33 for 12 on Amazon today.  12 pads will last you a long time.  

    I notice there's a set of steno pads in the Amazon Basics line.  

    I have some Members Mark steno pads from Sams Club from several years ago.  They're decent quality, but the paper isn't quite as good.  

    On a side note, there's a Facebook group "Gregg Shorthand Readers, Writers, and Fans".  I've been posting lots of simplified material in that group recently, if you're looking for things to read.  

  8. Very cool idea to make your own notebook. I'm also happy to see what kinds of notebooks other people are using. I remember really liking the narrow columns whenever I picked up a steno notebook, just for regular non-shorthand writing. I also really like the spiral biding on top, instead of on the side.

    Does anyone ever use blank pages with no lines? 

  9. I use a mix of longhand and Gregg. I was writing on blank paper because it was easy to use in my DIY steno pads. Turns out my writing is more legible and I write faster on lined paper.

    Something sort of related: my typing speed increased when I began using typing sounds on my laptop.

    I'm an old guy, so these may be a function of childhood training and having learned to type on an actual typewriter.

    Lee: I'm going to try the National Brand steno notebooks you mentioned. 

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