Livescribe Paper: Which Notebooks Fit Your Pen, Where to Buy and How to Print Your Own

Livescribe paper is notebook paper printed with micro-dots that a Livescribe smartpen's infrared camera reads to track its position, so the pens capture nothing on plain paper. Livescribe says all its notebooks work with all its smartpens. At our October 2026 check, its US store sold Letter 3-subject notebooks for $10.95, and you can print free dot pages on a color laser printer.

The Letter 1-subject 4-pack was sold out at that check, so know what else your pen accepts before you run low. We make Ophaya smart pens, a separate system we get to near the end. Everything about Livescribe below comes from its own store and help center, opened on October 7, 2026.

Which Livescribe paper works with your pen

Livescribe's help center says "All Livescribe dot-paper notebooks are supported by all of our smartpens," and adds that a pen may need a firmware update to read the newest notebooks. So the choice is mostly page size and printed buttons. Livescribe's dot paper page for the Livescribe 3 says many notebooks contain controls "not relevant to the Livescribe 3 smartpen," and the pen still writes on those pages.

The newer LivePen plays by inq's rules. The inq FAQ says the inq app works with "all the same notebooks that work with LivePen," that LivePen pens can use inq notebooks in the inq app, and that "Older Livescribe notebooks that are not compatible with LivePen are also not compatible with inq." It doesn't list which ones, so test a page first. Our Livescribe inq guide covers that switch, and our Livescribe 3, Symphony and Aegir owner's guide covers apps, resets and refills.

Livescribe paper prices and where to buy it

Start with Livescribe's own US store. This is what its full product list showed at our October 2026 check.

The homepage offered free standard shipping to the continental US on orders of $35 or more. Campus stores sometimes stock the notebooks too: the University of Minnesota bookstore listed the 3-Subject Notebook Volume #2 at $8.95, though its page gave no stock status, so call before you walk over.

At $10.95 for 150 sheets, the 3-subject notebook comes to about 7 cents a sheet. To budget a year, count the pages you filled last term and multiply. We'd keep one spare notebook on the shelf too, since a sold-out month otherwise means writing on plain paper the pen can't capture.

Why Livescribe notebooks have volume numbers

Livescribe calls it the Dot Positioning System. The pen's "high-speed infrared camera reads the dot-pattern," and the pattern tells the pen which page of which notebook it is on. Two notebooks of the same type and number carry the same pattern, and Livescribe warns that "the smartpen cannot tell the two notebooks apart and will combine the notes and audio." The volume numbers keep a 4-pack apart. Before starting a second copy of a used notebook, archive the first, which can't be undone. On an Echo it deletes those notes and audio from the pen; on a Livescribe 3, Aegir or Symphony it moves them to an archive.

Can you print your own Livescribe paper?

Yes, with the right printer. Livescribe's help article "Printing free Livescribe dot paper and controls online" offers four free 25-page notebooks for the Echo 2, Symphony, Aegir and Livescribe 3, plus the Echo 2 Digital Panel and the Aegir and Livescribe 3 controls bookmark. Its printer advice is to "use a color laserjet printer with Adobe PostScript support preferred / PCL driver that can print more than 600 DPI," with "a minimum of 128MB of Ram (256Mb or more is preferred)."

Livescribe's steps, in order:

1. Print one test page first.
2. Set the paper size to Letter (8.5 x 11 in).
3. Set the size option to "Actual Size" or "Page Scaling: None," and avoid "Scale to fit," "Fit" or a percentage of actual size.
4. Print in color, not black and white.
5. If the pen ignores a page printed from the browser, download the PDF and print it from Adobe Reader with "Page Scaling" set to "Fit to Printable Area," the setting Livescribe names for that route.

The article says Chrome works best and Firefox and Safari may cause printing errors. It never mentions inkjets, and the Livescribe 3 dot paper page says you can print at home "as long as you have a color laser printer." We wouldn't count on an inkjet. Echo owners should treat a printout as an experiment, since the original Echo isn't on the notebook list.

Each PDF is a fixed pattern. By the same-number rule above, a second printout of Notebook 1 should look to the pen like the first, so we'd archive the old pages before printing that file again.

Printing a template onto Livescribe paper

Livescribe says "You can print or photo copy templates or slideshows onto Livescribe dot-map paper," with the copier set to black and white at high quality. The template won't appear in Livescribe+ or Echo Desktop, and writing where the printing covers the dots may not record, so leave open space for notes.

What to do when the Livescribe paper you need is sold out

Switch formats before you wait for a restock. Every Livescribe notebook works with every Livescribe pen, so a Livescribe 3 owner who wanted the sold-out Letter 1-subject pack can use the 3-subject notebooks or the A5 4-pack. What you give up is the Livescribe 3 page controls printed on the 1-subject pages.

The printable notebooks can bridge a gap. A hundred pages won't carry a semester, but they'll cover a week of meetings while an order ships.

From a campus store or marketplace seller, check the type and volume number. A listing that only says "Livescribe notebook" may match one you've filled, and its pages would merge with your old notes unless you archive them.

LivePen owners can also use inq notebooks through the inq app. At our October 2026 check, inq.shop listed an A5 spiral notebook (156 pages) at $9 and a Letter spiral notebook at $10. Nothing we found from Livescribe or inq says those notebooks work with the Echo 2, Livescribe 3, Symphony or Aegir, so skip them for those pens.

If you're stocking up for years, look at the rest of the store too. At our check it showed the Echo 2 ($119.95), the LivePen A5 Bundle and the LivePen / Symphony ink refills as sold out, and the homepage promoted inq and linked to instructions for moving LivePen data there. The parent company, formerly Anoto Group AB, announced in August 2026 that it is now registered as INQ Group AB. Our article on whether Livescribe is still in business has the background, and Echo owners thinking about a replacement can read our Livescribe Echo 2 alternatives.

Is there a Livescribe paper alternative?

For a Livescribe pen, the only alternative Livescribe supports is its free printable pages. Its store says "Livescribe smartpens only work with Livescribe dot paper," and paper sold for other smart pen brands isn't covered by that.

Ophaya paper isn't an alternative either. Ophaya pens use their own dot paper: our pen's infrared camera reads a printed dot pattern and captures handwriting only on Ophaya dot-code paper or the Ophaya LCD writing tablet. A Livescribe notebook won't work with an Ophaya pen, and Ophaya paper won't work with a Livescribe pen.

If you're replacing the pen anyway, our Ophaya vs Livescribe comparison covers the differences. Our paper comes as A5 refill paper at $19.99 for 240 pages or an A5 5-pack of spiral notebooks at $29.99, with the rest in our notebooks and dot-code paper collection. The notebooks and refills guide works out cost per page.

Frequently asked questions

Can a Livescribe pen write on regular paper?

It leaves ink like any ballpoint but records nothing, because the camera has no dots to read. Ophaya pens are the same on plain paper. Our explainer on what a smart pen is covers how that works.

Does all Livescribe paper work with every Livescribe pen?

The notebooks do, according to Livescribe, though a newer notebook may need a firmware update. Printed controls and Sound Stickers are where pens differ.

Can you print Livescribe paper on an inkjet printer?

Livescribe's instructions only cover color laser printers above 600 DPI. If an inkjet is all you have, print one page and write on it before printing more.

Can I reuse a Livescribe notebook?

Not by erasing it, since it's real ink on real paper. If you want pages you can wipe and reuse, that's Rocketbook's approach, which we compare in Ophaya vs Rocketbook. You can start a new notebook with the same volume number once you archive the old one.

Is Livescribe paper discontinued?

Not at our October 2026 check. The store had the 3-subject notebooks, the A5 4-pack and the pocket flip notepads in stock with no discontinued notice. Only the Letter 1-subject 4-pack was sold out.

Is Ophaya paper compatible with Livescribe?

No, in either direction. Our Livescribe alternative page compares the two systems side by side.