i bought this to use as a daily journal , and I think it will work just fine . I know the cover is probably just hard pressed cardboard , but it has a very nice quality to it . The color is supposed to be dark purple , but it could easily pass for a plum or eggplant color . The paper seems to be really good quality and the edges of the pages are the same color as the cover . The design on the cover is really nice and I just love the little birds . The paper quality , is better than I've seen in a few of my other journals . Since I only use ball point pens , I'm not sure how this would work with gel pens . But I would highly recommend this notebook .