Keen eyed US readers may recently have spotted that some unusual format binders from Plotter were on offer at the San Francisco pen show.
One was the Mini 5 Square format (which, for some, would warrant a dedicated discussion), but the one that really caught my eye was their 3-Ring format.
Both of these have been available in Japan for some time, but are little known elsewhere. I’d spotted the 3-Ring offering a while ago and fell instantly in love!
I just find them irresistibly cute, being smaller than the Plotter Mini 5 or the Filofax Guildford Mini Extra Slim. Plotter describe them as “the smallest specification of PLOTTER’s Leather Binder line up…so far!”. (I can’t wait to see what might be even tinier.)
Here is a photo comparing the 3-Ring to the Mini 5 (left):
Three-ring formats have been around for a while – Filofax have the M2, which is discontinued but still supported for refills. Lefax also had a model called Soho (sadly long obsolete), which used a half-size personal paper.
Filofax today produce mini jot pads, which are of a similar size too.
The beauty of these three-ringed leaves is that they can fit into many of the other ring-bound formats.
For the Plotter models, the dedicated leaves are a “business card” size. Rhodia also offer lovely, punched refills in Japan that are still a perfect fit, but provide some extra writing space. They match the width of Filofax personal size, which appeals to me.
These five sizes are compared below (clockwise from top left Lefax Soho, Rhodia Organizer, Plotter Card Size, Filofax Mini Jot Pad, Filofax M2.):
Plotter and Rhodia pads:
Here’s the Plotter 3-Ring alongside a Filofax M2.
This particular 3-Ring binder is made of Liscio (“tanned, oil-smooth authentic Italian”) leather, nominally blue but actually green in appearance. It has 11mm silver Krause rings and a pink gold backplate. I think it was a limited edition, which came with a matching “ring supporter” to help prevent indentations from the rings. The design is very minimalist, but you can purchase a leather card holder insert to provide a pocket if desired.
I’m currently finding the combination of a Plotter 3-Ring with a personal size binder is hard to beat.
Thank you Max for sharing the details of this binder with us and our readers.
