Maruman 5 Section Binder

Maruman makes a lot of interesting notebook and office supply products, including the Mnemosyne and Sept Couleur notebooks, this caught my eye at Kinokuniya: a B5 sized black vinyl binder with 5 colored sections (B5 paper is 6.9 by 9.8).


If you use sectioned notebooks for keeping your projects in order, this is a really great idea. The colored tabs on the outside look striking next to the black vinyl binder, while the inside tabs can be further identified and described on this starting page.


There is also space on each tab's main page for further description, or it can be left blank if you want the sections to remain pristine.


What really makes this different is the way you load the paper: the binder unlocks at the bottom white rectangle, and the entire ring system slides out for greater ease. That is one of the sharpest designs I've seen, taking a plain ring binder system and giving it a memorable feature that distinguishes it from every other notebook and binder manufacturer.


Here's a close up of the locking mechanism: the upper ring system has a screw-type nob that fits into the bottom hole, and when you twist the system locks back into place, snaps the rings closed, and there is an additional lock on the bottom of the system that tightens everything. So there's no way the rings can accidentally open, which sometimes happens and sends papers flying all over.

One thing I like about Maruman loose leaf paper is the variety of line widths they offer: 5mm (think Rhodia webbie), 6mm, and 7mm. If you prefer wider lines for writing as I do,the 6mm and 7mm are ideal.

This is a really different tabbed binder system, with the front color coding and inside locking mechanism making it stand out from ordinary binders. Not sure where you can find one, but if you do see one definitely check it ou.