The B6 size (125x176mm) is starting to become a popular size as well now. Van der Spek have B6 sizes available in their custom range. B6 is a similar height as Personal size, but 30mm wider. It started to be popular amongst Travellers Notebook users, but it has spread to ring bound organiser users as well now.
The biggest hurdle for any new production of Deskfax organisers is a source of good quality ring mechanisms. Krause don't currently make them and would require an order of 1000 units to do so anyway. I believe people have seen 9 ring mechanisms on some of the Far Eastern web sites.
Deskfax organisers have 9 rings as opposed to 6 rings for nearly all other ring bound organisers. The nine rings are in three groups of three. The three rings in a group are in the usual 19mm spacing. With the groups spaced by 51mm, or if you take a personal page it will slot on to either the top set and middle group of rings, or alternatively the middle group and the bottom set of rings.
This of course means that you can use a Personal page punch to punch Deskfax page by punching the top of the page first then turning the page over to punch the bottom of the page, making sure that the middle group are a common set of holes. With a bit of practice it's relatively easy to do.
For other posts on Deskfax check out past posts here on Philofaxy.
Have you ever tried out a Deskfax? Do you own one?
I honestly don't see B5 coming back in the age of the smartphone and tablet. Filofax is having enough trouble just keeping their heads above water, and producing even Pocket, Personal, and A5 seems to be troublesome enough. Nor do i see Filofax wading into the B6 marketplace. Filofax does virtually zero marketing to new customers, and they have no retail presence in the US to speak of. They need to do what Apple did in 1997: drastically slash the product lines to the core products, and market the stuffing out of it.
ReplyDeletePerhaps they are creating too many different looks/styles, which all costs a lot of money. Currently in mid 2024, I couldn't easily count but I think they have the Personal size in something like 25-35 different styles, many that will come in several different colours. And that's just for the Personal size. I would rather see that they bring the Deskfax back and distill the number of styles down to perhaps between 5-10. Maybe I am not the typical customer but the organisers I use a lot are all black (faux) leather. It's my favourite "colour", it goes with everything (I have), it's timeless. I think 5-10 styles is enough, and perhaps distill the sizes down to only offer Pocket, Personal, A5, and Deskfax (I wish!!!), maybe skip Mini and A4? I feel very few people use Mini and A4 but maybe I am wrong. Then they can offer a few different colours per style and/or change the colours over time as trends/fashion changes, but stick to the 5-10 styles. And obviously advertising is a major thing. I wrote on my blog how I feel I never really noticed Filofax (and other brands/unbranded rings) or perhaps wrote them off as a teenager on a small budget and somehow never discovered them until I was in my mid/late 30s. ALL of my school years (and there's been decades of schooling for me, lol) since secondary school I could really have used this system. Once I was an older teen, I could also have afforded it (even before it was so easy to find second-hand ones). But my friend told me that when she started secondary school, they all got a rings organiser with school branding. Unbranded rings are obviously a lot cheaper. But even if people get cheaper/unbranded rings, they might still be interested in some of the Filofax products (dividers, inserts), although I am not sure whether Filofax makes a lot on those things or not.
DeleteI have several Deskfax binders - seven at last count, although three of them are not Filofax (though are very well made).
ReplyDeleteI use them for various purposes, and find the size perfect for taking notes in meetings, for keeping my diary on my desk, and for keeping my journal.
It is a great pity that Filofax have walked away from this size, and that inserts are becoming both rarer and more expensive. I do my best to get round that by buying reams of paper from a friend's shop who is willing to chop it down, a ream at a time, on his industrial guillotine... that, and a printer/copier that can reduce/enlarge, and a nine-hole punch.
I'm late to this conversation but wanted to chime in! I own one Deskfax, which I bought off Ebay for an excellent price, but I haven't actually used it yet. I'm hesitant because it is big, and I already struggle to carry around an A5 Filofax.
ReplyDeleteThat said, B5 is my favorite page size for a planner. Bound planners with this (or nearabouts) size are very popular in the USA. Planner brands with planners of this size include Passion Planner, Erin Condren, Happy Planner, Commit 30, etc etc. I think there could be a market for the Deskfax to return. But my recommendation would be to make slimmer, less bulky binders. I will cross my fingers and hope!
I have 3 and use them for studying (Open University, Maths). B5 and B6 are excellent sizes and I use a B6 planner. B6 and Personal Wide are very popular sizes and FF is missing a trick by not getting on board. They’ve gone from leaders to followers and it’ll be there undoing.
ReplyDelete