Inkwell Press Planner Review – 360 Discbound (Pros, Cons and Pen Test)
The Inkwell Press Planner has been on my planner wish list for a long time, especially since they bought out discbound. However, the planner is pricey and international shipping is super expensive so I could never justify the cost. My sister has been stalking destash planner Facebook Groups for ages and finally came across one!
Quick facts
- Size: 7 x 9″
- Leather Cover
- Aluminium disc binding
- Dates at a glance page
- 2 page Monthly calendar (starts on Sunday)
- 2 page weekly spread (starts on Monday)
- Tabs
- Notes pages
- Subtle colorful inside pages
- Thick, smooth high quality paper (pen test at the end of this post)
- Ships from the USA
Let’s take a closer look!
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The Cover
There are a few cover options to choose from so wouldn’t have chosen the brown vegan leather if I’d purchased direct from Inkwell Press.
The cover is really sturdy and a similar quality to the ARC from Staples.
Note that the person I bought it from had used some of the months however they added the dot grid refill at the back so I suspect a full brand new planner would be about the same as this (approx 0.75″ thick)
Monthly Planning
I like the hexagon theme for the habit trackers. While it’s something different for the mission board, there’s not a lot of space to write in the hexagon’s – it’s not very functional.
The monthly planning pages colors match the monthly calendar + weekly spreads.
Monthly Calendar
Starts Sunday (not consistent with the weekly spread)
Nice subtle colors throughout the planner
Unfortunately they do the annoying split boxes rather than just restarting the numbering on the top row.
Monthly Notes
At the end of the weekly spreads are 2 notes pages before the monthly planning & monthly calendar appears again.
Weekly Planning
There are 4 color themes throughout: pink, green, blue and yellow.
I’m not normally a fan of yellow however the yellow with grey in this planner = <3
Love that the design maximises the page without wasting space
The 3 boxes for each day could be used for anything – top 3 most important tasks, reminders, appointments, things due today, meal planning etc.
Saturday and Sunday have the same amount of space as a weekday.
Extras pages
The Inkwell Press Planners don’t come with extra pages by default although there are plenty of optional add ons e.g. meal planning, goals, dot grid, graph paper etc.
Tabs
The destash / 2nd hand version I got didn’t have tabs however if you purchase direct from Inkwell Press they do include monthly tabs for free.
Pen Testing
I was super keen to do a pen test on the thick, smooth, bright white paper!
After pen testing more than 150 planners, Inkwell Press has the best paper I’ve ever come across in a planner! I can’t believe I’ve finally found a planner that has NO pen or highlighter ghosting OR bleed through.
The MAMBI stamps which always bleed through did have some bleed but much less than most planners.
Price
As this was a destash, it’s not a complete planner. If you were to purchase the same as the one I got brand new, it would cost (all prices in USD)
- $19 for the gold aluminium discs
- $19 for the vegan leather cover (although there are nicer cover options available that are $14 USD)
- $29 12 months weekly flex layout (horizontal)
- Free monthly tabs
Total = $67 USD + shipping
And add another $12USD (plus shipping) for the dot grid refill pages.
Prices current as of 2019.
Pros of the Inkwell Press Planner
- Discbound!
- Sturdy aluminium discs (in gold or silver)
- Pick and choose inserts e.g. dot grid, dated inserts, meal planning
- Quality cover
- Multiple cover designs to choose from
- Nice subtle colors without being over done or too bright and ‘in your face’
- The normal planner comes with tabs (the destash one I got did not have them)
- Discs and cover can be reused year after year
- Best paper quality of more
Cons of the Inkwell Press Planner
- Expensive planner
- Expensive international shipping
- No cover personalisation
- They do not have a discbound punch (although I suspect they will bring one out in the future)
Would I Use this planner?
I definitely would as it’s discbound + I like the layout and the aesthetics. However… it’s very expensive. $67 USD for a planner excluding shipping and any accessories is steep. The cover is similar to the ARC though, in that you can keep using the same cover and discs year after year. If you kept reusing them, it would actually end up being a lot more affordable – annual dated refills are $29 USD plus shipping.
You could also use the Inkwell for bullet journaling with their dot grid refill paper.
The company also has vertical and daily planning layouts as well as notepads and sewn bound journals.
Is it compatible with other discbound planners?
I will be doing a separate blog post sometime in the future with a comparison of discs, ring spacing and page sizes for all of the discbound notebooks that I have (click here to subscribe to be notified when the post is published).
After comparing the Inkwell press with the ARC, TUL and MAMBI Happy Planner, the disc size, stem length and overall fit was closest to the ARC:
You won’t be able to use MAMBI classic with the Inkwell Press are MAMBI is an extra 0.25″ high.
More planner reviews:
Planning Tips:
- Guide to Discbound Planners & Frequently Asked Questions
- ARC by Staples versus MAMBI – Which discbound system is better?
- How to organize recipes plus a free printable recipe binder
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