This page is meant to be informational on the Circa, Arc, and TUL binding disc system for holding papers together. This is one of my favorite new ways to put custom notebooks together to organize consolidate, reorder sometimes disparate information.

Based off information in the Wikipedia articles on disc-binding systems, it was originally patented in Europe in 1948. It was then patented in the United States in 1995 and sold under the Flic brand.

• Disc Notebook System Patent - https://patents.google.com/patent/US5553959?oq=disc+binding+system
• Binding Machine for Discs - https://patents.google.com/patent/US6074152?oq=disc+binding+notebook

The discs themselves in their current state are no longer patented and can be duplicated and cloned. That said, it APPEARS that the Circa, Arc and TUL models of disc are fairly interchangeable, at least with the hole punch sizes and distances to one another. Tolerances will probably vary slightly but they seem to play together well enough. The standard seems to be a Letter size arrangement and a junior size arrangement.

In order for it to work, you need the discs, and you need some way to properly and consistently punch the holes in the paper. After that it's a simple assembly process of popping in the discs into the paper slot. Care will need to be taken when adding thinner paper stock but they hold pretty well. It'd be interesting to find out how the disc system, three-ring binds vs spiral bound paper all hold up under load and in most conditions.

The Levenger Circa seems to be the more premium brand for the discs on the surface but things are not always what they seem. In bulk retail, the Levenger discs prices are fairly reasonable, at 1000 3/4 inch discs for approx $140 retail depending on discounts and shipping. 1000 discs would be enough for approx 100 notebooks. Granted you'd be locked in to a specific size ring binding. With Levenger Circa, the discs come in various colors, range in price from about $18-22 USD for 22 plastic discs, and special metal discs in machined aluminum or copper at $22 - $35 for 11 discs.

The size discs sold by levenger include 1/4 inch, 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch, 1 inch, 1.5 inch, 2 inch, 3 inch. The number of pages that can fit in each ring set will vary depending on paper stock weight and covers used but one important thing is not to overfill any particular size.

Levenger also sells 3 different hole punches for your own paper.

• Circa 1-2-3 Portable punch $22 - The smaller punch that can do multiple size pages. No indication of how many pages it can punch at one time.
• Circa Universal Desk Punch $55 - The medium size punch that can do about 6 sheets of regular paper at a time.
• Circa Leverage Punch $85 - The “large” size punch that can do about 15 sheets of copy paper at once, or 5 sheets of index card stock. The advantage of this punch is the elimination of the hanging chads and the amount you can do at once.

The Staples ARC discs appear to come in 1 inch and 1.5 inch sizes discs in both plastic and metal and in a few colors. A 12-pack of 1 inch black discs comes at $3.00, putting them at $.25 per disc approx. A 12-pack of 1.5 inch black discs is $4.00, putting them at $.33 per disc. The ARC discs, at the time of this writing can be purchased in black, pink, light green, silver aluminum, and gold aluminum.

• The Staples Arc Desktop Punch at $53 can do about 8 sheets of copy paper at once.

The TUL Discs which appear to be an Office Depot brand come in three sizes. 1 inch, 1.5 inch, and 2 inch. A pack of 12 1.5 inch discs comes to about $3.79 retail

• The TUL Discbound Hole Punch is $34.99 and can punch in two different “lengths” about 8 sheets of 20 lb paper (copy paper).

For my purposes of trying to find ways to punch MORE paper, more reliably the Happy Planner Paper punch isn't likely worth mentioning. It has a slightly different die arrangement in the punch where it may have trouble playing with the other systems even more so. That and it's definitely a small run kind of punch.

An interesting an inexpensive alternative to disc binding is called comb binding. Plastic comb binding is used to create small booklets inexpensively. The punch and binder machines often combine both processes and can be acquired inexpensively. Though pages will not be easily removed and rearranged, the booklets could be made less expensively, and reprinted / bounded again again at less expense. Part of the appeal is the availability of the machinery.

• Circa / Rolla Flickr Gallery
• Atoma Original Disc Binding System (Europe Only)
• Atoma Rings and Punch at CultPen
• $200 Comb punch / binder machine
• Discbound Etsy Shop with some fun odds and ends and good project pricing