Itoya Art Profolio Multi-Ring Mounting Board Review:
In my last post, I reviewed the Itoya Art Profolio Multi-Ring Refillable Binder, and how I was using it to showcase some of my work. Overall, I am very happy with the binder but with one exception. I wanted something different than the supplied PolyGlass refill sheets. This lead me to the Itoya Art Profolio Multi-Ring Mounting Boards.
Reasons For The Itoya Art Profolio Multi-Ring Mounting Board:
I looked at a lot of different options to showcase my photos but had two requirements in mind: One was I wanted my prints completely exposed meaning I didn’t want my photos to be encased in some sort of plastic sheet. There’s no doubt that the Itoya PolyGlass Pages sheets offer excellent clarity; it’s just that I print on Kodak Endura Metallic paper a lot, and I like how they look when they are completely unobstructed.
↑ The crystal clear Itoya PolyGlass sheets that are included with the multi-ring binder.
The other requirement was I wanted to keep my 3:2 format, which is quite hard to find. I know, some of the other ratios are more accepted in certain areas of photography but I didn’t care. This was my personal collection of photos, and therefore, I wanted to keep my own 3:2 format.
Because of what I required, I knew I had to get some sort of mounting board. Then I can leave my prints exposed by just simply attaching them to the mounting board with something like a glue stick. Second, the 3:2 format is extremely hard to find, so I knew I needed to make sure my mounting boards were larger than my prints. I ended up getting 11×17 mounting boards for my 10×15 prints. I picked this size because I felt this was the largest size that I could get away with in terms of travel convenience. These reasons are how I ended up discovering the Itoya mounting boards, and ultimately purchasing their multi-ring binder.
↑ A pack of 10 11×17 Itoya Art Profolio Multi-Ring Mounting Boards.
↑ The Itoya Photo Glue I use to mount my images to the boards.
The Itoya Art Profolio Multi-Ring Mounting Board Verdict:
Overall, these Itoya Art Profolio Multi-Ring Mounting Boards really work out well for me. They are matte black and acid free. They’re rigid enough to use by themselves if you want to take them out of the binder. They are also durable enough to take the wear and tear of being used a lot. Lastly, the photo glue that I use does not warp the boards in any way. Best of all, I have no sheen on my photos left by plastic sheets, and therefore, I have a completely unobstructed view of my work, which is what I wanted in the first place. The Itoya mounting boards are also reasonably priced, so adding more boards in the future shouldn’t be a problem. As I said before, all I use is a glue stick to mount my photos to these boards, which only costs a few dollars at most, so mounting is also cheap.
↑ Hopefully, this image will give you an idea of the thickness of the mounting boards.
Another point worth mentioning is since I had to buy a slightly larger mounting board than my print sizes (because I wanted to keep the 3:2 format), the excess board actually frames the print very nicely, and gives the viewer some place to handle the board with their fingers. I’m using 11×17 mounting boards but there are many different sizes and you can also get them in both vertical and horizontal format. There’s not much else to say about these mounting boards, which is why I enclosed a few large photos in this post to give you all a closer look at this Itoya product.
↑ Here’s a photo of mine (taken with the Fuji X-T1 and Zeiss Touit 12mm F2.8) mounted on the Itoya mounting boards.
Part of the reason why I wanted to write this review was because I actually didn’t find much info on these mounting boards, so hopefully these photos and this post will give anyone interested in this product a better idea of what they might be investing in. If you’re interested in displaying your work in this way, you should definitely consider these mounting boards. The Itoya Art Profolio Multi-Ring Mounting Boards work out great, they’re durable, cost effective, and have a nice professional look to them.
If you’re interested in these mounting boards, you might also want to read my Itoya Art Profolio Multi-Ring Refillable Binder Review.
