How to specify custom index tabs

Most tab orders that stall on our floor stall for the same reason: the customer knew what the finished set should look like and had no vocabulary for the parts. This is that vocabulary. Get these five things on the purchase order — bank count, set count, stock, punch, and file — and the job goes straight to proof.

Anatomy of a set

A template position is one die placement on the 25-slot grid our layout templates show for a 1/2”-tall tab — the physical spots a tab can occupy on the sheet edge. A bank is one full cycle of steps before the pattern repeats: in a 5-tab bank, step 1 sits at the top, steps 2 through 5 walk down the edge, and the next sheet starts the cycle over. The five steps of a 5-tab bank are distributed across the template grid — they are not template slots 1 through 5. The templates mark which slots each bank uses; build to them.

A set is what the end user holds — every bank in the job, collated in reading order and ready to drop into a binder. Collation is included, not an extra. A paralegal or a service writer never assembles a bank by hand.

How to count what you need

Multiply. If each finished divider set contains two 5-tab banks — say tabs 1 through 10 running as two cycles — and you need 100 finished sets, that is 100 sets of a 10-tab configuration, not 200 sets of 5. Price the way the set is used, not the way it is cut.

Minimum is 25 sets. Below that, ask for a quote; short runs are ordinary work here and come back the same business day.

Choosing a bank count

Five, eight, and ten are the published banks. Custom banks run up to 12 tabs per set, and A–Z and numbered exhibit sets are routine. Per-set price rises with bank count — more positions means more die hits, more collating passes, and more mylar — but it does not rise proportionally, so consolidating two 5-tab banks into one 10-tab bank costs less than ordering twice.

Per set, tabs printed both sides, mylar-reinforced, punched, and collated (body printing is a quoted extra). Setup is free and the PDF proof is free. Note where the ladder breaks: at 5-tab, going from 25 sets to 100 drops the per-set price from $5.25 to $2.30. If your reorder cycle is anywhere near those breaks, order to the break.

Stock and coating

90# index is the standard body stock — heavy enough to survive being flipped a thousand times, thin enough that a ten-bank set does not eat a ring size.

Clear mylar over the tab is standard, with mylar-reinforced holes on the binding edge. Colored mylar is available and makes banks distinguishable across a set without changing the printing; it’s quoted with your job.

Poly is the answer for washdown environments, wet lines, and shop floors where a paper tab turns to pulp. Poly tab sets are quoted rather than laddered — tell us the bank count, the quantity, and what the set has to survive.

Punching and format

Standard punch is three-hole, 5/16” holes on 4-1/4” centers, with mylar reinforcement on the binding edge. Standard tab extension is 1/2” beyond the body of the sheet, and that extension is part of the finished trim size.

Side tabs are the default. Bottom-tab and custom-format sets — nonstandard extensions, unusual punch patterns, oversize or undersize bodies — are quoted the same business day. There is no configurator for those because there is no honest ladder for them.

Artwork, in brief

Three rules cover most of it. Build one page per tab position, in sequence, in a single PDF. Send the file uncollated — cutting happens per position, before collating, and a collated file has to be taken apart before it can be run. And extend bleed into the tab, because the tab is trim, not margin.

The most common tab file error we see is a duplicated page where the artwork was not shifted to the next die position. Use the templates as underlays and that error cannot happen. Full specs, the inset options, and the downloadable true-scale template PDFs are on the artwork page.

Reorders

Dies and files stay on file. A reorder is the job number, the quantity, and the 10-business-day production clock — no setup, no new proof unless the art changed. We manufacture to ±10% of ordered quantity and invoice what ships.

How to order

Standard 5-, 8-, and 10-tab sets price on screen at the order page: pick the bank, pick the quantity, see the ladder price. Poly, custom banks, bottom tabs, and below-minimum runs submit as a quote request from the same form and come back within business hours. Configuration details are on the tabs page, binder pairings on the binders page, and terms on the FAQ.