June 2003: Index Tabbing

Index tabs are a great way to make books and binders more user-friendly. Products such as cookbooks and technical manuals are ideal candidates for index tabs, especially when they’re mechanically-bound. Tabs also complement loose-leaf products such as ring binders, which are often filled with many more sheets than a bound book.

Index tabs require careful planning in order to appear correctly. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when designing your tabs:

Properly calculate tab size

Tabs are typically designed to appear evenly in banks (or rows). As the number of tabs in a bank increases, the size of each tab decreases. To determine tab size, start by subtracting 1/2” from both the top and bottom of the length of the indexed sheet. Then divide the remainder by the number of tabs desired.  On an 11” sheet, for example, subtracting 1/2” from both the top and bottom will give you 10 inches of actual tabbing space.  These 10 inches are then divided by the number of tabs required.  For a bank of 4 tabs, each tab should be 2-1/2” long (10 ¸ 4). For a bank of 5 tabs, each tab should be 2” long.

Tab copy considerations

Tab copy should appear centered across the width of the tab. To determine proper copy placement, subtract 1/16” from each edge of the tab to make sure the copy will fit properly. In addition, subtract 1/32” from the bottom of the tab and then position your copy for best appearance. This extra margin ensures that your copy won’t be obscured by the pages the tab divides.

Want Mylar with that?

Mylar reinforcement can be placed at both the spine edge and tab area for extra reinforcement in high-abuse tab applications. It’s also available in many colors to complement the design of your book or binder. When planning tabs for Mylar reinforcement, be sure to use only wax-free inks and coatings to ensure proper adhesion. Also, let Eckhart & Company help you select tab stock. Overly-porous stocks may allow air pockets to form during Mylar application.

The Eckhart Advantage

At Eckhart and Company, we can incorporate index tabs into any mechanically-bound book or custom ring binder project. Our “under-one-roof” production capabilities allow us to handle the full range of production for these projects, so give us a call to see how we can improve your next project with index tabs.

Back Issues:

• April 2004  Turn Your Mechanically Bound Book Into a Display Piece

• March 2004  Large Diameter Spiral Wire Binding

• February 2004  Perfect Binding

• January 2004  Our Capabilities

• December 2003  Turned Edge Advantages

• November 2003  Semi-Concealed Wire-O

• October 2003  The Advantages of UV Coating

• September 2003  Mechanical Binding Inserts

• August 2003  The Advantages of Prototypes

• July 2003  Calendars

• June 2003  Index Tabbing

• May 2003  Plastic Comb Binding

• April 2003  Mechanical Binding Options

• March 2003  News From BookTech

• February 2003  Plastic Spiral Binding

• January 2003  Serving Our Customers

• December 2002  Wire-O Covers

• November, 2002 Spiral Wire Production

• October, 2002 Wire-O Binding

• September, 2002 Mechanical Binding Basics

• August, 2002 Cased-In Wire-O