Helpful Tips

This Month's Topic: Foldout Index Tabs
May 2004

Index tabs are a great way to make any book more attractive and user-friendly. In perfect-bound book applications, they can be used to divide chapters or sections, which can be of vital importance for applications such as health-care provider directories. While index tabs are a breeze to include in mechanically-bound books or loose-leaf materials, they require a bit more planning for use in perfect-bound books.

Index tabs are designed to stick out from the face of the book to allow for easy reference. However, perfect-bound books typically require face trimming after binding to achieve the cleanest appearance. That leaves two options when including tabs in perfect-bound books. A face trim can be performed prior to binding the tabs in with the text; or design tabs to foldout after binding to allow for a final face trim.

The second choice is by far the most popular, as it results in a more attractive finished product. Foldout tabs are bound with the text but designed to stop short of the face when folded, allowing books to be trimmed on three sides after binding. The end user then unfolds the tabs, resulting in a clean, attractive appearance.

Index tabs can be bound into the book block and then unfolded by the user, creating a clean finished product.

When planning foldout tabs, there are several critical details to keep in mind:

- Due to the characteristics of perfect binding machines, foldout tabs must be designed to fold to the low-folio side of the book. If you must have the tabs feed on the high-folio side, the tabs will need to be spot glued to keep them from unraveling during production. Let us help you with your project layout if you have questions about tab orientation.

- All tabs must share an identical dimension from spine edge to face. This is critical to achieving an even appearance once the tabs are unfolded. It also ensures that tabs with color breaks appear evenly from head to foot. When designing your tabs, don't forget to account for the 1/8" grind-off margin at the spine! This should be factored into your spine-to-fold dimension for all tabs.

- Multiple folded tabs should be staggered so that the folds are at least 3/8" apart (spine to face) to prevent uneven bulking. While there's no set order to which the tabs should be staggered, a good rule of thumb is to stagger them in groups of five. That allows you to create an even bulk to your books, even if you have many tabs.

The Allied Advantage
Let Allied Bindery help you design your perfect-bound book projects to take advantage of index tabs. Our extensive perfect binding capabilities include PUR adhesive binding, which allow you to include attractively-designed index tabs with heavy ink or coating coverage. With additional services such as notch binding, tape binding, mechanical binding, saddle stitching, folding, cutting, collating and shrink wrapping, we're your single source for a complete range of post press needs.