Custom Index Tab Order Data: What 5,700 Real Tab Sets Look Like

If you are ordering custom tabs for the first time, these are the choices most buyers make — a useful default when you are not sure what to pick.

• Tab cut: 1/5 is 53% of all sets (3,028 of 5,709)
• Tabs per set: 5 is the median and the most common count
• Paper weight: 78% chose 90 lb index over 110 lb (3,192 of 4,072)
• Mylar color: 71% clear, 29% colored (3,649 of 5,153)
• Binding-edge reinforcing: added to 46% of sets (2,461 of 5,311)
• Sets per order: median 200; 48% ordered 100 to 249 sets

The 1/5 cut — five tab positions across the page edge — accounts for more than half of everything the plant cuts. The next most common are 1/4 and 1/7 (10% each), then 1/6 (7%), 1/8 (5%) and 1/10 (4%). Cuts from 1/11 to 1/15 together make up about 7%, mostly for long numbered sets.

The pattern follows readability: a 1/5 tab is 2 inches wide on a letter sheet, enough for a two- or three-word title. Sets with more sections than the cut allows step into a second bank rather than shrinking the tabs.

Among orders on 90 lb or 110 lb index, 78% chose 90 lb. 110 lb is picked for binders that are handled daily for years; it is stiffer and costs 5 cents more per tab.

Clear Mylar on the tab is the choice 71% of the time; 29% of sets use one or more of the 19 colors, often to color-code sections. Binding-edge reinforcing — the strip along the punched edge that stops holes tearing out of the rings — is added to 46% of sets.

53% of sets ship unpunched, 39% 3-hole punched and 8% 2-hole punched. Unpunched sets often go on to a bindery, or into coil, wire or post binding.

41% of sets are collated — assembled in tab order, ready to drop into a binder — and 59% ship uncollated, stacked by position, which suits buyers who assemble binders in volume. 88% are printed on both sides of the tab, so the title reads from either direction.

94% of sets are letter size; legal size is 3%. 21% are bottom (hanging) tabs, with the tabs along the lower edge, and 79% are side tabs.

Across the 3,237 tab sets with a recorded quantity, the median order is 200 sets. 48% of orders are for 100 to 249 sets, 18% for 250 to 499, 11% for 500 to 999 and 8% for 1,000 or more; 14% are under 100. Tabzoola's online minimum is 25 sets, so a first order can be a fraction of a typical run and the saved design reorders unchanged.

Source: the Anselmo Die & Index plant's job records for tab sets ordered from January 2016 to September 2026. Each figure is the share of sets where that detail was recorded, so the totals behind each line differ. Heavier and specialty stocks the plant runs that are not sold online (140 lb index, ivory index and cover stock) are left out of the weight comparison. No customer, company or industry is identified, and the figures describe the plant's overall order book rather than any one kind of buyer.

Cite as: Tabzoola Custom Tab Order Data, September 2026 edition, tabzoola.com/guides/custom-tab-order-data.