Instructions for Printing and Constructing Tabs

Materials

  • Color Printer that supports printing on 65lb card stock (most ink jets should support this).
  • 65lb card stock.
  • Paper cutter or roller cutter, ruler, and cutting mat.
  • Scissors.
  • PDF of the tabs you want to print out.

Optional

  • Thermal laminator

Process

  1. Print the PDF to your color printer, being sure not to shrink to fit or use any other sizing options but “actual size”. If your printer supports borderless printing, this is a good idea to turn on so that the cutting guides are as close to the edge as possible.
  2. (optional) laminate the sheets.  Laminated tabs tend to look nicer and are quite a bit more firm than plain paper tabs, so I highly recommend doing so if possible.
  3. Cut out the main rectangle of each tab with the paper cutter or roller cutter and ruler, then, using scissors (or, if you are handy with the roller cutter, use that) make the two cuts to allow the tab to stick out above the main area.
  4. Your tabs are ready to use!  Take care to add stilts to your boxes if your tabs are taller than the normal box height, you don’t want to crush them.

Thoughts are stripped of their texture to form words that they might be colored by the mind of another.