Printing Tabs - Straight or Reverse

[ReproElectroProspero]

When printing documents with tabs on your digital machines, which kind of tab style do you prefer?

This has become a recent debate in our shop. Some say that reverse tabs are the best, while others say that straight tabs are the best.

In my experience, it doesn't really matter, but I was curious if there was a prevailing opinion on the issue.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

For coherence when printing, reverse tabs are best, as it produces tabs that are in logical order when evaluating print output. I typically print them "per bank of 5".

However, when a project is not a full bank of tabs, I think that starts to make less sense, and have wanted to order non-collated tabs at times, as I have, from projects that had some non-full bank sets of tabs, a lot of tabs in the 1 and 2 positions (which are also the 4 and 5 positions), and only full sets with the 3 position. It have to cannibalize a lot of full sets to get that middle tab.

I think what makes the most sense is to order a bunch of reverse-collated tabs, and a hefty supply of middle tabs, but I have not yet done that.

 

[kslight]

I don’t normally run precut tabs these days, but the prevailing need for one direction of the other was often dictated by which machine or paper drawer I intended to feed from.

 

[bill kahny]

It also depends if the tab prints 2 sided or 1 sided

 

[namelessentity]

My b&w printer needs straight collated tabs so that's what I order. We also typically use 6 bank tabs. They don't have a center, so it's easier to re-use them.

 

[bcr]

When printing documents with tabs on your digital machines, which kind of tab style do you prefer?

This has become a recent debate in our shop. Some say that reverse tabs are the best, while others say that straight tabs are the best.

In my experience, it doesn't really matter, but I was curious if there was a prevailing opinion on the issue.

If I print them from the bypass tray the printer wants reverse collate. From tray 2 or 3 it's forward collate.

Beyond this I don't see how it makes any real difference though

 

[ReproElectroProspero]

My b&w printer needs straight collated tabs so that's what I order. We also typically use 6 bank tabs. They don't have a center, so it's easier to re-use them.

do you make your own? I only ever see 5 and 8 bank sold by my suppliers.

 

[namelessentity]

do you make your own? I only ever see 5 and 8 bank sold by my suppliers.

We order from a custom tab company called Tabs Etc. They're always quick for us.