Preprinted numerical or alphabetical index tabs, commonly referred to as legal indexes or legal index tabs are useful in many applications.  These preprinted tabs are used in document preparation and production by law firms and many other business types.

If you are a law firm that is producing a document to be filed with a Court as a part of discovery or litigation, separating the document with tabs referenced by an index cover sheet allows specific passages to be referred to with greater ease and speed.

Legal index tabs are also used when making filings or applications with regulatory agencies.  Depending on the venue that you are providing the document to, you may be required to submit the document in a very specific fashion.  The court or agency may require it to be bound in a certain manner, perhaps velo, gbc, spiral or tape bound.  They may designate the cover material, weight and color or even the paper size.

You may be required to use letter (8.5" x 11"), legal (8.5" x 14") or A4 (11.69" x 8.27") which is the standard size European size sheet.  You may even be required to "top bind" (the short dimension) your document.

Finally, the court or agency may designate a specific style of legal index for you to use.  The choices are many, including numeric, alphabetic and even roman numeral.  You may also wish to combine numeric or alphabetic with the word "Exhibit" printed on the tab.

There are even special title tabs such as "Table of Contents" to be used to make the document's appearance more professional and user friendly.  You will also need to match the tab style with the correct size paper used in the document.

Lastly, you must choose side tabs or bottom tabs.  As you can see, choosing a vendor with a wide selection of readily available tabs will be a great benefit.