How to Turn Ultimate Guitar Tabs Into a Printed Book

You've been using Ultimate Guitar for years. You've got dozens — maybe hundreds — of tabs favorited, bookmarked, or saved in playlists. They're great on screen. But when you sit down to practice, you're scrolling on your phone, squinting at tiny text, and losing your place every time the screen dims.

What if all those tabs were in a single printed book on your music stand? Organized by artist, genre, or difficulty. With a table of contents. And a cover that actually looks like a real guitar book.

Here's how to make that happen in about 30 minutes.

You Have 50 Tabs. Now What?

Ultimate Guitar is the biggest tab library on the internet. If you play guitar, you've used it. The problem isn't finding tabs — it's what happens after. Your favorites list grows, but it's just a list. You can't organize it into chapters. You can't print it as a book. You can't hand it to a bandmate or put it on a music stand.

The fix is simple: save your tabs as PDFs, upload them to MakeMySongBook, organize them into chapters, design a cover, and print. Five steps, no account required, and your book is ready to order or print at home.

Step 1: Save Your Tabs as PDFs

Open each tab on Ultimate Guitar and switch to the Text or Chords view. These views render cleanly on paper — the interactive tab player does not.

Then save the page as a PDF:

• Windows/Linux: Press Ctrl + P and select "Save as PDF" as your printer
• Mac: Press Cmd + P, then click "PDF" in the bottom-left and choose "Save as PDF"

Work through your favorites list and save the tabs you want in your book. Aim for 30-60 songs — enough to make a proper book without it becoming unwieldy. You can always make a second volume later.

Step 2: Upload to MakeMySongBook

Open the builder and drag all your PDF files into the upload area. You can upload them all at once — there's no limit. MakeMySongBook reads each PDF and creates a song entry with the correct page count. A 3-page tab becomes a 3-page song in your book.

Everything happens in your browser. Your files don't get uploaded to a server — they stay on your computer. No account needed, no sign-up wall.

Step 3: Organize Into Chapters

This is where your tab collection starts feeling like a real book. Create chapters and drag songs into them. Here are some ways guitarists organize their books:

• By artist: All your Hendrix in one chapter, all your Mayer in another. Great for fans who want to deep-dive one artist at a time.
• By difficulty: Start with easy open-chord songs, work up to fast solos. Perfect for structured practice.
• By tuning: Standard, Drop D, DADGAD, Open G. No more retuning between every song.
• By genre: Blues, rock, folk, metal, jazz. Makes it easy to grab the right chapter for the mood.

Each chapter gets a divider page and its own section in the auto-generated table of contents. You can reorder songs within chapters by dragging them.

Step 4: Design Your Cover

Give your book a title — something like "My Guitar Book", "Acoustic Favorites", or "Drop D Collection". Pick from the built-in guitar artwork, choose a color theme, and add your name as the author. The cover prints as the first page of your PDF.

This is what turns a stack of tabs into something that feels like a real book. Something you'd be proud to have on your music stand.

Step 5: Get It Printed

MakeMySongBook lets you order a professionally printed book delivered to your door. You have three binding options, and for guitarists, the choice matters:

Spiral Binding — The Guitarist's Choice

A spiral-bound book lays completely flat on a music stand. You can open it to any page and it stays put — no hand needed to hold it open. This is what most guitarists want. If you practice with a music stand (and you should), spiral is the answer.

Softcover — The Bookshelf Book

A softcover book looks like a real published guitar tab book — the kind you'd buy at a music store. It's got a proper spine and a professional feel. The trade-off: it doesn't lay as flat as spiral, so you may need to crease the spine or hold it open during practice. Great for books you want to display or give as gifts.

Magazine — The Jam Session Copy

A magazine-style print is affordable and lightweight. Staple-bound, like a concert program. Perfect for making cheap copies to hand out at jam sessions, or for a setlist book you'll replace every few months. Not as durable, but you won't mind if it gets coffee-stained at a rehearsal.

A Note on Copyright

Tabs on Ultimate Guitar are user-submitted transcriptions. Printing them in a book for your own personal practice is generally fine — this is no different from printing a tab on your home printer, which guitarists have done since the internet existed.

What you shouldn't do: sell a book made from other people's tabs, distribute copies publicly, or claim the transcriptions as your own work. Keep it personal and you're good.

Tips for Guitarists

• Include tuning notes: If a song uses alternate tuning, mention it in the song title — e.g., "Black Mountain Side (DADGAD)". Saves you guessing during practice.
• Group by set: If you play gigs, create chapters that match your setlists. Your book becomes your gig companion.
• Add blank pages: Leave a blank page after songs you're still learning so you can jot notes during practice.
• Use the Chords view for sing-alongs: If you play campfire guitar, the Chords view with lyrics is better than full tablature. Save those as separate PDFs.
• Make themed volumes: Instead of one massive book, make "Volume 1: Blues", "Volume 2: Classic Rock", etc. Easier to grab the right one.

Frequently Asked Questions