Legal pads are among the most famous types of notepad. They are called legal pads because they have been used by lawyers for decades, although many other consumers use them as well. Technically, the only requirement for a true “legal pad” is that it must have margins which are 1.25 inches (3.17) centimeters from the left hand side. This margin leaves room to make notes or comments. Legal pads can come in all sizes and colors, but most people think of yellow pads with letter sized tear off sheets, attached at the top with gum, rather than stitches or spirals.

The reason for the yellow color of classic legal pads is actually rather mysterious, although there are several competing theories. Knowing about the history of the legal pad will help to shed some light on the color. According to the American Pad and Paper Company, a man named Thomas Holley conceived of the idea of using sortings, the scraps of paper left after cutting it into sheets, to make small notepads. Previously, the sortings had gone to waste, and Holley's idea was well received. He started a company which began producing notepads in an assortment of sizes.

Lawyers clearly adopted the pads because their profession requires a great deal of writing and note taking. With time, notepads which produced letter size paper came to be known as legal pads, because the pads could be easily placed into client files. Oddly enough, legal sized legal pads are not as common as they once were, due to an effort to keep legal paperwork at a standardized size. The guiding lines help to keep writing even and straight, and apparently the larger margin was added by special request from the legal community.

How the color yellow came to be associated with legal pads is a matter for some debate. The American Pad and Paper Company says that yellow was chosen because it was more intellectually stimulating. Dark print on light backgrounds is certainly easier to read, and yellow paper is less likely to create painful glare than white paper. It is also how difficult to tell how old paper from a legal pad is, since paper yellows with time. Or, the paper may have been uniformly dyed yellow to help conceal the fact that it was made from an assortment of recycled material.

Whatever the original reason, legal pads appear to be married to the color yellow. Many legal firms have actually switched to white pads, because yellow paper cannot easily be recycled. Some people also prefer the brighter contrast of dark ink on white paper. It seems unlikely, however, that the yellow legal pad will ever vanish entirely.