In my day I went to Guitar Center and purchased the tab book. They were official publications and usually distributed for each album. They were magazine-sized, heavier weight pages, nicely printed and organized, and included the lyrics alongside the tabs which was great. Then I’d go home and hit play with the guitar in my hands.
It was the 90s, so it’s not like I didn’t have Google for searching. Those would give you random sites with ASCII text tabs and did the job as well.