Glossary of Printing Terms

BACK PRINTING - any printing on the back of the form. Many insurance forms and contracts will have "Terms and Conditions" printed on the back in small gray, almost unreadable, type.

BAR CODES - accurate bar codes on forms and labels is one of our specialties. We offer all formats and quarantee scanning accuracy for inventory control, etc.

BUILD-IN LABELS - we can design and print your form with a buit-in label with water-moisten adhesive on the back. These forms will run through a standard printer and the label is perforated to be removed after printing.

CARBONLESS - often used interchangeably with "NCR", see below.

CARBONLESS OR WITH CARBON - printed using NCR paper, or regular bond paper interleaved with carbon paper.

CLOSE REGISTER - in a multi-color form the two or more colors have to print very close to each other, or actually touching. Their accurate position is important to the appearance of the form.

COLOR SEQUENCE - the colors of paper in a set from top to bottom: e.g. white/canary/pink, white/white/gold, blue/green/green/Manilla Tag.

COLORS OF INK - how many ink colors and what are they: e.g. All Black, All PMS 300 Blue, Black and PMS 032 Red in close register.

CRASH NUMBERING - The number is printed in ink on the top sheet and the NCR paper causes it to be "crashed" as an image on the following sheets in the set.

DO ALL PARTS PRINT THE SAME - is each sheet of the set printed with exactly the same information? Sometimes the last part is a Packing List with the price area blacked out - this requires an extra printing plate which increases the price.

EXTRA PERFORATIONS - these are perforations in addition to the ones that allow the sets to be separated and the side pin-feed strips to be removed. In check printing we usually add one extra perforation between the check and the removable voucher.

HAND WRITTEN FORMS - forms used in the field are often hand written. Some companies prefer forms with carbon for this purpose.

HOLES - are punched through the sets to fit filing systems. The most popular are the standard 3 holes on the left edge of an 8.1/2 x 11 size, and 2 holes punched at the top or bottom of the form, but holes can be punched anywhere on the form.

HOW CARBONLESS WORKS - NCR (No Carbon Required): Brand name of Appleton Paper. Each sheet in a set has micro-encapsulated chemicals. Carbonless works when two layers of these chemicals come together under pressure - e.g. when typed on - the chemicals blend to produce a color - black or blue. It is IMPORTANT that the set is constructed so that two layers of chemical coating come together in the set. e.g. a 3 Part Form would usually be: WhiteCB, CanaryCFB and PinkCF.

CB - coated on BACK only
CFB - coated on FRONT and BACK
CF - coated FRONT only
TAG - in white or manilla, coated FRONT only

HOW MANY PARTS - how many layers of paper are there in one set: e.g. 3 part, 4 part, etc.

MARGINAL WORDS - words printed in red ink at the foot of the form. Each layer can have different words to help in distribution: e.g. ORIGINAL, OFFICE COPY, REMITTANCE COPY, PACKING SLIP, etc.

NUMBERING - the number is printed in ink on all sheets in the set. The different plies of paper are collated together after numbering. This adds to the cost so most customers request Crash Numbering (see below).

PIN FEED - also called Computer Forms. These forms have strips down the sides of the form with holes to match the tractor feed mechanism on the dot matrix printer. They are usually removed after data entry is complete.

SALES BOOKS - the printed forms are perforated at the head and wrap round cover is stapled on. The cover is extra deep and has a fold so it can be tucked between sets so the handwriting pressure will only affect the top set.

SIZE OF FORM - the width from side to side including the tear off strips, and the depth from top perforation to bottom perforation.

SOFTWARE COMPATIBLE - forms such as checks and invoices that are designed with the "fields" positioned to contain the information generated by bookkeeping or word processing software. We print forms compatible with: Quicken, Peachtree and many others.

TAG BACK - the last part of a form set can be printed on a thicker NCR material called Tag. This is a popular feature of Automobile Repair Orders.

TORN OUT SIZE - the size of the business forms after the pin feed strips and any stubs are removed.

WRAP ROUND COVERS - along folded cover attached to the top of a set of forms - usually 25 or 50 sets per sales book (see above).