How Carbonless Forms Work

NCR carbonless forms are printed with paper containing microcapsules on the papers surfaces that transfers the original image to the multi part carbonless copies underneath eliminating the need for messy carbon paper.  NCR is also known as no carbon required and comes available in 2 part carbonless (white/yellow), 3 part carbonless (white/yellow/pink), and 4 part carbonless (white/yellow/pink/gold) sequences known as pre-collated carbonless forms.  Carbonless forms are also available in custom sequences in up to 5 parts.  With pre-collated carbonless forms any after printing collation of the multiple parts is eliminated resulting in a low cost carbonless form.  Custom sequence carbonless forms require each copy or part to be printed individualy and then collated either by hand or machine after the printing process.  Most carbonless forms are edge glued after printing resulting in a form that can be manually separated or pulled apart after the carbonless copies are imaged.  Some carbonless forms are called snap out forms such as receipt books or invoices and are perforated with a stub so that the individual parts of the invoice can be separated from the stub while keeping the other copies intact. 

The microcapsules on carbonless paper transfers the top copy image to the multiple parts underneath by pressure applied by pen, pencil, or mechanical strike (such as a dot matrix printer head) allowing the image to be transferred as a duplicate of the top copy.  The liquid dye and oil-filled microcapsules on carbonless ncr paper requires sufficient pressure applied to make the image transfer visible on subsequent copies.  For this reason you must apply sufficient pressure when writing on carbonless copy papers.  Also be aware that 4 part carbonless paper will require more pressure than 2 part carbonless paper to get the desireable image transfer.

At Discount Printing Service we use NCR brand carbonless paper for superior quality 2 part, 3 part and 4 part printed forms.  All of our carbonless forms printing products are made in the USA.