NCR

Stay accountable and efficient with printed NCR sets, books and pads – order online

Even in our digital age, professionally printed NCR sets are useful assets to have during a busy working day. They provide a palpable and branded paper trial and form part of your essential business stationery.

NCR is an acronym that stands for “No Carbon Required”, also referred to as carbonless copy paper (CCP), and these tangible printed products are actually quite remarkable … practical too.

If you’re of a certain age (shh, we won’t tell) then you may remember the old duplicate books or invoice pads that required a piece of dark blue carbon paper, which, when positioned in between two sheets of paper, imprinted your writing on the subsequent sheet. And this was often quite a messy process even if it did save time.

Printed NCR booklet sets or pads offer tidy convenience

Nowadays, an NCR set (or duplicate pad) can be printed and bound in an array of shapes and sizes to suit your needs from an A5 receipt booklet or order book to an A4 training session note pad. The big plus today is that there’s no separate scruffy carbon sheet and your fingers remain clean.

The trades and retailers make good use of NCR sets, especially when recording service records on-site or attending sales events and exhibitions. Setting up an EPOS system is an unnecessary expense and time constraint and often, electronic ordering and payment devices are not transportable due to bulk or power restrictions.

Another frequent scenario where a printed NCR set would be ideal is for goods that need delivering on-site. The company selling the product would need a copy, as would the purchaser, but so too could a delivery driver or third-party wholesaler.

Branded bespoke NCR booklets

An NCR template layout may be suitable for your business to record transactions but you have the option to use a 100% bespoke design due to the advancement of paper and printing technology. First off, choose the ideal size. Typically, pads, booklets or sets are A4 (210 x 297mm) or A5 (148 x 210mm) in dimension but alternative sizes are available.

Many people don’t realise how versatile NCR sets can be but for the sake of a quick phone call to the Panda Team on 01785 815110 and a little extra budget, printed NCR products can accommodate many features to include:

• Sequential numbering
• Product code numbers – multiple of sequential
• The perforation of one or more sheets
• Multiple NCR paper colours for identification
• Different print on separate NCR paper sheets
• The addition of a bar code
• Variable printed colours

An ideal situation to use printed NCR documents would be some kind of agreement form – a contract or goods received document where a signature is required. A printed piece of paper is less easy to forge than an electronic copy … we would hope.

So how does NCR paper work?

Great question! Without getting too technical there will always be at least two sheets in order for NCR forms to work – hence the reference to a duplicate set.

The back of the first sheet of paper has a microencapsulated dye applied to the reverse. The subsequent sheet of paper has a fine clay coating applied to its face which reacts with the dye from the first sheet when pressure is applied i.e. your pen. This pressure causes the microcapsules to crack and release the dye.

The process is very accurate and multiple sheet layers can be included. A dot matrix printer can accommodate NCR sheets so the office staff can print and keep or distribute multiple copies of the same document.

The clay and dye applications are barely visible to the naked eye and there’s certainly not inky mess to contend with. The only slight giveaway is that you may struggle to write on the reverse of the first sheet because of the dye – think of it as trying to write on greaseproof paper.

Trust in the Panda Difference – we’re here for you.

Not only are NCR sets versatile but they are also very cost effective with a few printed pads or forms starting from less than £100.

If you’re after a specific design or layout please call 01785 815110 or request a quote online today.