Everything About NCR Printing
NCR Printing is widely used for the production of personalised custom Pads for popular business stationary such as Duplicate or Triplicate Invoices, Quote sheets, Order forms and Delivery notes, to name just a few, and is also used extensively in many different industries for specialist forms like Hire Agreements and Waste Transfer Notes.
The main benefit of NCR Printing is that two, three or more duplicate copies of any document can be made without the need for carbon paper. NCR Printing paper is already micro encapsulated with tiny microscopic ink pockets on the underside of each sheet, the result is whatever is written on the top copy is automatically transferred to the paper underneath, making a perfect duplicate copy. This allows a business or trades person to write out a quick invoice, quote or whatever is needed and keep one copy whilst giving a duplicate copy to the customer.
With Triplicate NCR Printing, three copies are made. So, for example, the customer can have one copy, the salesperson driver or whoever writes the document can have a copy and one copy can go to the office or accounts department or wherever it is needed.
At The Pad Printers we specialise in, and only produce, very high quality custom personalised Duplicate & Triplicate NCR Printing for a wide range of industries at industry leading prices, and on this page we outline the whole process in detail.
The Main Processes of NCR Production
Deisgn - The First Stage of NCR Printing
In common with all printing production, custom personalised NCR Printing starts with a high quality design. The design must be high quality because any imperfections in the design will inevitably be transferred onto the copies, which are an exact copy of the original design.
Many businesses already have their own design in a Print Ready format. Print Ready means the design, usually a computer file, is of a very high quality – preferably a minimum of 300dpi (dots per inch) and of the right size and with sharp, clear lines and colours. Without a high quality design, it is not possible or produce good quality NCR Printing.
At The Pad Printers, we make this first stage of NCR Printing as easy as possible. For customers who already have a design, they can simply upload it to our website or email it here.
We also have numerous Popular NCR Printing Templates on our site, which are completely free to use. We have many different templates of documents such as: Invoices, Receipts, Quote Forms, etc, which customers can personalise with their own details and even supply their own logo for us to add.
We also have a Fixed Price Design Service where customers can supply a previous document or even just a handwritten rough design. From there, our design team will produce a print ready design which is forwarded to the customer for approval or to make any changes or amendments. The benefit of this service is customers get an entirely unique document to suit their own needs, which is ready for any size or type of NCR Printing.
NCR Printing Machines
NCR Printing is these days done by most companies on digital printing machines. Digital printing on NCR paper gives a sharp crisp, printing quality and due to the versatility of modern printing machines it is ideal for short runs where customers only need a single pad or just a few pads.
NCR Printing can also be done on a Lithographic Press known in the trade as a “Litho” Press. This older more traditional printing method does give a good print quality however there are two distinct disadvantages.
Firstly, Printing Plates need to be made from the Print Ready design, this of course increases the cost, secondly due to the nature of Litho printing it takes a certain amount of time to set the press up making it ready to run. This means Litho printing is not very cost effective for shorter runs of just a few pads, however on long runs for larger firms Litho printing becomes more cost effective.
NCR Printing Paper
NCR Printing paper is available in many sizes and is usually cut down to the exact Pad size required, which is usually A4 or A5 although A6 & A7 are also often used. We have a Size Guide to help all our customers find out exactly what is best for them..
NCR Printing paper is also available in a variety of colours, most customers want the top sheet white and for the middle and bottom sheets we always keep white, blue, yellow and pink in stock which can be used in any combination to suit. NCR Paper is also available in various paper weights, 60gsm, 70gsm and 80gsm are the industry norms, at The Pad Printers we only ever use the heaviest and highest quality available which is the 80gsm weight.
NCR Pad Customisation
When undertaking NCR Printing on NCR paper, as well as the obvious customisation of printing a unique design and choosing a size, there are several other options to customise NCR Pads.
The first and most crucial area of customisation that impacts NCR Pad Printing is the choice of 2 Part, 3 Part or Multi Part pads. 2 Part Pads also commonly known as Duplicate NCR Pads comprise of 2 copies, the top copy, usually white and a duplicate bottom copy. By far the most popular option comprising approximately 90% of all NCR Pads is duplicate NCR printing which is often used for forms such as invoices or quote sheets where the company keeps the top copy and the customer keeps the bottom copy.
The next option is 3 Part Pads also known as Triplicate Pads comprising of 3 copies, top middle and bottom. Triplicate Pads, although less common than Duplicate, are vital in certain industries for example: they are always used by Central Heating Engineers as it is a legal requirement when doing a mandatory landlords Gas Check to give a copy to both the tenant and the landlord and of course the engineer themself will require a copy for their compliance records.
Some firms require Multi Part Pads containing 4 or more copies, comprising a top sheet, 2 or more middle sheets and a bottom sheet. Hire companies for example often need 4 Part NCR Pads.
The next crucial customisation step is to decide if Pads are required, the most popular option, or just NCR Sets. NCR sets are sets of 2, 3 or more copies collated in order and then glued together but then left loose as opposed to Pads where the NCR Paper after collation is glued or bound into a Pad with a backing board and sometimes a front cover. The choice of Sets or Pads will depend entirely on the needs of each individual business.
Another customisation option for NCR Printing is the option of sequentially numbering the pads which is usually done during the printing process or afterwards often using what is known as a crash numbering machine. Numbering is quite a popular option for NCR Pads, often being chosen for quote or estimate pads and is indeed a legal requirement for invoices which must be numbered.
Another NCR Printing customisation option is for rear printing. Rear printing is usually required for things such as Terms & Conditions which firms often want printing on the back of quotes and invoices.
Collating NCR Pads
Once printed, NCR Paper needs to be collated into sets of the required order for example the top sheet may be white, the middle sheet yellow and the bottom sheet blue. NCR Printing paper only works face side up so it is important that this is done correctly to make sure the NCR paper fulfils its task and copies onto the sheets underneath. Although hand collating can be undertaken, and indeed was the standard method of collating until 20 years ago, these days commercial collating is done by a collating machine.
Collating machines usually have anything from 4 to 10 trays generally known as stations, these trays often look similar to the input tray of a typical modern inkjet or laser printer. Each paper colour must be loaded the correct way up onto a separate tray, the machine will then draw in the sheets and output them in the right order of top to bottom.
Most collating machines can handle paper sizes from A5 up to A3. The machines often align the paper and most modern machines have sensors which trigger an alarm if a particular sheet is missing maintaining the integrity of the sequence of the sets. Modern collating machines will often be able to collate at 5000 sheets or more per hour aiding in the speed and therefore cost effectiveness of the NCR Pad printing process.
Cutting NCR Pads
After collation, if a different size is required such as an A5 NCR Design printed 2 up on an A4 sheet, or 4 up on an A3 sheet, the paper will need to be cut down to size. For this a Paper Guillotine is used.
Guillotines are electric cutting machines with a heavy motorised blade. The NCR Paper is placed on the bed of the machine by the user who is careful to make sure the sheets are correctly aligned. A clamp then comes down to hold the sheets in place along with a safety barrier which is usually a clear Perspex screen. The blade will then come down giving a sharp accurate cut. To aid in very precise cutting many modern guillotines can be pre-programmed to cut down to an exact size.
Making NCR Paper into NCR Pads
After the NCR Paper has been printed with a personalised custom design, collated into Duplicate or Triplicate Sets and cut to size, all that remains is to turn it into a Pad.
NCR Pads can be either landscape or portrait and are always glued along the appropriate edge, and the gluing is the main difference between a Pad and a Book as books are usually bound in different ways and sometimes stapled. To make a pad, the sets are placed between a cover sheet and a backing board and put onto a machine called a Padding Press to be glued. The padding press holds all the sheets together whilst the glue dries and compresses them with significant pressure.
If you are considering NCR Printing and have your own print ready design, you can see all our prices and quantity discounts here. As a specialist NCR Printer we can offer some of the lowest prices in the UK.
If you don’t have print ready artwork we offer numerous Free Templates for items such as Invoices, Quote or Estimate Pads, Delivery Notes etc here as well as dozens of Industry Specific templates which you can view here.
We also cater for firms who want a completely unique, brand new design and as such offer a Fixed Price Design Service where our in-house designers can translate your ideas into print ready artwork, you can view our prices here.
We are very proud of our NCR Printing service and believe it is amongst, if not the best quality available. We use 80gsm Carbonless paper which is the heaviest commercially available NCR paper. Our backing board is 1000 microns thick to create a good solid pad, we believe this is the thickest and strongest backing board available in the UK and unmatched by any of our competitors.
We exclusively use Xerox Digital printers for all our NCR Printing, which are recognised across the industry as offering unbeatably crisp and clear print quality. We back up this belief with our unique “Double The Difference Money Back Guarantee” on NCR printing if anyone can find like for like quality at lower prices. You can see the full details of our 3 Guarantees on Price, Deliver and Quality here.
Hopefully this guide has proven useful for anyone considering NCR Printing but if you have any questions or indeed suggestions on further information about NCR Printing that could be useful please contact us directly here.
NCR Printing Questions & Answers
What is NCR Printing?
NCR Printing is a way to produce Documents that when the top sheet is written on a copy of the writing goes through to the bottom and any middle sheets.
How does NCR Paper work?
NCR Paper is micro encapsulated with ink on the back of each sheet and a special chemical on the front that work together due to the pressure of a pen on the top sheet to create a copy of the writing on the bottom sheet and any middle sheets.
What is NCR Paper used for?
NCR Paper in the form of pads or sets is used wherever two copies of a hand written document are needed, for example to produce invoices or quote sheets.
Is NCR Paper the same as carbonless paper?
Before the advent of NCR Printing a carbon sheet was placed between two sheets of any kind of paper to transfer writing on to the bottom sheet. The invention of NCR paper removed the need for a carbon sheet and so NCR paper is often called Carbonless paper.
How are NCR Pads made?
NCR Pads are first printed, usually with a Digital or Lithographic printing machine, and then collated into the correct order of top middle and bottom sheets. Following that they are then cut to the required size on a paper guillotine. The final stage of the process is to glue the individual sheets into sets or pads on a Padding Press.
How should NCR Pads be stored?
As with any paper or printed material NCR printing paper or pads should be stored in a clean dry environment.