Laser formats are becoming increasingly popular among businesses today as people transition from more traditional carbon-based forms and checks to more innovative carbonless solutions. Through the use of a combination of carbonless forms and laser checks, you can increase efficiency, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness in the long run as you move your printed materials into the next era.
While you might be aware of carbonless forms and laser checks, you might not know exactly how they work and how to print them. Here we’ll explore these new formats and how you can integrate them into your printed solutions.
What Are Carbonless Forms?
Carbonless forms consist of carbonless laser paper that helps forms to a more efficient laser format. Carbonless paper has replaced outdated carbon paper, which was a popular format for many types of forms.
Carbon forms have historically comprised multiple sheets of “carbon interleaved” paper that helped create multiple carbon copies of a single form. Using this paper, you would write on the top piece of paper, and the pressure of the pen or pencil on it would develop an imprint on the bottom two or three sheets.
While seemingly convenient, carbon paper comes with certain downsides that make carbonless forms more appealing. One issue came down to security—unless people shredded the carbon copies of the completed forms, others could clearly read them once discarded. Another problem pertained to the mess this paper made because of the black-colored carbon on these sheets, which would smudge and get on people’s hands while completing each form.
To provide people with an effective alternative to carbon paper, the first type of carbonless paper came along in 1954.
How Do Carbonless Forms Work?
This paper uses a combination of a coated front (CF) and a coated back (CB) that contain chemicals within capsules. When a writing utensil makes contact with these capsules, they break open. In the process, the CF chemicals become darker, following along with the movement of the pen or pencil.
While older forms of carbonless paper used solvent-based capsules and didn’t work with today’s laser printers, modern advances in carbonless laser paper have made this material compatible with laser printing.
There are many benefits of using carbonless forms, including:
- Increased efficiency due to the automated duplication of forms for improved business operations
- Instant copy creation that saves more time
- Improved clarity compared to outdated carbon forms allowing for increased legibility
- Added sustainability through the use of more environmentally-friendly carbonless materials that you can easily recycle
What Are Laser Checks?
In addition to carbonless forms, another innovation that has helped businesses of all types when printing various materials is the laser check. These check designs offer more customization and superior quality compared to traditional printed checks.
Using laser checks, you’ll benefit from more efficiency and compatibility with most types of software. You can also easily select the color options that work best with your brand and easily enter all required information in corresponding fields. In turn, you can fully customize laser business checks based on your specific needs while preventing fraud and other security risks.
How Do Laser Checks Work?
Laser checks use accounting software and an inkjet or laser printer to produce high-quality custom business checks.
Laser check printing systems offer numerous designs depending on what you need with your checks, with the following being the most popular check formats:
- Top-of-page — This is the most commonly used design and it features a check at the top of the sheet with two voucher stubs at the base. Quicken and QuickBooks are among the many types of accounting software that work with these check designs.
- Middle-of-page — These checks print the check portion of the print project in the center of the page, with blank space on the top and bottom. Some software that uses this check design includes TSS, Landtech, and Peachtree/Sage 50.
- Bottom-of-page — Checks appear at the bottom of the page with blank space above. This format is popular in the healthcare industry, and is subsequently compatible with Paradox and other similar software.
- 3-on-page — If you don’t require any stubs with your checks, you might use the 3-on-page format, which prints three checks on the same page. Many types of businesses use this format to maximize efficiency, including everything from commercial businesses to non-profits. In many cases, these check designs print on pages that allow you to place them in three- or seven-ring binders.
Optimize Efficiency and Quality With Carbonless Forms and Laser Checks
With the help of carbonless paper and laser business checks, you’ll be able to increase the speed, efficiency, and overall quality of your print materials. Both carbonless forms and laser checks offer benefits you won’t find with other less reliable printed materials.
Carbonless forms can help you avoid the potential pitfalls of carbon forms that are both messy and generally insecure. Meanwhile, laser checks offer you the kind of versatility and security that your business needs, regardless of your industry.
The key is knowing where to get these products and working with a dependable printing service you can trust.
Get High-Quality Printed Products from Superior Resource Printing & Graphics
Carbonless forms and laser checks offer some of the best solutions with great results, but you must get them from a reliable printing company to get the most from these materials. If you’re looking for the right printing company that has the resources and expertise needed to print top-quality carbonless forms, laser checks, and more, turn to the professionals at Superior Resource Printing & Graphics.
With over four decades of experience backing us, we’ve provided our customers with many custom solutions based on their unique requirements. We take designing of business forms seriously: since 1978, we have been perfecting our approach in order to help businesses and other organizations function more efficiently. We are constantly on the lookout for ways to improve the performance of existing forms, from small changes like hole punching or perforations to working on contracts printed on the back, copy change, and designated filing pages. Needless to say, it’s clear why Superior Resource is one of the leaders in designing business forms – with over 40 years of research and experience behind us, you can rest assured that any form you get from us will be configured perfectly for your purposes.
We offer state-of-the-art laser printing solutions and much more to meet your needs with every project. In addition to printing services for forms and checks, we can print everything from brochures and stationery to business cards and labels that supply your business with materials that best represent your brand. We also offer design services and others to cover every aspect of your projects.
To find out more about what we offer at Superior Resource Printing & Graphics, get in touch with us today.
