NCR Printing Scotland: The Complete Buying Guide

NCR is one of the few things we print where the customer almost never sees it being used well — they only notice when it goes wrong. A copy that hasn't come through. A set that tears out three at a time. A pad that has curled up in a drawer. This guide covers everything you need to specify NCR forms that work, written from what we actually run at our Paisley studio rather than from a supplier's brochure.

What NCR paper actually is

NCR stands for No Carbon Required, and it replaced the blue carbon paper that used to be interleaved between sheets. The mechanism is simple and rather clever. The back of a sheet is coated with microscopic capsules containing a colourless dye. The face of the sheet below it carries a clay coating that reacts with that dye. When you write, the pressure of the pen bursts the capsules along the line of your handwriting, the dye meets the clay, and a permanent mark forms on the sheet below.

Because the reaction is chemical rather than mechanical, the copy is exactly as legible as your handwriting and nothing rubs off on your hands. It also means pressure matters: a biro or pencil works, a fibre-tip or rollerball often doesn't, because it glides rather than presses.

You will see three abbreviations on any NCR specification:

• CB — Coated Back. The top sheet. Carries dye capsules on its reverse.
• CFB — Coated Front and Back. A middle sheet. Receives a mark on its face and passes the pressure on through its own capsules. Only used in 3 part and above.
• CF — Coated Front. The bottom sheet. Receives a mark but passes nothing on.

A 2 part set is therefore CB over CF. A 3 part set is CB, CFB, CF. That middle CFB sheet is the entire reason triplicate works, and it is also why 3 part costs more than simply adding another sheet of paper.

How many parts do you need?

Count the people who need to hold a record of the same transaction, and that is your part count.

2 part covers the majority of work: one copy for the customer, one for you. Receipts, delivery notes, order pads, job sheets.

3 part is for when a third party sits in the middle. A jeweller taking in a repair needs a customer receipt, a workshop docket that travels with the item, and an office copy. A despatch operation needs the driver, the customer and the office each to hold one. A garage splits paperwork between the customer, the workshop and accounts.

4 part and above we print to order. It is less common, and worth a conversation first, because past three parts the pressure needed to reach the bottom sheet starts to demand a heavier hand than most people write with.

Our 2 part vs 3 part guide works through the decision in more detail.

Pads or books?

This is the choice customers most often get wrong, and it comes down to a single question: does the copy stay with you, or go somewhere else?

Pads are glued along the head into pads of 50 sets with a greyboard back. All the sheets in a set tear out together. Choose pads when the copies are distributed — one to the customer, one to the office, one to the file.

Books are perforated, stapled and taped into books of 50 sets. The top sheets tear out along the perforation and the bottom copy stays bound in the book. Choose books when the book itself is your record, which is why receipt books, accident books and waste transfer notes are almost always books.

Full detail in NCR pads vs NCR books.

Sizes

We stock A5 (148 x 210mm) and A4 (210 x 297mm) as standard, and print A3, DL, A6 and bespoke trims to order.

A5 is the size most businesses settle on. It holds a proper form and stays quick to handle at a counter or on site. A4 is for paperwork carrying real detail — itemised tables, batch numbers, full terms on the reverse — and for anything that will be filed, scanned or audited alongside other A4 documents. Our form sizes guide compares them properly.

Printing options

Ink: 1 colour black or full colour. Black is the traditional choice and reproduces crisply on NCR stock. Full colour is worth it when your branding does real work on the form — a logo, a colour-coded section, a header that matches your other stationery.

Sides: one or both. The reverse is where terms and conditions, guidance notes or a completion checklist usually live. On NCR the reverse of the top sheet is the coated back, so printing on it is entirely normal — it does not affect how the copy transfers.

Sequential numbering: each set printed with its own number, carried across every part so copies can be matched back together. Standard on invoices, receipts and anything needing an audit trail. Tell us your start number, and on reorders we can continue the sequence so numbers never repeat.

Drilled holes: two or four, so torn-out sets file straight into a ring binder or lever arch file. Worth adding whenever the copies are archived rather than boxed.

What it costs

NCR pricing is driven by three things: the number of parts, the size, and the quantity. Our published range starts at £39 for 2 pads of A5 2 part and runs to 20 pads, with every combination priced on the product pages.

The single biggest saving available is quantity. The setup work — imposing the artwork, making ready, collating and finishing — is much the same whether you order 2 pads or 20, so the cost per pad falls sharply as the run grows. If you get through a pad a month, ordering a year's worth at once is considerably cheaper than ordering quarterly.

Above 20 pads, quotations are available on request, and that is where the unit cost drops most.

Artwork

Supply a PDF at finished size with 3mm bleed and trim marks, one page per printed side. Keep critical content 5mm inside the trim, use clean solid line work rather than fine reversed-out type, and leave the numbering position clear if you are having sets numbered. Our NCR artwork and design guide covers the detail, and we design forms from scratch if you would rather we did.

Lead times

Standard turnaround is 3-4 working days. Because we print, collate and finish NCR here rather than sending it to a trade supplier, urgent work can usually be turned around far faster — often in a couple of days where a trade printer would quote a week. If you have a deadline, tell us and we will give you a straight answer rather than a hopeful one.

Where to start

Browse the full range in our NCR Duplicate Forms collection, or call 0141 237 1924 and describe what the form has to do. We will tell you what works, what doesn't, and what it costs.