Multipart stationery is
paper
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...
that is blank, or preprinted as a
form
Form is the shape, visual appearance, or configuration of an object. In a wider sense, the form is the way something happens.
Form may also refer to:
*Form (document), a document (printed or electronic) with spaces in which to write or enter dat ...
to be completed, comprising a stack of several copies, either on
carbonless paper or plain paper, interleaved with
carbon paper. The stationery may be
bound into
book
A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...
s with tear-out sheets to be filled in manually,
continuous stationery
Continuous stationery (UK) or continuous form paper (US) is paper which is designed for use with Dot matrix printing, dot-matrix and line printers with appropriate paper-feed mechanisms. Other names include ''fan-fold paper'', ''sprocket-feed p ...
(fanfold sheet or roll) for use in suitable
computer printer
A printer is a peripheral machine which makes a durable representation of graphics or text, usually on paper. While most output is human-readable, bar code printers are an example of an expanded use for printers. Different types of printer ...
s, or as individual stacks, usually
crimped together.
The purpose is to produce multiple simultaneous copies of a document produced by handwriting with a pen that applies pressure, such as a
ballpoint pen
A ballpoint pen, also known as a biro (British English), ball pen (Hong Kong, Indian, Indonesian, Pakistani, and Philippine English), or dot pen ( Nepali English and South Asian English), is a pen that dispenses ink (usually in paste form) ...
, or with an
impact printer.
[A Dictionary of Computing (6 ed.), John Daintith and Edmund Wright, Oxford University Press, 2008, {{ISBN, 9780199234004] The pressure of writing or impact printing on the carbon or carbonless paper transfers the content to the copy sheets. Depending upon requirements, up to typically four copies of the original can be made, with the quality and readability decreasing towards the bottom copies. This type of stationery can be used whenever multiple copies are required, of quality adequate for the purpose, usually noticeably inferior to, for example,
laser-printed output. Typically a company may need a document such as an invoice to give to a customer (original), with a copy for their own accounting department (first copy), and possibly further copies for other purposes. The paper stock used is typically of low weight—thin—to transfer more printing pressure. The different copies can be on paper of different colour to distinguish them, and preprinted content may vary between copies.
References
Stationery