How Does Carbonless Paper Work?

Carbonless laser paper is an environmentally-friendly, cost-effective, laser-compatible carbonless paper solution ideal for converting continuous carbonless forms to a laser format.

Before carbonless paper was invented, multipart forms were made up of sheets of regular paper separated by sheets of thin, tissue-like carbon paper—often referred to as “carbon interleaved.”

A user would write (or impact print) on the front of the form, and the pressure from the writing or printing would cause the carbon from each sheet of carbon paper to image on the piece of paper beneath it.

Disadvantages of Carbon Forms

Though very common, carbon forms had a number of disadvantages. First, they could be extremely messy, often leaving users with black carbon on their fingers and anything else they touched.

Second, once the forms had been completed and the carbon sheets were removed and discarded, the information that had been printed on the forms could be read on the discarded carbon paper, making security an issue with certain types of forms.

IN 1954, CARBONLESS PAPER WAS INVENTED.

What is Carbonless Paper?

Carbonless paper is coated with two different types of chemicals: CF or Coated Front, and CB or Coated Back. These chemicals are held in tiny capsules and are released when the capsules are burst by pressure from a pen or printer.

When the CF and CB chemicals interact, the CF chemicals darken causing an image to appear on the CF side of the sheet. One easy way to tell that the CF and CB chemicals are different is that the image appears on only the front sheet; there is no image on the back of any sheets.

Since this type of paper produces an image without carbon, it is called “carbonless paper.”

The Difference Between Traditional Carbonless Paper and Carbonless Laser Paper

The most important difference between traditional carbonless paper and carbonless laser paper is that traditional carbonless paper is manufactured with solvent-based chemicals that can damage critical printer components, including rollers, drums and other printer components.

Carbonless laser paper is designed specifically for use in laser printers and digital copiers. Since its imaging capsules are not solvent based, they cause no damage to the components of the printer.