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Carbonless paper, usually sold as NCR (“no carbon required”), is a stack of coated sheets that copies your handwriting from the top sheet onto the ones underneath without a separate sheet of carbon. Write an invoice or job sheet once, tear off the top copy for the customer, and keep the rest. It is what duplicate invoice books, job sheets, delivery notes and receipt pads are made from, and it is still the quickest paperwork on a doorstep or in a van.
How carbonless paper copies your writing #
Each sheet in a set has a job. The underside of the top sheet is coated with millions of tiny capsules holding a colourless dye. The face of the bottom sheet has a coating that turns that dye visible when they meet. Any middle sheets carry both coatings, one on each side. Press down with a pen, the capsules under the tip burst, and your writing appears on every sheet below, in exactly the same place.
That mechanism explains the two things that catch people out:
- It copies pressure, not ink. A resting wrist, a ring, a clipboard clip, or writing on the set above all leave marks too.
- Order matters. Flip a sheet over or shuffle the set, and the coated faces no longer meet, so nothing copies.
Parts and colours #
A “part” is one sheet. On all our NCR products the top copy is white and the sheets below are colour coded, so everyone can tell whose copy is whose at a glance:
| Set | Sheet colours, top to bottom | A common split |
|---|---|---|
| 2-part | White, yellow | Customer keeps white, you keep yellow |
| 3-part | White, yellow, pink | Customer, office, job folder |
| 4-part | White, yellow, pink, blue | Adds a copy for accounts or a third party |
Every extra part puts one more layer between the pen and the last sheet, so the bottom copy gets fainter. If you really need four parts, write with a ballpoint and lean on it.
Why copies go faint or ghost, and the fixes #
- Faint bottom copy: gel pens, felt tips and soft writing do not press hard enough. Use a ballpoint and a firm hand.
- Writing showing up on the next set: slide the book’s cover flap or the pad’s backing board under the set you are filling in.
- Patchy copies: you are writing on something soft. A knee or a car seat gives under the pen; a clipboard or the dashboard does not.
- Discoloured sheets: heat and strong sunlight can mark the coated paper, so do not leave books on the parcel shelf all summer.
Books, pads or loose sets #
We sell carbonless paper three ways. The part options and colours are the same; what differs is how the sets are held together.
Invoice books: numbered and bound
Fifty sets go into each of our NCR invoice books, every set carrying its own number in sequence. The short edge is stitched and taped, there is a white cover on the front and a stiff board at the back to lean on. Those numbers are why books win for invoices and receipts: a missing number stands out, and your bookkeeper will thank you. Most people go A5; A6 is there for smaller slips.
Pads: tear off the whole set
NCR pads also hold fifty sets, but they are glued at the head onto a card back and carry no numbers. You write, then rip the complete set off in one go. That makes them a better fit for order forms, site notes and checklists than for invoices. Choose A4, A5 or A6.
Loose sets: for clipboards and trays
Want them unbound? NCR sets come as separate collated sets to stack in a tray, file in a folder or clip to a board. Pick A6, DL (99 × 210 mm), A5 or A4, and anywhere from 50 up to 5,000 sets. The count is of sets rather than sheets: order 500 in three parts and you get 500 white, 500 yellow and 500 pink.
Books and pads are ordered by the book or pad, from 1 up to 50, and each one works out cheaper the more you buy.
Picking a size #
The quickest test: print your current form on plain paper at the size you are thinking of and fill it in by hand, standing up, as you would on a job. If your writing does not fit the boxes, go up a size.
- A6 and DL: receipts, collection slips, short job tickets.
- A5: most invoices, job sheets and delivery notes, and it fits a van door pocket.
- A4: detailed quotes, inspection and service sheets, anything with a checklist or a sketch box.
Black or colour #
On books and pads the front is printed either in plain black or in full colour. A form works perfectly well in black. Colour earns its keep when you want the logo in its proper shades and a customer copy that looks like it came from a proper firm. Loose sets have two extra choices, black front and back, or a colour front with a black reverse, and the reverse is the obvious home for your terms and conditions.
What to put on a carbonless paper invoice #
- Who you are: the name you trade under, your address, a phone number and an email.
- Company details if you are a Ltd: company law expects the registered name, the company number and the registered office on invoices and similar business documents.
- The job: a date box, the customer’s name and address, and a space for a job number or site.
- The money: lines for what was done, how many, the rate and the total, then how and when to pay, with your bank details.
- Sign-off: on job sheets and delivery notes, a line for the customer’s signature.
For the full list of what an invoice has to include, see the GOV.UK invoicing guide. Members of trade schemes should note that scheme logos are licensed, so on forms we set your registration number in plain text. Our electrician labels guide shows how that works on other trade print.
Artwork and timing #
Design the form in the online designer, or upload your own layout and a person will check it for free. Prefer us to set it out? Typesetting your text and logo includes 1 design and 2 rounds of changes, and design from your brief includes 1 design and 2 rounds of changes. Invoice books dispatch in 12 working days on Saver, 10 on Standard or 9 on Express once order and artwork are confirmed; pads and loose sets take 11, 9 or 8. That is slower than most print, so reorder while you still have a book or two left. Working days to dispatch explains the counting.
Other names you might hear #
Carbonless copy paper, duplicate or triplicate books, and among older trades, carbon books, even though there is no carbon anywhere in them. If your paperwork is typed and emailed, you probably do not need carbonless paper. If it is written on a bonnet or a doorstep and two people need the same record there and then, you do.
See the whole invoice books and pads range, or tell us what your form has to hold through the contact form and we will suggest a layout.