Carbon paper

Carbon Paper

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Carbon paper

Carbon paper (originally carbonic paper) is paper

Paper

Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon or packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
coated on one side with a layer of a loosely bound dry ink

Ink

An ink is a liquid containing various pigments and/or dyes used for coloring a surface to produce an , writing, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush or quill....
or pigmented coating, usually bound with wax

Wax

Wax has traditionally referred to a substance that is secreted by bees and used by them in constructing their honeycombs.It is an imprecisely defined term generally understood to be a substance with properties similar to beeswax, namely...
. It is used for making one or more copies simultaneous with the creation of an original document.

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Encyclopedia

Carbon paper (originally carbonic paper) is paper

Paper

Ink

Wax

Montan wax

Montan wax, also known as lignite wax or OP wax, is a hard wax obtained by solvent extraction of certain types of lignite or brown coal....
.

Carbon paper is placed between the original and a blank sheet to be copied onto. As the user writes or types

Typewriter

A typewriter is a Machine or electromechanical device with a set of "keys" that, when pressed, cause Typeface to be printed on a medium, usually paper....
on the original, the pressure from the pen or typeface

Typeface

In typography, a typeface is a set of one or more fonts, in one or more sizes, designed with stylistic unity, each comprising a coordinated set of glyphs....
deposits the ink on the blank sheet, thus creating a "carbon copy

Carbon copy

Carbon copying, abbreviated cc or c.c., is the technique of using carbon paper to produce one or more copies simultaneously during the creation of paper documents....
" of the original document. This technique is generally limited to four or five copies.

As the ink is transferred from the carbon paper to the underlying paper, an impression of the corresponding text is left on the "carbon" where the ink was removed. A single piece of carbon paper can be repeatedly reused until the impression grows too light. An interesting student experiment is to create a sort of imitation carbon paper by rubbing pencil lead on the reverse side of a piece of paper, placing this on top of a second piece of paper (with the carbon between), and then writing on the front side of the top sheet.

Carbon paper used to create sensitive documents can be subjected to forensic analysis and is thus a concern within information security

Information security

Information security means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification or destruction....
, so it must be shredded

Paper shredder

Paper shredders are used to cut paper into Chad , typically either strips or fine particles. Government organizations, businesses, and private individuals use shredders to destroy private, confidentiality, or otherwise sensitive documents....
or otherwise destroyed to maintain security.

Carbon paper has been mostly superseded by electronic means such as photocopying, though it is still, although rarely, used to make copies of typewriting. Also, a carbonless copy paper

Carbonless copy paper

Carbonless copy paper, non-carbon copy paper, or NCR paper is an alternative to carbon paper, used to make a copy of an original, handwritten document without the use of any electronics....
is still used in situations where instant copies of written documents are needed. Examples of this are receipts at point of sale

Point of sale

Point of sale or point of service can mean a retailing, a checkout counter in a shop, or the location where a financial transaction occurs....
(though they have mostly been relegated to being backups for when electronic POS devices fail) or for on-the-spot fine notices, duplicate checks, and some money orders (though the United States Postal Service

United States Postal Service

The United States Postal Service is an Independent agencies of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States....
has recently converted to an electronic format), and tracking slips for various expedited mail services requiring multiple copies.

There have been some experimental uses of carbon paper in art

Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
(as a surface for painting) and mail art

Mail art

Mail art is art which uses the postal system as a medium. The term mail art can refer to an individual message, the medium through which it is sent, or an artistic genre....
(to decorate envelopes).

Carbon paper

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