an actual form, most of the original scanner copy is printed in dropout blue; the carbon copies are printed in black.
Typewriter and Ribbon
The typewriter you use to prepare an OCR document must have an American Standards Institute OCR-type font with 10-pitch spacing. The OCR scanners the Navy currently uses read uppercase letter, Arabic numerals, punctuation, and certain symbols. They cannot read lower-case alphabetic characters. Use carbon ribbons for OCR typing; fabric ribbons do not provide adequate and consistent density.
Care of Typewriters
Keep OCR typewriters clean and in good repair at all times. A typewriter that is dirty or out of repair, or has dirty type faces, will produce dirty documents or poor print quality that will be misread or rejected by the scanner. By checking and cleaning your typewriter each day before use, you can prevent the high document reject rate that a dirty or improperly maintained typewriter will cause. Always keep your typewriter covered when not in use.
Centering and Aligning
Centering the paper in the carriage helps to maintain the accurate line spacing required in typing OCR documents. Insert the paper so its right and left edges are approximately equidistant from the right and left ends of the platen.
Align the paper very carefully to prevent line skew that will cause the scanner to reject the document. Align the form so it is in position for typing an “X” exactly in the box on the left side of the alignment tab and at the same time for precisely overtyping the word ALIGN on the right side. Then test the alignment by typing the test letters in the indicated areas of the tab line. Realign the form if necessary, making sure the “X” is inside the box and the typed word ALIGN is in the white area of the tab line before proceeding.
After the paper is aligned, set the left margin on the “X” box in the tab line. Begin typing in the extreme left space of each block. Never allow the type to touch the top or bottom line in any block or the dropout blue area at the ends of lines or between blocks. This will cause the scanner to reject the document. On some multicopy forms, you may find the type falling low in the blocks. Use the variable line-spacing control on the platen to keep the lines of type falling within the alignment tick marks at the left margin. However, make any adjustment before you start typing a line to avoid misalignment of the type, which will result in rejection by the scanner.
Signatures
Take special care to ensure that signatures are kept within the signature blocks. An otherwise valid document will be rejected if any part of a signature extends over the boundary of the target area into another block that is to be scanned. Also, a signature on the back of a document extending outside the signature block may show through the paper in a scannable area on the front side and cause rejection.
Checking Documents
Review each document before submission to ensure it is proper and correct. You can avoid or considerably reduce erroneous and duplicate submissions. Avoid transmitting documents containing such common errors as: