What Does Collate Mean When Printing?

As a printing press, have you ever received a request for collated printing? This request is quite common when they need the same set of documents in a predetermined order. It is a very helpful feature for printing, but what does collate mean in printing?  Why is it the most in-demand request for printing, and should you choose it or not? Let’s explore in this blog. Let’s get started!

What Does Collate Mean?

The word collate means to collect. In terms of printing, the word collate means arranging sets of similar multi-page documents in a pre-determined and the same order. It means printing multiple copies of documents in sequential order rather than page by page. 

Let’s understand collating with an example.  If you are going to present in a meeting, there will be a number of participants. Besides the presentation on the projector, you have to share the copies of the presentation in the correct order with the attendees. Here, collating will be a game changer. Instead of printing each copy page by page, you will arrange the pages in order once, and they will be printed in the sequence each time. Doing this, you saved a lot of time, and got more time to prepare your presentation.

Collated Vs Uncollated: What’s The Difference? 

The difference between collated and uncollated lies in their order. Collated documents are pre-arranged documents of multiple pages in a specific order. The multiple copies are printed in the same order each time you print them. You do not have to revise their order, which gives you the final copies directly and saves a lot of time. A five-page document will be printed as:

page 1

page 2

page 3

page 4

page 5

This process will create a loop for printing final copies of documents in the correct order and eliminate the need to rearrange them. 

On the other hand, uncollated printing is a time-consuming process of printing documents without a proper sequence. It is like printing different pages separately without the order and then rearranging them in order. Uncollated printing will print your document of five pages as follows: 

page 11111

page 22222

page 33333

page 44444

page 55555

This process will also create a loop, but each page will be printed several times, and you have to collect each page. Once you have printed all your pages, you can rearrange them.

Its example is printing separate trip permission forms for the students of different classes. The clauses for each class permission form will be different, so you can print them uncollated. 

Where To Use Uncollated Printing?

The uncollated printing is best when you need to print individual pages and you don’t have to order a multi-page document. Like you are printing 10 copies of a single-page test paper for students. You will distribute a single page to each student here; uncollated printing will make the work smooth. By default, printers have uncollated printing settings.

What Benefits Collating Offers for Printing?

Listening, collate printing again and again without knowing its benefits is frustrating. Let’s not get frustrated and explore the amazing benefits of collate printing:

Saves Your Precious Time

It feels frustrating and a waste of time to arrange the same pages in different copies. Don’t you get frustrated? If so, collate printing solves this problem. It automatically gives us copies in a sequence that are ready to distribute without revising their order. This saves a lot of your precious time and makes room for you to do other important tasks.

Eliminates Extra Work And Makes Printing Convenient

Preparing a document and then waiting for the printer to produce prints so that you can order them is a tiresome task. This creates extra work in addition to your primary tasks. You can get rid of this extra work with the help of collating, which gives you documents ready for immediate use and distribution. It maintains their structure, sequence to eliminate the effort of manually sorting pages. 

Enhances the Accuracy When Dealing With Large Sets of Pages

Do your document pages get misplaced while sorting them in order, and do you have to restart again? It usually happens when people assemble printed sheets of paper in large quantities. Here collating is helpful to ensure each set of documents is complete and in the correct sequence. The collate function reduces the risks of duplication and misplacement that usually result from manual sorting.

Option for Resuming Printing When Running Out of Resources

Sometimes, you’re printing, and the resources like paper or ink run out. Or the printer starts having issues.  As a printing press, has this ever happened to you? Here, collated printing is ideal as it lets you resume the document printing where you left off as soon as you replace the papers.

Who Should Use Collate Printing?

When it comes to printing, who should choose the collated printing? Will this printing technique be suitable for all? Let’s discover the intended users of the collate printing:

• Office Workers
• Publishers/Editors/Authors
• Event Planners
• Legal Professionals
• Students
• Teachers/Professors
• Finance Workers
• Researchers/Scientists
• Graphic Designers

What Are The Common Uses of Collate Printing?

In the above, we discovered that the collate option for printing is suitable for teachers and students, office workers, and more individuals. But how it will benefit them, let’s dive in to know this:

Reporting and Business Presentations to Stakeholders

When you are preparing sales reports, project proposals, and client presentations, you need a fully assembled package. Collating gives you a hassle-free solution to print pages in the correct order. This reflects a sense of professionalism and preparedness in reporting to stakeholders and business presentations.

Educational Materials and Student Handout Notes

Either you are a student or a teacher, you both need collated printing. The teachers or administrators frequently print multi-page booklets or prospectuses, worksheets, or student reports. Collating makes it simpler to print multiple copies of a document and distribute them immediately. 

Similarly, students need to submit multi-page assignments and project reports to their teachers or supervisors. Sometimes, they need to submit multiple copies of the same document, so collating can help them.

Packaging Industries For Printing on Materials

The packaging industries produce packaging boxes in bulk quantities to store products and promote the businesses of others. The retail industries, gift and cosmetic industries, CBD packaging, and other industries use packaging materials with printed logos. 

They also need printing of logos, messages, and slogans in large quantities, where collating can help them a lot. Printing will be done on different sides of the box without need to rearrange the box design.

Instruction Manuals and Guides

A correct sequence matters a lot in instruction manuals and guides to convey the step-by-step information correctly. These are the documents where sequence is mandatory, like instruction manuals for manufacturing, IT, and healthcare. So these documents are printed in the correct order to avoid any inconvenience or loss.

Training Documents and Onboarding Kits

The HR departments and team leads welcome the newbies and new hirings with employee handbooks, training checklists, and onboarding forms. Here, collating helps in keeping all the paperwork complete and ensures that pages are in the correct order without misplacement. 

Marketing and Promotional Bundles 

Magazines, brochures, specs sheets, and case studies are the best way to promote your business at trade shows or meetings. These documents are all produced in large quantities, and the pages are in the correct sequence. Here, again, collating keeps printed pages in order.

How Collation Helps the Custom Packaging Industry?

The custom packaging industry is one of the fastest-growing and competitive industries with mountains of workload. The packaging industry ensures brand recognition in the market by producing custom boxes in large quantities for product packaging. Here, a lot of manpower is needed to collate the packaging materials to create the packaging that sells. 

To save time and manpower, the collating steps in and create a win-win situation. You can boost the packaging process efficiency to 100%. You get the power to produce a bulk quantity in the given timeframe while ensuring precise printing. It will not be wrong to say that collated printing is the award winner in speeding up the packaging process.

Collation helps the packaging industry in the following ways:

• Saves time by eliminating the need for manual collating.
• Speeds up the printing process and removes extra work
• Official documentation of the logo and the client’s statement in one go
• Ease of production of User manuals and Guides

What Printers Support Collate Settings?

Most modern computers and printers have built-in collate settings, and new models are designed according to office and business requirements. So modern printers definitely have the collate option. So you don’t need to bother about sorting your document pages manually.  Just turn the setting on, and the documents will be automatically collated.

How does it work?

In modern printers, the collate function is built in as a driver. You do not need to do anything except check that the settings are turned on or not. If not, simply turn on the feature, and you are all set.

Where can I find it?

You will find the option within the printer, depending on the model of the printer. Let’s consider a scenario where you have a 10-page document and you need 5 copies of it. 

Just press the option Print, and in properties, there will be an option to collate. If you want to collate the document, just check this box, and you are all set. 5 sets in sequence will be printed.

Print Preview

It is always better to recheck before the printing starts. In this way, you can save your time and money. To check the document before printing, just check the print preview, and you will be sure how collating will work for your document.

Some Recommended Printers for Collate Printing

If you are looking for some recommendations for printers with this feature, please check out the following printers for collated printing; they will work great for startups and small businesses:

    + Inkjet printer

    + HP LaserJet Enterprise MFPs, 

    + IM 350/430 printers

    + Xerox B215 Multifunction Printers

Some other models from Brother, Ricoh, and other manufacturers also support collate features.

Some Collate Printing Issues And Troubleshooting

When you decide to choose collate printing for your multi-page documents, you may encounter some issues. Let’s discuss the issues and how to troubleshoot them:

Issue 1: Paper Jam During The Printing of Collated Documents

Solution: The printing tray can be overfilled, which causes a paper jam during printing. Check that the tray is not overfilled and the papers are correctly aligned. 

Issue 2: Poor Quality Printouts or Printouts with Imperfections

Solution: Before you start printing more than one copy, do a single document test. It will help you ensure that the cartridges have no issues. Moreover, print the documents in small batches to ensure that the documents are printed precisely without wasting paper. 

Issue 3: Collated Document With Mistakes

Solution: This issue is often overlooked. The document might not have a proper order or may have grammatical mistakes. To avoid this issue, just check the document thoroughly for grammatical errors and check the order.

Issue 4: The document failed to print at all.

Solution: Firstly, check the print dialogue box to see if a page is attempting to print or has failed. Clear the print queue and try again if the issue resolves. If the issue persists, then reset the print spooler. Otherwise, try to update the printing software or driver.

Some Common Questions Related To Collate Printing

Should I collate when printing?

You should collate if you have to print a multiple-page document that needs to be printed in order. This will print multiple copies of the document without the need for manual collating.

Should collate be on or off?

Collating should be on when you want a number of copies of the same document and in the specified order. It must be off when you need to print individual pages.

What is an example of collate?

An example of collating can be printing an admission form for graduation that contains more than one page. The exact order also matters in the admission form, so this can be a great example.

What is the purpose of collation?

The purpose of collation is to maintain the order of the pages of the document every time the documents are printed. It is done to avoid the misplacement of pages that often occurs during manual collation.

What are common collating mistakes?

Collation is usually an efficient task, but still, there can be mistakes in the printing. Ignoring page numbers can disrupt the order of the pages. The other common mistake can be not checking the document for duplicate pages. 

How do you turn off collate?

Simply go to the print option. In the print settings, find the checkbox Collate. Uncheck this option, and collation will be turned off.

Conclusion

Printing a large volume of documents or printing on a bulk quantity of packaging materials is a time-consuming task. Printing the pages and collating them manually in order is another extra task that can make you busy with other important tasks. In this blog, we discovered the solution to this problem, which is collation. This means arranging the document pages in such a way that they print in a sequence without the need to sort them. It is an efficient print job that saves a lot of time and makes room for other primary tasks.

In this blog, we discussed in detail what collating is and how it speeds up the printing process in custom packaging. If you want a large number of copies ready to use and distribute, collating is an efficient and win-win strategy.

If you need any kind of assistance in printing, custom packaging, or designing, MyBoxPrinting is here to support you. For any query, feel free to contact us!