In the early years of OMR technology, thick paper was used for printing the OMR sheets and special inks were required for this purpose. Other than that, the printing machinery required was also high-end, available only in some metropolitan and large cities. Also, there were only a few service providers to approach for printing OMR sheets. Due to this, the procurement process was quite complicated and involved a lot of advance transactions. This was done because the printing and the delivery of the sheets took a lot of time. The transactions in advance led to wastage of paper as the exact number could not be calculated in advance.
Another requirement in the older technology was that the sheets were thicker and were printed out in two colors. Due to this, the procurement of the sheets became a costly affair. The OMR sheets were priced quite high due to less number of OMR service providers. They had a monopoly in the trade. Also, another factor leading to higher cost was the transportation expenses.
But, nowadays, the procurement process and printing process has changed. One can use any kind of white paper and use the normal Inkjet or laser printers for printing the OMR sheets. In fact, now, one can even print them at home. If the sheets are to be printed in color, then inkjet printers are to be used and if it is to be printed in black and white, then the laser printer can be used. So, this leads to flexibility and convenience. Also, this results in saving time, cost and efforts on travelling and printing.
The cost for printing a black and white OMR sheet would be around 60 paise. And, for taking a colored sheet, the InkJet printer would be sufficient, if the quantity is less. And, in case, the quantity is higher, one can get the printing done with the offset printing. The offset printing works best and costs less, if the printing is to be done in bulk. So, if you want to print thousands of sheets, then the cost would be around 75 paise. So, the price will be lower if the quantity is higher.
For printing use the design source file of the OMR sheet design as exported by the software.
DO NOT print using the scanned image of the master printout of the OMR Sheet.
PDF file should be used for printing only if source file of OMR Answer Sheet Design format or CorelDraw software is not available.
You can easily edit OMR design for adding your organization Name, Logo and other things in CorelDraw.
DO NOT Avoid altering the size of OMR sheet design format.
DO NOT remove index points.
DO NOT disturb the Index points or change location of index points as exported by the OMR sheet design software.
DO NOT disturb the OMR circles or change location of OMR bubbles while editing the OMR Form design in CorelDraw.
Avoid increasing line thickness of bubbles, this is to avoid the interference in reading OMR bubble sheet circles is kept thin. because due to thick outlines of OMR bubble OMR Software might read all bubble edges as response because OMR software is made for reading dark areas.
For any printing method: Photocopies, Offset or Laser, One to need to ensure about the 4 Black Index Points should be printed properly on the 4 corners of a sheet.
Index points should be properly printed in Solid & Dark in Black color. Proper care should be taken while printing Index points else scanning will give trouble while reading.
Printing should be done in centre of page so maximum white space will remain outside 4 index points in all 4 corners.
DO NOT Outside or close to Index point anything else can be printed.
Index point should remain far from the place, where sheet is having cutting or tearing margin.
Any dirty or misprinted/misaligned sheets or faulty while cutting should be eliminated right at the time of printing. DO NOT USE SUCH SHEETS.
DO NOT increase the font of text labels printed inside the circles.
DO NOT use Bold or Large fonts. The font should be as small and thin as possible.
We can use colored OMR sheets if the marking pattern allows tick marks or thin strokes.