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Hand-folding letters is time consuming and
costly. Automatic paper folders, however, produce
a clean, straight fold in merely seconds. The
standard fold styles offered by most manufacturers
are the single, letter, double parallel and
accordion. Most standard fold styles can be
used with a #10 sized business envelopes. If
you need to make custom folds, you may want
to consider models that allow users to manually
set the folds by adjusting the fold plate. Many
paper folders designed for medium to high volume
folding allow users to pre-program specialized
folds for future use. The fold plates on these
machines can be adjusted in one of three ways.
Manually folding is efficient for low to medium
volume folding. A semi-automatic folder
is ideal for medium volume. For high volume
use, the best folder choice would be a programmable
automatic folder. The fold plates on semi-automatic
folders are adjusted with a dial, while manual
folders feature hand-adjusted fold plates. Use
a programmable paper folder for accurate folding
at the touch of a button.

Some of the most popular fold styles
are:
- single fold (half-fold)
- letter fold (C-fold)
- accordion fold (Z-fold)
- half-accordion
fold (engineering-fold) (fold out)
- double parallel
- brochure fold (gate-fold)
- right angle fold
Single Fold
Paper is folded into two equal parts with a
single fold. Can be used to create 4 separate
panels/pages to be printed upon.
Used For: bulletins, menus, programs, greeting cards, wine lists, technical instructions, booklet pages.
Letter Fold
Paper is folded using two folds. The sheet is
folded into three nearly equal sections, with
one panel serving as the cover. This format
is mostly used for self-mailing brochures or
pamphlets as it creates 6 full panels that can
be used for printed content.
Used For: letters, statements, invoices,
bulletins, any letter size sheet (8.5" x 11")
requiring insertion into a standard #10 or #9
envelope.
Accordion Fold
Paper is folded in a fashion similar to that
of the letter fold with sections the same size.
Two folds create two outer panels folded in
over the third center panel.
Used For: brochures, letters, statements,
proposals, purchase orders, anything requiring
insertion into a standard #10 or #9 envelope.
Double Parallel
Fold
This type of fold is also referred to as an
8-sheet fold. The paper is folded in half and
then in half again using 2 parallel folds. This
process creates 4 panels. Folding a legal size
sheet (8.5" x 14") in this manner will allow
it to fit into a standard #10/#9 envelope.
Used For: self-mailers, newsletters, brochures,
letters, statements, proposals, purchase orders.
Engineering
fold/fold-out
This type of fold is typically used for ledger
size sheets (11" x 17") that are bound in proposals
or technical documents. The paper is folded
just off-center then the larger panel is folded
in half on itself. The narrowest panel can be
pulled out to expand the sheet to its full width,
while the left edge is free to be bound in a
book or binder.
Used For: proposals and technical documents
Brochure Fold
The paper is folded into two equal wing panels
that close together like a gate over the larger
center panel using two parallel folds. |