[ANSTHRLD] Penciled forms considered harmful

[Sara L Uckelman]

Quoth doug bell:
> The correct answer about use of pencils
> is: it depends how you intend to use andarchive the form.

One of the uses of the forms is to scan them so that the
sovereigns have access to the forms.  While pencil is
great for archival purposes (it is much less prone to
degredation over time, and also much less likely to bleed
on or otherwise damage the paper around it), it does not
scan well.  Since I only see the scans, I never see any of
the paper forms, it is important that the forms are filled
out in such a way that they can be read in scanned format.
Pencil can be problematic in this respect, and this is why 
I would like to encourage people to not use pencil, or to be
sure that they're using a nice dark lead if they do.  If the 
forms are legible when they're viewed by the Sovereigns, then
it's a bit premature to discuss their legibility 30 years down
the line.
 
> It is difficult to tell if the issue
> with the forms in the ruling was the Name line =
> and check boxes or
> documentation summary or both.  The rest of the information =
> shouldn't
> be an issue with name rulings.  

You missed a section: The submitter's legal name and contact 
info.  That information is also used in the registration 
process, and sometimes it is required for the consideration of
a submission.  (Suppose, for example, that a name is going to be
returned because of problems with the documentation for the
given name, and I'd like to form a holding name, but I cannot
read the submitter's legal name on the form.)

> So what can be done to deal with
> legibility issues?  The ideal solution is type the =
> data into an
> in-line form in a word processor and print out the page for
> photocopying. =

I completely agree with this: I love getting typed in forms!

But in the meantime, just as we're not requiring people use
Crayola markers, only discouraging the use of color printers 
and photocopiers, we're not requiring that people fill in
their forms via a computer, only encouraging thing not to
use pencil.

-Aryanhwy



 
-- 
vita sine literis mors est
http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/