Scannable survey form design

Every form we scan is one we've built. Design turns your survey into an instrument the scanner can read, and much of the accuracy is decided at this stage.

What you send. Your questions, in whatever form they exist: a Word document, a draft layout, a questionnaire from a previous round or an online survey export. Your logo and any mandatory wording, such as a privacy statement, ethics reference, contact details or return instructions. Tell us who the respondents are, because a form for people over seventy is not set the same way as a form for year-nine students. Tell us whether it will be mailed, handed out or both.

What we do.

• Set the instrument to Scantron specification: registration marks, response boxes placed and sized so every mark reads, and page identifiers on multi-page forms.
• Set every response area, including bubbles, checkboxes and open-ended text boxes, in the dropout colour the scanner ignores, so it reads only the respondent's mark.
• Add the fields the job needs, including respondent ID, lithocode, barcode or QR position and pre-filled codes, and position the address block for a window envelope if the form is mailed.
• Size open-ended answer boxes for image clipping, so handwriting is captured whole.
• Check routing instructions work on paper and that the question order survives the page breaks.
• Set type, spacing and contrast for the people who'll be filling it in.
• Send you a PDF proof and revise it until you approve.

Formats.

• A4 single sheet, one or two sides
• Saddle-stitched booklets, 4 to 36 pages in multiples of four; the 4-page booklet is a folded A3
• Reply Paid address panel on the form itself, or a separate Reply Paid envelope

What you get. An approved proof and a form that scans. Nothing prints until you've signed it off.

Already have a questionnaire? Send it. We'll rebuild it as a scannable version. The questions stay; the layout changes. We don't scan forms designed or printed elsewhere because the scanner can't read a page it wasn't built for. For a small run, we can key your existing form by hand as it stands instead.