Copier Lingo: Bypass Tray

Bypass Tray
The short, straight-paper path of a bypass tray reduces the risk of jamming and allows you to copy directly onto originals - such as colored paper, odd-sized paper, or card stock - that either can't be fed or are inconvenient to feed from the traditional copy paper tray inside a copier. Bypass trays can typically hold anywhere from one to 100 sheets. They are often used in color copiers for printing onto covers or transparencies. (Bypass trays that can hold more than one sheet are known as stackable bypass trays).

Paper Supply

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Each paper tray, cassette, pedestal, or paper feed unit is a separate paper source. The number of sources is important if you want to be able to copy onto different paper stocks, such as letterhead, legal size stock, or transparencies, without reloading the machine. Paper sources typically hold a minimum of 50 to 100 sheets, and the largest-capacity units can hold up to 3,000 sheets.

Typically, copiers include at least one fixed-size and a couple of adjustable-size paper trays. Unfortunately, heavy paper stock often jams if you load it into a standard paper tray. To get around this problem, most copiers include a bypass tray, a special tray that provides a straight paper path for heavy paper and labels.