What does fanfold mean?
Fanfold refers to paper or similar flexible material folded back and forth in a regular zigzag, accordion-like series of parallel creases so the whole sheet can be expanded or compressed like a concertina. The term is best known from computing history: throughout the era of dot-matrix and line printers, 'fanfold paper' — long rolls of continuous stationery pre-creased into zigzag folds, with sprocket holes along the edges and perforated separators between sheets — was the standard medium for printing invoices, listings, and reports. The same folding principle appears in maps, brochures, and filters, where compactness combined with rapid access to the full surface is desirable. Fanfold carries a neutral, practical connotation and belongs mainly to printing, engineering, and office-supply vocabulary rather than everyday speech. It can describe the fold itself or, as a collective noun, the pre-folded stationery, and it functions attributively in phrases such as 'fanfold paper'. Though less common today, it remains the precise term wherever this distinctive accordion construction is specified.
nounPaper folded repeatedly in a zigzag or accordion pattern so that it opens into a continuous sheet; also, as a mass noun, stationery manufactured in this form, especially the continuous-form paper once used in dot-matrix and tractor-feed printers.
- The accordion-style zigzag fold itself, applied to paper or similar material.
- (as mass noun) Continuous stationery — paper manufactured pre-folded in this way, especially for tractor-feed printers.
"The old warehouse still held boxes of fanfold printer paper stacked beside the dot-matrix machines."
"She pulled the fanfold report from the printer and separated the sheets along the perforations."
"Each map is supplied in fanfold so it can be flicked open without unfolding the whole sheet."
Before laser printers, every invoice came off the machine as one long zigzagged ribbon of fanfold paper — and tearing off those perforated edges was oddly satisfying.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of fanfold
Fanfold is a compound of 'fan' and 'fold', coined in English to describe the way the fanned-out, pleated folds of the paper resemble the ribs of a hand fan when opened. It emerged in the twentieth century alongside continuous-form stationery and early data-processing printers, which is why it is strongly associated with office technology of that era. The 'fold' element ties it to a family of English words built on the same Germanic root, such as 'twofold' and 'manifold'.
Related word forms
How fanfold is actually used
Chiefly technical and commercial vocabulary, familiar from printing, data processing, and packaging contexts; rarely used in everyday conversation. When used as a modifier before a noun ('fanfold paper'), it functions adjectivally without changing form.
Easily confused with fanfold
A manifold is something with many parts or copies (or an engine component), whereas fanfold refers specifically to paper or material folded back and forth in a zigzag pattern.