this paper type was developed for use with autographic registers around 1910, was later adopted by tabulating machines beginning in the 1920s, and its use grew with the introduction of commercial computers in the 1950s. ibm cards, preprinted, optionally numbered and pre-punched, were available as continuous form cards and were used for checks and other documents. continuous form paper became widely used and well known to the general public in the 1980s due to the development of microcomputers and inexpensive dot-matrix consumer printers.