REPORT OF NEW EMPLOYEE(S) (DE 34) 
                                  PRINTING SPECIFICATIONS  
                     COMPUTER OR LASER GENERATED ALTERNATE FORMS 
                                           
The Employment Development Department (EDD) provides Report of New Employee(s) (DE 34) 
forms suitable for laser printers at no cost to our customers. 
 
These specifications will assist you in creating an alternate (facsimile) DE 34 form that we can image 
with our equipment. A sample alternate and an original DE 34 are included with these specifications. 
The sample alternate format should not be used to align with your alternate format as reproduction 
has caused distortion. 
 
Please use the print and line positions provided in these specifications to create your alternate form. 
The DE 34 form is the correct template to use to verify that your alternate format is correct. Place the 
DE 34 over or under your alternate format and visually verify that the data on your alternate form is 
printing within the corresponding boxes on the DE 34. If this is the case, the alternate format has 
been designed to meet our specifications. 
 
            ALL FORMS MUST BE SUBMITTED FOR APPROVAL BEFORE USE.  
                                                
Please submit a sample deck for testing and approval. The test deck should include 25 original 
documents – no photocopies. You may use dummy data and repeat the data on all the pages. 
 
The test deck should be mailed to the following address:  
                      
                     Attention: Alternate Forms Coordinator 
                     Information Management Group/MIC 96 
                     Employment Development Department 
                     P.O. Box 826880 
                     Sacramento, CA 94280-0001 
 
For express mail, include the phone number 916-255-0649 on the air bill. The street address is: 
 
                     Attention: Alternate Forms Coordinator 
                     Information Management Group/MIC 96 
                     Employment Development Department 
                     9815 C Goethe Road 
                     Sacramento, CA 95827 
 
TEST SAMPLES MUST MEET A 95 PERCENT (%) OR BETTER READ-RATE TO BE APPROVED.  
 
DE 34PS Rev. 2 (4-13) (INTERNET)          Page 1 of 7  

DE 34 PRINTING SPECIFICATIONS 
COMPUTER OR LASER GENERATED ALTERNATE FORMS 
                                                
                                  GENERAL REQUIREMENTS 
 
Paper: Use 8 ½" x 11" white, 20-pound bond paper. Recycled paper and No Carbon Required (NCR) 
paper will not feed into the scanners and is not acceptable.  
 
Alignment: The top edge of the form is zero, the bottom of the form is line 66, the left edge is print 
position zero, and the right edge is print position 85. Print six vertical lines per inch and 10 horizontal 
print positions per inch. 
 
Ink: Use black ink only. If possible, use non-ferric ink as ferric ink contains metal which interferes with 
our automated mail sorting equipment. 
 
Printer: Do not use a dot matrix printer. Dot matrix printing will not meet the 95 percent read-rate 
requirement. 
 
Font Size: Please use 10 or 12 point Lucinda Console or Courier font to print the data to be captured. 
Data to be captured is indicated by bold print. Do not print your alternate format in bold type, 
unless indicated. ALL LETTERS MUST BE PRINTED IN UPPER CASE ONLY. 
 
EDD Approval Number: This number will be assigned to forms that the EDD has tested and 
approved.  

Non-Scannable File Copies: If you provide your customers with copies that are not Optical Character 
Reader (OCR) compatible, please advise them not to submit their file copies to the EDD. We have 
found that the warning DO NOT SEND THIS COPY TO THE EDD is effective when printed on the 
file copy. 
 
User Codes: If you print code numbers or letters on your forms, please position them above the 
“Date” field between lines 6 and 7 and print positions 7 thru 25. 
 
Display of Social Security Account (SSA) Numbers: The SSA numbers must always contain nine 
digits. Do not use “/” between digits. Acceptable ways of printing are 012345678 or 012 34 5678 or 
012-34-5678 (if your program cannot delete the dashes).  
 
Display of Names: Please show first name, middle initial, and the last name. Our equipment requires 
that names be printed in the first name, middle initial, last name format. We cannot accept names 
printed with the last name first. 
 
DE 34PS Rev. 2 (4-13) (INTERNET)      Page 2 of 7  

DE 34 PRINTING SPECIFICATIONS 
COMPUTER OR LASER GENERATED ALTERNATE FORMS 
                                        
                     BARCODE AND TARGET MARK SPECIFICATIONS  
                                        
Form Identification: A form identification barcode is added to the DE 34 to help the EDD identify 
the forms automatically. The Form Identifier String “00340600” is encoded in Code 3 of 9 (also 
called Code 39) barcode format. This barcode is 2" wide, 3/8" high, is located 3/8" below the top 
paper edge and 1 3/16" off the right paper edge. The Form Identifier String should be printed 1/8" 
beneath the barcode in 12 point Courier bold font. 
 
Target Marks: Two target marks are placed on the top right and lower left corners to help the EDD 
equipment de-skew the scanned forms. Target marks are black circles 1/8" in diameter. The top 
right target mark is 11/16" off the top and right paper edges, and the bottom left target mark is 
11/16" off the left paper edge and 3/8" off bottom paper edge. 
 
The following is a sample of the correct format for the barcode and target marks: 
 
 11/16” 
 11/16” 

                                  3/8” 

DE 34PS Rev. 2 (4-13) (INTERNET)       Page 3 of 7  

DE 34 PRINTING SPECIFICATIONS 
COMPUTER OR LASER GENERATED ALTERNATE FORMS 
                                          
       FORM IDENTIFIER STRING SPECIFICATIONS (No Barcode/Target Marks) 
 
The EDD prefers that you provide the barcode and target marks on your alternate format to ensure 
the most accurate processing of your DE 34. If it is not possible to include the barcode and target 
marks, submit your alternate form test samples with the unique FORM IDENTIFIER STRING used 
to identify alternate formats without barcode/target marks. The correct format for the Form Identifier 
String without barcode/target marks is “B0340600” printed in the 12 point Courier bold font. The 
print and line position for the Form Identifier String are listed below: 
 
                                       PRINT PRINT   
ITEMLINES  PRINTFORMAT POSITIONS                                                                     
 
Form Identifier String                 6              60 thru 67         B0340600 
 
The following is a sample of the correct position for the Form Identifier String on the alternate 
DE 34 form: 
 
DE 34                EDD 12345  
 
                                                                         B0340600 
 
DE 34PS Rev. 2 (4-13) (INTERNET)         Page 4 of 7  

DE 34 PRINTING SPECIFICATIONS 
COMPUTER OR LASER GENERATED ALTERNATE FORMS 
 
                                  PRINT  PRINT 
ITEM                              LINES POSITIONS PRINTFORMAT 
 
DE 34                             4                       8 thru 13  DE 34 
 
FORM APPROVAL NUMBER              4                       27 thru 36 EDD 12345 
(Assigned by the EDD) 
 
BARCODE/TARGET MARKS              Instructions are on page 3.          
 
FORM IDENTIFIER STRING            Instructions are on page 4.           
 
DATE                              9                       8 thru 18  MMDDYY 
 
CA EMPLOYER ACCOUNT NUMBER        9                       27 thru 39 NNN NNNN N 
 
BRANCH CODE                       9                       43 thru 47 NN 
 
FEDERAL IDENTIFICATION NUMBER     9                       52 thru 67 NN NNNNNNN 
 
BUSINESS NAME                     12                      8 thru 36        
 
CONTACT PERSON                    12                      39 thru 64      
 
PHONE NUMBER                      12                      66 thru 80 NNN NNN NNNN 
 
ADDRESS                           14                      8 thru 37  Address Format 
 
CITY                              14                      39 thru 56 
 
STATE                             14                      58 thru 63   
 
ZIP CODE                          14                      68 thru 78 NNNNN 
 
EMPLOYEE FIRST NAME               17, 25, 33,             8 thru 34  FIRST NAME 
                                  41, 49, 57 
 
MIDDLE INITIAL                    17, 25, 33,             36 thru 37 MI 
                                  41, 49, 57 
 
EMPLOYEE LAST NAME                17, 25, 33,             42 thru 78 LAST NAME 
                                  41, 49, 57 
 
SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER  19, 27, 35,                       8 thru 22  NNN NN NNNN 
                                  43, 51, 59 
 
N=Numeric 
DE 34PS Rev. 2 (4-13) (INTERNET)             Page 5 of 7  

DE 34 PRINTING SPECIFICATIONS 
COMPUTER OR LASER GENERATED ALTERNATE FORMS 
 
                                   PRINT  PRINT
ITEM                               LINES POSITIONS PRINTFORMAT 
 
ADDRESS                           19, 27, 35,             27 thru 78    Address Format 
                                  43, 51, 59 
                                                                            
CITY                              21, 29, 37,             8 thru 49 
                                  45, 53, 61 
 
STATE                             21, 29, 37,             52 thru 54    
                                  45, 53, 61 
 
ZIP CODE                          21, 29, 37,             58 thru 66    NNNNN 
                                  45, 53, 61 
 
START-OF-WORK DATE                21, 29, 37,             70 thru 78    MMDDYY 
                                  45, 53, 61 
                                   
N=Numeric  
 
If you have any questions about these specifications, please call the Alternate Forms Coordinator 
at 916-255-0649. 
 
DE 34PS Rev. 2 (4-13) (INTERNET)             Page 6 of 7  

DE 34    EDD 12345         
                                                                B0340600  
 
123106    123 4567 8     12 3456789 

SAMPLE BUSINESS NAME               JENNY SMITH                  916 123 4567 
 
1234 SAMPLE STREET                 SACRAMENTO            CA      95827 
 
ALICIA                        A   RASBERRY 
 
123 45 6789                  1234 RASBERRY STREET 
 
SACRAMENTO                                           CA   95810  123105 
 
WALTER                        W   PINEAPPLE 
 
123 45 6789                  5678 PINEAPPLE DRIVE 123 
 
CARMICHAEL                                           CA   95811  010106 
 
GEORGE                       G   WATERMELON 
 
123 45 6789                  9012 WATERMELON COURT B 
 
STOCKTON                                   CA             95812  121505 
 
REBECCA                      A   SMITH 
 
123 45 6789                   456 HOMESTEAD CT 
 
CARMICHAEL                                           CA   95608  123105 
 
JENNIFER                     J   JOHNSON 
 
123 45 6789                   1345 14 STREET 
 
SACRAMENTO                                           CA   95825  011506 
 
ANTONIO                      T   RAY 
 
123 45 6789                    45 LINCOLN AVE 
 
CARMICHAEL                                           CA   95608  012006 

DE 34PS Rev. 2 (4-13) (INTERNET)   Page 7 of 7