Topic 253 – Substitute Tax Forms
The IRS provides guidance for the approval and acceptance of computer-prepared and computer-generated tax forms that individual taxpayers and tax practitioners file.

If you want to produce your own version of a tax form, you should first obtain a copy of Publication 1167 (PDF), General Rules and Specifications for Substitute Forms and Schedules. This document describes the general requirements for designing and submitting all such forms for approval and is updated as required to reflect pertinent tax year form changes and to meet processing and/or legislative requirements. This publication cross-references other similar, related publications that are available for certain specialized substitute forms that differ from normal form size, that require multi-part paper stock or that have other similarly unique features (such as Forms W-2 and 1099). Publication 1167 also provides actual examples and layouts of some of the most commonly used IRS forms.