To compare and check texts or documents against each other, or to arrange pages in proper order for binding.
From Latin 'collatus' (brought together), from 'conferre' (to carry together). The term entered English in the 16th century through scholarly use, becoming standard in printing and manuscript studies.
Before computers, 'collating' was a laborious hand process—someone would literally lay out hundreds of pages on a table and arrange them in sequence, which is exactly what computers still do now, just invisibly and instantly.
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