Myrna, I also live in the West, Southern California, if that is the West you are talking about. I don't know if I can explain this procedure correctly, because we seem to have different types of readers. The readers I use have the glass, rollers, film, etc. at the top and the screen is at the bottom. The paper is put over the screen, the light and writing shine down on to the screen and the colored paper helps make the writing sort of "pop" out. You can even tilt the paper to sometimes make the writing somewhat enlarged. I don't think I have ever seen a reader with the rollers at the bottom and the screen on top of them, so I don't know if my waffles will work on your pancakes. Nancy :-)