A document held on a pen drive is a soft copy. It becomes a hard copy when it is:

1. Software and the files it produces have no physical form you can touch. 2. A document or image stored on a hard disk or pen drive is referred to as a soft copy. 3. The distinction is about the medium, not the file name or size. 4. Once printed, the document or image is called a hard copy. 5. Renaming, compressing and emailing all leave the file in soft form. _Source: syllabus Computer Science Class 11, Ch 1 'Computer System', S1.7 Software_