roth@sce.carleton.ca (Carl Roth) (06/19/89)
I would like to be able to print checques on either a dotmatrix or laser printer but I need to be able to also print the computer readable checque code as well. Does anyone have any information regarding the specifications of the fonts currently used or of any software available. The term MICR crops up now and again, does anyone have any information on this. I realize that many programs print checques that are already encoded and I am aware of the controversy regarding laser printed checques (which seems to pivot on the ability of the bank to automatically process the checques, else extra fees are invovled). The ability to print these codes seems to be the answere. Carl Roth Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario, Canada roth@sce.carleton.ca roth@sce.uucp
sccowan@watmsg.waterloo.edu (S. Crispin Cowan) (06/21/89)
In article <624@sce.carleton.ca> roth@sce.carleton.ca (Carl Roth) writes: >I would like to be able to print checques on either a dotmatrix or laser >printer but I need to be able to also print the computer readable checque >code as well. Does anyone have any information regarding the specifications >of the fonts currently used or of any software available. The term MICR crops >up now and again, does anyone have any information on this. MICR stands for Magnetic Ink Code Recognition. Unless you feed some exotic magnetic toner to your laser printer, I don't think you'll have much success. >Carl Roth >Carleton University >Ottawa, Ontario, Canada >roth@sce.carleton.ca >roth@sce.uucp ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Login name: sccowan In real life: S. Crispin Cowan Office: DC3548 x3934 Home phone: 570-2517 Post Awful: 60 Overlea Drive, Kitchener, N2M 1T1 UUCP: watmath!watmsg!sccowan Domain: sccowan@watmsg.waterloo.edu "Everything to excess. Moderation is for monks." -Lazarus Long
clayj@microsoft.UUCP (Clay Jackson) (06/23/89)
Having just been through this with my bank, here are some things too keep in mind. Of course, the Canadian rules may be a bit different, so "your mileage may vary". First, MICR stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. In addition to being in a somewhat strange font, the ink used to print the coding along the bottom of the check is magnetic. The older proof machines (machines used to read the checks and allow a human to encode the amount) were STRICTLY magnetic sensors. It's only been the latest generation of machines (last 3 years or so) that read both the optical characters AND the magnetic, and, even on those, if they don't agree, the check gets spit out for manual re-work. In the case of my bank (SeaFirst), they process over 1M pieces of paper per night. I can understand why they take a dim view of things that "gum up" the works. There are two potential problems with checks generated by home computers. 1) The SIZE of the check may be different. The sizes are pretty well standardized, but some fly-by-night print houses get things off a bit. Also, some computer users don't always pull all the pin feed strips. 2) On laser printed checks, according to some folks in our bank's operations center, the heat from the printer can sometimes louse up the MICR (magenetic) encoding, particularly with cheaper checks. With the advent of stricter (Federal) rules about how long banks have to clear checks, they (the banks) are getting much tighter about what constitutes an "acceptable" check. (As I understand the rules, they MUST accept ANY piece of ANYTHING, as long as it has a valid account, amount and signature; BUT, they can take as long as they like to clear it if it doesn't conform to "standards" AND they can CHARGE you for it. My solution was to make sure that the printer I was using (NEBS) was on my bank's "approved" list. No problem. Clay Jackson, Microsoft
leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) (06/27/89)
In article <624@sce.carleton.ca> roth@sce.carleton.ca (Carl Roth) writes:
<I would like to be able to print checques on either a dotmatrix or laser
<printer but I need to be able to also print the computer readable checque
<code as well. Does anyone have any information regarding the specifications
<of the fonts currently used or of any software available. The term MICR crops
<up now and again, does anyone have any information on this.
<
<I realize that many programs print checques that are already encoded and I am
<aware of the controversy regarding laser printed checques (which seems to pivot
<on the ability of the bank to automatically process the checques, else extra
<fees are invovled). The ability to print these codes seems to be the answere.
It is my understanding that the MI in MICR stands for Magnetic Ink. The
check processing equipment uses magnetic sensors, not optical. So you have
to have your checks specially printed or the bank is gonna be unhappy.
I understand that both tractor feed checks and laser-printer checks are
available from some sources. This may cost more, but it should keep the
bank happy.
--
Leonard Erickson ...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools.
Let's start with typewriters." -- Solomon Shortlbr@holos0.UUCP (Len Reed) (06/30/89)
In article <6155@microsoft.UUCP> clayj@microsoft.UUCP (Clay Jackson) writes: >First, MICR stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. In addition to >being in a somewhat strange font, the ink used to print the coding along >the bottom of the check is magnetic. The older proof machines (machines >used to read the checks and allow a human to encode the amount) were >STRICTLY magnetic sensors. I've spent the last three years doing a lot of consulting for a division of NCR Corp. that makes item processing equipment: proof stations and high speed document sorters. The U.S. banking standards are controlled by the federal reserve system, and are based on magnetic ink characters. A proofing machine is something that an operator sits at and encodes (mostly) amounts in magnetic ink characters. If you look at your cancelled checks you'll see the amount has been added to the MICR line. The check printer supplies the Federal reserve bank number, the account, and usually the check number. All of this stuff at the bottom of the check is in MICR. After encoding (at the proof station), the checks from all different sources of all different sizes are thrown into the hopper of a high speed check sorting machine called a reader/sorter. This thing reads the MICR lines, sorts the checks into 10-50 or so pockets (like a card sorter, if you're that old), and sends data from the checks (amounts, etc.) to a computer system for various purposes. The specific reader/sorter that I programmed can do 1000 documents a minute, but NCR sell machines twice that fast, and at least IBM and Unisys are in this market, too. Your bank, and every bank that gets one of your checks, will be very unhappy if your checks don't have magnetic ink. Some countries (e.g., W. Germany) are keyed off optical character recognition instead of magnetic ink. Some U.S. banks get additional information by doing optical character recognition _in addition to_ MICR. But your checks simply won't go through the highly standardized U.S. banking system without MICR characters of the right font in the right place on the checks. The bottom line is forget it. (You could buy one of the mini-proofers we use for low volume creating of test documents, but it would cost you a few thousand bucks. :-)) -- Len Reed Holos Software, Inc. Voice: (404) 496-1358 UUCP: ...!gatech!holos0!lbr