Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!dcatla!holos0!lbr
From: lbr@holos0.UUCP (Len Reed)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Computer Checque Coding Fonts (MICR?)
Summary: Forget It
Keywords: cheques fonts micr printers
Message-ID: <2109@holos0.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jun 89 21:30:30 GMT
References: <624@sce.carleton.ca> <6155@microsoft.UUCP>
Reply-To: lbr@holos0.UUCP (Len Reed)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Holos Software, Inc., Atlanta, GA
Lines: 44

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