Xref: utzoo comp.lang.postscript:4551 misc.legal:16239 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!apple!fernwood!portal!cup.portal.com!Nagle From: Nagle@cup.portal.com (John - Nagle) Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript,misc.legal Subject: Re: OCR font, check printing Message-ID: <28222@cup.portal.com> Date: 24 Mar 90 06:00:26 GMT References: <1990Mar19.000741.13602@cs.utk.edu> <34896@news.Think.COM> Organization: The Portal System (TM) Lines: 31 If you want to have a check cleared through the normal interbank clearing procedures, it has to follow the American Banker's Association standards for check format. Checks written on napkins and such are not invalid as long as they conform to the Uniform Commercial Code requirements for drafts, which basically means that the obvious information and a valid signature must be present. But you may have to cash the check at the bank and branch upon which it was drawn. As for making your own checks, this is not uncommon, but you do need a printer that can print the MICR numbers. If you are printing them yourself, you can print the amount in magnetic ink numbers. (Take a look at your cancelled checks; the amount and some other information has been encoded during processing.) If you write enough checks, you may be able to get a slight discount on per-check charges for pre-encoding them, although unless you're writing thousands of checks, it probably isn't worth the trouble. Incidentally, the MICR font has no letters; just numbers and a few special delimiting symbols. Alphabetic fonts that resemble MICR numbers are just decorative fonts, not machine-processing ones. The MICR numbers are designed to be read by a very simple reader which has only one magnetic read head. The waveform emitted as the number goes by the read head is enough to identify the character. Modern readers are usually more sophisticate d than that, and many read both optically and magnetically, for redundancy. But the symbols were designed around 1954, for an early system called ERMA developed for the Bank of America. John Nagle