Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!batcomputer!cornell!uw-beaver!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!reed!intelhf!int13!tim From: tim@int13.hf.intel.com (Timothy E. Forsyth) Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript Subject: Re: Computer Readable Font (for acct numbers on Bank Checks) wanted Message-ID: <1991May14.203008.17260@int13.hf.intel.com> Date: 14 May 91 20:30:08 GMT References: <1991May2.191802.2778@beaver.cs.washington.edu> <1991May10.130625.3644@world.std.com> Organization: Intel Corp., Desktop Computer Division, Hillsboro, OR Lines: 41 hal@world.std.com (Harry A Levinson) writes: >In article <1991May2.191802.2778@beaver.cs.washington.edu> dylan@june.cs.washington.edu (Dylan McNamee) writes: >> >>I am just now getting ready to order my next batch of checks for some >>silly amount of money, and realized that I can make them myself in >>PostScript! All I need is to get the account/check number in that >>goofy computer readable font they use at the bottom of checks. Is >>this, or something like it around? Anyone see any caveats? >I am suprised that banks still use the magnetic ink. Our payroll service >seems to print our checks with a laser printer. You might call a If I remember the presentation I saw a year or so ago by Unisys, their new check processing system does read the magnetic characters. What they were talking about was a new optical system that is put inline of the rest of the check scaning and processing system. The system would take a stack of checks (constantly being filled by humans) and to a magnetic scan of the MICR strip, then do a optical scan of both the front and back of the check. The info from the magnetic scan would go to a mainframe, the image data was processed and queued onto servers. The checks then went back into stacks. The images were sent to workstations via Ethernet and the magnetic data was also sent to the workstation from the Mainframe, where an operator would key in the data. (The workstations 386 systems running OS/2 and PM with custom graphics boards [for highspeed graphics data I/O].) The check stacks were then run thru another machine and the final MICR data was printed on them. This increased the thruput of a check and reduced the handling of the checks. Anyone from Unisys know any more on how the systems are doing? I know there is a lot of Intel hardware and software in that system (Multibus I & II processor cards and network cards, ISA bus systems and network cards, RMX II real time OS, etc.... Sorry for the deviation from the subject, but yes the magnetic ink is still used and needed (lots of small banks who can't afford to by the wiz-bang-neato optical only systems. Can you say Mega $$$ ?) Tim Forsyth -- Tim Forsyth, Intel Corp., Desktop Computer Division, Hillsboro, Oregon, USA Internet: tim@int13.intel.com or Tim_Forsyth@ccm.hf.intel.com CompuServe: 74040,2712 (checked once a week)