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Frequently
Asked Questions
A.1
MICR stands for Magnetic
Ink Character Recognition. MICR is best recognized as the odd print
line located at the bottom of a financial document. The numeric line
is printed with MICR Ink or Toner. The numeric line will represent the
document transaction details such as Client Account Number, Bank State
and Branch ID number and the addition of an information field commonly
used for the cheque number. High speed reader / sorting equipment will
process the volume of cheques relying on the MICR information to sort
and capture transactions. MICR stands for Magnetic Ink Character
Recognition.
Q.2
Why is just a soft font and
MICR toner not adequate?
A.2
Technology required to recreate the E13B MICR font needs to be capable
of creating exact character formations. The magnetic properties
in the ink or toner used in printing the E13B font can generate
electronic signwave signatures when passed through the high speed
reader/sorter equipment installed within banking clearance houses.
The electronic signature generated by each character is translated
into the numeric values representing the Bank/State/Branch ID, Client
account number and Auxiliary number ie. cheque number. The amount of
the document is captured via optical character recognition methods
which can translate both machine printed and handwritten values. This
information is then used by the banking institution to exchange the
amount of the document from the issuer's account to the payee's
account or vice versa in the case of billing items.
A MICR document may be processed up to
20 times before it is correctly sorted for disbursement. All
financial documents are returned to the issuer’s branch for
reconciliation and archiving. The rigorous demands put on both the
MICR line and its carrier (the paper) apply additional standards to
the overall printing specification beyond those required for the MICR
font itself. The permanency of the MICR ink or toner to the
paper is crucial, if the toner falls off the document it will clog the
read head and reject following documents.
Out of the daily 3-4 million documents
being processed around 2% of this volume (approx. 48,000) will reject
(up from .5% in the past). Rejected documents require
manual processing, the high cost of this process has prompted the bank
to recover costs up to $10 per item.
The increase in use of Desktop printing
systems for cheques and other financial documents can be attributed to
this. Individuals and suppliers of technology being unaware of
market requirements have implemented systems which work well below
market acceptance. Please read "toner
only product comparison".
Today, the HP LaserJet "MICR Enabled" printing solution
provides high quality and secure printing within central and decentralized
environments to all issuers of cheques and other
financial documents.
The jointly
engineered "MICR Enabled" solution calibrates the print
engine with the toner and the E13B font to meet and maintain market
standards.
There is more to
MICR than just font and toner. You need Quality, Security, Reliability
and Simplicity.
A.3
Use the following as a broad over view.
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Establish
your printing requirements; centralized and decentralized.
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Rationalize
your form requirements; number of different form types, ancillary
forms to be collated with MICR forms and locations to be printed.
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Work
with your form supplier to re-engineer your requirements to meet
recent modifications to APCA
standards and to create common stock for multiple applications.
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Assess
your printer requirements; peak and daily throughput requirement,
# of paper trays required and connectivity options.
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Contact
your local HP Dealer/Reseller to obtain information relevant to
your printer needs.
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Contact
Marinter Systems to insure
your implementation and individual needs are being addressed.
The
MICR kit for HP LaserJet's provide a MICR tool set internal to the
LaserJet printer components. The kit contains a number of logic
functions and fonts (refer to product data pages). These features are
accessed from your host software application. The MICR printer can
function as a normal LaserJet to handle non-MICR applications and can
be fitted with any of the accessory options available from HP.
The "MICR mode" personality
is activated within the printer by a proprietary escape sequence
embedded into the beginning of your data stream. "MICR mode"
once activated will look for the installation of MICR toner. If
standard toner is present the panel will indicate "NO MICR
Toner". Simply replace the standard cartridge with a Marinter
MICR cartridge and continue. The "MICR mode" operation will
automatically set printer density variables to insure the best MICR
font reproduction and change your printer operation to process the
MICR encoded documents.
The resident MICR font is addressed
similarly to calling any other printer resident font, via an escape
sequence embedded into your data prior to the MICR print information.
Optional password and control panel
lock features can be set up at the beginning of the data stream to
further protect against unauthorized access to the resident MICR font.
For further information on the use of the "MICR mode"
features, contact us on support@marinter.com.
The greatest benefit is gained by
re-engineering cheque applications to print onto blank pre-coloured
stationary.
The "MICR Enabled" LaserJet
is capable of reproducing text, graphics and MICR fonts within a
single print pass.
Electronic Form products available from
a number of vendors, likely to already exist within your current
architecture, can be utilized to create the body of the form. The form
body can contain boxes, lines, half tone shading, logos, fixed text
and signatures. Mainstream electronic form software packages will
provide for the merging of your client specific or variable text,
originating from your admin system or database, to be mapped into the
form for processing. The formatted output will enable "MICR
mode" within the LaserJet utilizing the standard LaserJet
functions to produce the body of the form whilst accessing the "MICR
mode"
Integration into Windows environments
is simplified with the use of a specific MICR printer driver available
from our resources page. Other environments can be easily modified
with the assistance of product tools available from Marinter. There
are a number of product ready solutions designed to harness the MICR
tools and capable of integrating your current database into easy to
use form tools.
Contact Information
Marinter Systems Pty. Ltd.
Copyright
© 1999
All
features and specifications subject to change without notice,
Hewlett-Packard, HP, SupportPack and LaserJet are
registered trademarks of Hewlett-Packard Company.
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
Jetmobile is a registered trademark of Jetmobile Europe.
TROY is a registered trademark of TROY Group Inc. All other
trademarks and references are the rightful property of their
respective owners. Marinter Systems is an authorized MICR and
Barcode/MICR distributor for Jetmobile.
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