Gene Heskett wrote: > > I think you are wasting your time unless you just want to fill in the > blanks of a ready-made, purchased from the bank, check. > > The reason? They are custom imprinted with a magnetic pattern that > contains the information to route and clear that check, with only the > amount being required to be read and entered by hand at the clearing > point. > > We don't have the facilities to do that for an otherwise identical looking > check, and if we did, I imagine the secret service would come to pay a > visit, probably without knocking other than the door in to gain entrance. > They tend to take a very dim view of counterfeiting, which could easily be > done with essentially the same printing equipment. > Just about any laser printer can print checks with the magnetic encoding. The hard part is getting the toner cartridge with the magnetic ink. But they are available. You do have to be a bit careful of the check layout - too much artwork can give the readers problems. It also get expensive as the magnetic ink cost more. One way around this is to use a color laser printer, and replace one of the toner cartridges with the magnetic ink. You have to do the layout so that you do not use the magnetic ink except in the account/routing information, and only use the magnetic ink there. There is a font for producing the account/routing information. As an added benefit, you can encode the check amount when you print the check. (I don't remember all the details any more - the setup was 15-20 years ago, with a monochrome laser printer.) Mikkel -- Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!
