Re: Native MICR font -- MIDRANGE-L

John

I'm not the one that needs to print MICR, but I appreciate the info. All the way through your post I was thinking of a place I worked that did write PCL directly to the printers - they must have learned to have to handle things that you describe.

Regards
Vern

John Allen wrote:

Vern,

This is coming from a vendor that has been selling software
that allows companies to print their checks in-house for
many many years.

1) Most banks do still require the MICR toner. (DO NOT use recharged cartridges to save a couple of bucks,
not worth the potential problems, trust me on this one)

2) There are programmers that have managed to write their
own program to print checks using a MICR font. So I am not
saying you can’t do it and you should purchase a solution
from a vendor. But I would say be careful there are some
very important things to consider.

A) The MICR line must be placed very precisely on the check,
and each character must also be placed in a specific
location in relation to the MICR area. You will need to
purchase a MICR template that you can place over your check
to verify the MICR line is placed correctly. Even with the
template, during the verification process with the bank you
may need to adjust the placement to pass the banks
specifications.

B) Be prepared for the unforeseen. We had a customer that
was printing thousands of checks every week for over a year.
Then one day they call and tell us bank is rejecting many of
the checks (the bank still processes them but if there is a
high number of rejects the bank can charge for the extra
handling). (They tightened their specifications, causing
rejects, with our software we just adjusted the placement a
few thousandths of an inch and got them fixed)
If this happens just be prepared to get in there and work
with the bank to get the issue resolved.

C) Come the day to print checks, be prepared if the printer
fails some day. Will you be able to print payroll checks (on
another printer with MICR toner)?

Personal thought: The HPT process of converting AFP to PCL
is not a perfect science as far as data placement being very
very precise. If I were you I would output PCL directly to
the printer so you do not have that potential "gotcha"

There are specifications for printing MICR line all of the
internet. You should do some research before spending a lot
of money

If you have any questions or would like to speak offline
call or email me

Good luck

John Allen
Jallen@xxxxxxxxxxx
678 417-1521
DRV Technologies, Inc.
www.drvtech.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Vern Hamberg [mailto:vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Friday, June 26, 2009 10:27 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Native MICR font

Mark

Seems you need a special toner, as well - for the Magnetic
part of MICR - just googled on "micr toner hp" and got lots of hits - at
least you used to have to do this.

Vern