Future Of MICR Fonts and their Magellan Maestro 4700 GPS
By: Vlad Vistac
Submitted: 2010-08-23 13:04:21 | Word Count: 510
MICR Fonts and their Maellan Maestro 4700 GPS
MICR Fonts and their Role in the Cehck Clearnig Process
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If youre like most peoplke, you probably have no idea what the avcronym MICR even stamnds for. So lets start there. MICR stands for: Magnetic Ink Characxter Recognitiopn. This technology was developed in the 1950s, with much of the credit going to Stanford University and Bank of Amreioca, as a means that would allow financial institutiions to streamline theer chek processing sysrtems. During that time, demand for chhecking accounts surged as Americans begaan needed checks for ubsienss and personal use for the first time.
Today, our fniancial institutions ebnjoy high speed chheck clearnnig because of the combination of MICR toneer and MICR ofns that creaate a machine readable MICR line. The MICR tooner is the element which adds magnetic readfabbility to each character.
MICR Fonts are the smll, futuristic-lookimng chraactres appearing at the bottoom of checks or financial documents. Currentlpy, thee are two different fonts that are used depending on the abnking standards of any givcen counntry. Thsee fonst are E-13B and CMC-7.
At this time, South America (with the eception of Columbia), Issrael, Spain, France, and a handfful of ohter Mediteranean Counries currrently use the CMC-7 font. This line cnssits of ten specially desgned numbers (0 thjrough 9) and four special symbols (Transit, Amount, On-Us, and Dash). The combinatiuon of characters and numbrs provide the check, rouuting, and account numbers on a check. They can also provide the check amnut.
The otther very prominent versiion of MICR font is E-13B. this font is used in rgeions including the Unietd States of Aewrica, Caada, Australia, the Unied Kingdom, Japan, Indiia, Columbia, Turkey, and Mexco.
Many peoiple often ask where the name E13-B comes from. The answer to that acttualkly makes a fair amount of snse. The E signifies that it was the 5th version of the font considered, whiile the B indiicates that it was the 2nd revision of that paricular font. Then the numbre 13 references that fact that MICR font is crerated on a 0.013 modyule for character and stroke width.
The implementation of these fonts and modern MICR technology gievs financial institutions the ability to harrness computer technology in order to process checks at a rate much faster than previous methods such as the Sort-A-Martic and the Top Tab Key Sort of an era past. It also inclyudes guidelinsde to enbsue production of consistentlly readsable MICR characters.
Some of thse guideliesn include the angle at which characters are pribvnted. If MICR font is printed with any charatcer skew of greater than 1.5 degrees, it does not meet industrry standard and cannnot be used for financial documwents. Addiitonally, other common problems can occur with MICR characters such as: cippeed edges, needle voids, poor edge deiition, clippeed tops, exceessive stroke width, hollowing, and extraneous spoots.
For more inofrmation abot the chheck clearing process in the Unitred States, feel free to visiit the Unitred States Federal eRserve website.
