Magnetic ink character recognition

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Magnetic Ink Character Recognition, or MICR, colloquially pronounced /ˈmɪkɚ/ or sometimes /ˈmaɪkɚ/, is a character recognition technology adopted mainly by the banking industry to facilitate the processing of checks. The process was demonstrated to the American Bankers Association in July 1956, and it was almost universally employed by 1963^[1].

Almost all US and UK checks now include MICR characters at the bottom of the paper in a font known as E-13B. The major fonts used around the world are E-13B and CMC-7.

In addition to their unique fonts, MICR characters are printed with a magnetic ink or toner. Magnetic printing is used so that the characters can be reliably read into a system, even when they have been overprinted with other marks such as cancellation stamps. The characters are read with a device similar in nature to the head of an audio tape recorder, and the letterforms' bulbous shapes insure that each letter produces a unique waveform for the read head.

The error rate for scanning the numbers at the bottom of a typical cheque is smaller than with usual optical character recognition systems.

[edit] See also

• Optical Character Recognition

[edit] External links

• GNU public licensed MICR font
• MICR Repository
• Check processing fonts around the world
• Java Glossary (defines the routing number and account number)
• MICR E-13B Fonts

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Mandell, Lewis. "Diffusion of EFTS among National Banks: Note", Journal of Money, Credit and Banking Vol. 9, No. 2. (May, 1977), p. 341.