MICR Printers – A Special Purpose Printer

MICR Printers – A Special Purpose Printer - Most of the people may not be aware of MICR printers and they come across them in day to day life. Every organization like Banks, government offices, schools etc. use these types of printers. The MICR printers are used for special purpose like printing cheques in banks. 

There is a difference between the ordinary printers and MICR printers. The characters printed with MICR printer can only be read by a special hi-speed scanner. This scanner converts the magnetic content of the document into normal understandable information.

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There are various advantages of using MICR printers and at the same time disadvantages also build up. Let us analyze some of them.

First, let us see the advantages of using a MICR printer:

• Protection of data – Banks use these MICR printers to make sure maximum protection is given to avoid cheque frauds. The primary reason the MICR printers are introduced is for money authentication. Fake money could not have MICR code and so when scanned through MICR scanners they do not show any bar codes or such things.
• Embedding secrets – Hiding messages or information can be done through MICR printers. So they are used for top secret transactions in various fields. A fine example is certificates given by universities or schools have MICR codes in them.
• Omniscience – Full control over printing can be obtained by using MICR technology. The errors occurring can be seen immediately and therefore could be corrected. The important aspect is you will be warned when there is low ink in the cartridge so that the printing is not tampered.
• Omnipresence – The printer does not need a person to be present near it. The printing can be done even from remote locations by using a central computing unit. This saves not only the time but also reduces the effort.

Disadvantages of MICR printers:

There are certain drawbacks with the MICR printer and they are discusse

• Limited characters – Only limited types of characters can be used with these types of printers. It can print alphabets A – Z, numbers 0 – 9 and four symbols which are non-alphanumeric. And also only one font of characters could be used which is the biggest drawback.
• Cost – At the current price, one MICR printer cartridge costs about 600 dollars which makes it somewhat out of reach.

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Finally, it can be seen that the advantages wins the race over the drawbacks. The MICR printers are for special purposes and could definitely prove worthy for the money invested in them.