Resources

Everything worth knowing before you buy anything

These guides answer the questions this category actually gets asked, in the order a buyer runs into them. They are written to be useful on their own, including to someone who buys from somebody else.

Every figure in them comes from a product specification or a named standard.

Send the question Start with the basics
A specialist at a desk reviewing reference material, with the city at dusk beyond the window
Close-up of the lower half of a printed check, its E-13B MICR line lit by a thin line of ember light

The MICR line on our demo check, left to right

  1. Auxiliary on-us field1233, the check number, bounded by On-Us symbols. Used mainly on business checks.
  2. Routing number987654321. Nine digits, the bank, bracketed by Transit symbols.
  3. On-us field123456789, the account, closed by an On-Us symbol. Its layout is set by the issuing bank.
  4. Amount fieldLeft blank when the check is printed. The bank of first deposit encodes it.

Printed in E-13B characters with magnetic toner. A reader/sorter reads this line by its magnetic signal rather than by the shape of the characters. A signal that is too weak, too strong or misshapen gets the item rejected.

The guides

Six guides, in the order the questions arrive

Start here

What is MICR?

Magnetic ink character recognition in plain terms: why the characters are shaped the way they are, the two font standards, and the three things that make a printer MICR capable.

  • 9 minute read
Read it
Reference

The MICR line on a check

Every field on the line and what it contains: the routing number, the on-us field, the amount field, the auxiliary on-us field, and the four E-13B symbols that separate them.

  • 8 minute read
Read it
How it works

MICR printers explained

What calibration actually measures, why re-engineered engines rather than proprietary hardware, and how to read a recommended monthly volume against a duty cycle.

  • 10 minute read
Read it
Process

How to print checks

From blank safety stock to an item that clears: what you need, what order to do it in, how to lay out the MICR line, and how to test before you run five thousand items.

  • 10 minute read
Read it
Choosing

Check printers buying guide

Sizing against volume rather than speed, working out what a reject rate costs, understanding the supplies commitment, and ten questions to ask any vendor including us.

  • 11 minute read
Read it
Terms

MICR Performance Guarantee

What the guarantee pays for, the five conditions that apply together, the explicit exclusion, and how to get the written terms.

  • 7 minute read
Read it
A desk seen from above with a printed specification document open flat, a loupe resting on it, a sample of blank check stock, and a closed laptop pushed aside

A specification sheet, a loupe and a sample of blank check stock. Every figure on this site comes from a specification or a standard.

Also here

Downloads, writing, and announcements

Blog

Ongoing guidance on MICR, check printing, and returns processing.

Blog

News

Product and company announcements from us.

News
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