Information on Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) Fonts

Resolving The Problem

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) was introduced by the banking industry in the middle part of the 20th century to help speed up the processing of checks. Those funny looking numbers and characters that are found on the bottom of a check are printed in a magnetically coded ink that can be read by special MICR readers.

It is possible to print using a MICR font on the IBM Power Systems, however, you have to take into account the type of printer you are printing on.

This document was last updated on 23 January 2015.

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IPDS Printers

There are no known IPDS printers that contain a resident IPDS MICR font. This means that you have to download a font resource object (an object with type *FNTRSC) to the printer. Right away, you can eliminate the IBM 4224, 4230, 4247, and 6400 series of IPDS line matrix printers, as well as the Infoprint 6500 IPDS line matrix printers, since none of these printers support the downloading of fonts. Most laser-type printers support the downloading of font resources. However, not only does the printer have to support downloaded fonts, it has to specifically support MICR printing. This is normally an additional upgrade that must be done to the printer, which includes special magnetic toner. The device description for the IPDS printer has to specify AFP(*YES), which requires the purchase of a PSF/400 license.

After you have determined that your printer supports downloaded font resources and also has MICR capability, you now need a MICR font resource object that can be downloaded to your printer. The operating system does not come with a MICR font. Likewise, the IBM AFP Font Collection (5648-B45) does not contain a MICR font. IBM does market an RPQ, 8A8083, with MICR font resources.

MICR fonts were previously provided through RPQ 8A8083. An RPQ, Request for Price Quotation, is a method IBM uses to provide special hardware and software products and features. RPQ 8A8083 is no longer available, but an enhanced version of the fonts provided with the RPQ available to be downloaded from the IBM Software FTP site. For more information, refer to the section titled "Downloading MICR Fonts from the IBM Software FTP Site" below. These fonts were specifically designed for IBM Infoprint 4000 printers, but they may work on other printer models as well.

There are three types of font resource objects: font character sets, code pages, and coded fonts. Font character set names start with C0 or CZ, code pages start with T1, and coded fonts start with X0 or XZ. A font character set and a code page are both needed to print using font resource objects. A coded font is merely a shorthand method of specifying a font character set and code page. For example, if you have font character set C0R0AE13 and code page T1001032, there is probably a coded font X0AE13 that combines this combination. You must put these font resource objects in a library specified through the Device resource library list (DEVRSCLIBL) parameter in the PSF configuration object (PSFCFG), which when set to *DFT would consist of the QFNTCPL library, and QFNT01 - QFNT15, and QFNT61 - QFNT65 libraries.

Font resource objects are of two general types, raster and outline. Raster fonts are built using a specific pel density, usually either 240 or 300 pel. Outline fonts are not specific to a pel density, but the printer you are printing on has to support the outline font technology. If the font character set name starts with C0, it is probably a raster font. The Display Font Resource Attr (DSPFNTRSCA) command can be used to display the pel density of a raster font. If the name starts with CZ, it is probably an outline font. The DSPFNTRSCA command will show you a special value of *OUTLINE under the pel density field.

If you obtain a raster MICR font, ensure that the pel density of the MICR font resource matches the pel density of the printer.

The spooled file that downloads this font resource object has to specify a printer device type of *AFPDS. A MICR font only contains characters 0-9, and four other special characters. Therefore, you will not want to print a complete check using MICR. To print part of a spooled file in a normal font, and just particular fields using MICR, you must use DDS specifications in a printer file.

Note: For more information on loading host-resident MICR fonts onto the Power Systems, refer to the section titled "Information on Transferring Fonts to the Operating System" below.


CDEFNT (Coded Font) and FNTCHRSET (Font Character Set) DDS Keywords

If you have coded fonts to go along with the font character set and code page, it is easiest to use the CDEFNT (Coded Font) DDS keyword and simply specify the name of the coded font object. For example:

CDEFNT(QGPL/X0AE13) CDEFNT(QGPL/X0ACMC)

Otherwise, you must use the FNTCHRSET (Font Character Set) DDS keyword and specify both the font character set and the code page names. For example:

FNTCHRSET(QGPL/C0R0AE13 QGPL/T1001032) FNTCHRSET(QGPL/C0R0ACMC QGPL/T1001032)

Note: For more information on the CDEFNT and FNTCHRSET DDS keywords, refer to the System i Programming DDS for Printer Files V6R1, which is available at:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v6r1m0/topic/rzakd/rzakd.pdf

or the System i Programming DDS for Printer Files V5R4, which is available at:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v5r4/topic/rzakd/rzakd.pdf


Secure vs Non-Secure MICR Fonts

If printing to a MICR-capable IPDS laser printer that requires non-secure fonts, you will need to obtain a non-secure MICR font from your printer manufacturer or from a third-party vendor and import the font character set, code page and coded font into your IBM System i server. If you use the Infoprint Designer for iSeries product to design your checks, then the font character set, code page and coded font will need to be added to Infoprint Designer as well.

An alternative would be to use the secure MICR fonts that are available from Infoprint Designer and the IBM Software FTP site and print to your MICR-capable printer using a *LAN 3812 device description, a Remote Output Queue (RMTOUTQ) or a PC5250 printer session that uses Host Print Transform (HPT), rather than printing through a *LCL or *LAN IPDS device description that uses Print Services Facility/400 (PSF/400). HPT will build a raster or bit-map image of the MICR characters using the MICR fonts available on the IBM System i, rather than attempting to temporarily load the secure MICR font into the printer hardware.


Error Conditions when Printing to an IPDS Printer

If the MICR font is not found in one of the device resource libraries, which by default would consist of the QFNTCPL library, and QFNT01 - QFNT15, and QFNT61 - QFNT65 libraries, then the spooled file will most likely print without the MICR font and with message PQT3535 "Font substitution was performed" being issued to the WTR job log.

If the MICR font is found but has the wrong pel density for the printer hardware, then the spooled file will most likely print without the MICR font and with message PQT3535 being issued to the WTR job log as well.

If the MICR font is found and is of the correct pel density for the printer hardware, but the printer hardware is not a MICR capable IPDS printer or does not have the MICR feature enabled, then the spooled file will most likely go to HLD (Held) status with message PQT3330 "MICR printing is not supported or not available on device IP1140IPDS" being issued to the PDJ job log.


Using Infoprint Server to Generate PDFs that use MICR Fonts

As mentioned above, when printing to an IPDS printer, the pel density of the MICR font resource object must match the pel density of the printer. If not, then anything in the MICR font will fail to print because the pel density does not match.

Infoprint Server emulates an IPDS laser printer and utilizes Print Services Facility/400 (PSF/400) in the process of converting spooled files to PDF. Infoprint Server has the same requirement to match the pel density of the MICR font resource object with the pel density of its printer emulation type, which is determined by the PDF device emulation type (PDFDEVTYPE) parameter in the PSF Configuration (PSFCFG) object.

The following chart shows the pel density for each of the supported values for the PDFDEVTYPE parameter.

Pel Density Chart
PDFDEVTYPE	Description	Pel Density
*IP40240	Emulate an IP40 printer device configured at 240 pel resolution.	240
*IP40300	Emulate an IP40 printer device configured at 300 pel resolution.	300
*P4028	Emulate a 4028 printer device.	240
*P3812	Emulate a 3812 printer device.	300

Therefore, if 300 pel MICR fonts are used but the PDFDEVTYPE parameter is set to *IP40240 or *P4028, the resulting PDF file will not include anything in the MICR font because the pel density does not match. Likewise, the resulting PDF file will not include anything in the MICR font if 240 pel MICR fonts are used but the PDFDEVTYPE parameter is set to *IP40300 or *P3812.


Using Transform Services to Generate PDFs that use MICR Fonts

Transform Services is a license-free product that can be used to generate Adobe Acrobat PDF format on an IBM i or i5/OS system.

First available in V6R1M0 (6.1 or R610) i5/OS, the Transform Services product (5761TS1) can be used to directly generate PDF as streams files in the Integrated File System (IFS). However, the 6.1 version is not capable of rendering non-Latin1 text, including text in a Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) font.

To use Transform Services to generate PDFs that include text in a MICR font your system must have both V7R1M0 (7.1) i5/OS and the 7.1 version of Transform Services (5770TS1) installed.

For more information on Transform Services, please refer to the following documents:

N1018568: Using Transform Services to Generate PDF Stream Files instead of Spooled Files
N1013755: Language Support for Host Print Transform and Transform Services

Note: The Infoprint Server for iSeries licensed product (5722IP1) can be used to generated PDFs that include the MICR at both 7.1 and 6.1, as well as V5R4M0 (5.4 or R540) i5/OS and earlier releases.


ASCII Printers

When printing to an ASCII laser printer, there are two ways of printing MICR fonts depending on whether the printer has a MICR font that is loaded in the printer hardware (which is known as a printer-resident MICR font), or whether you will be using a MICR font that is loaded on the operating system (which is known as a host-resident MICR font). In either case, because it is not an IPDS printer, the operating system has no idea if the printer actually has magnetic toner or not. The operating system will simply rasterize the look of the font and send it to the printer. You also do not need to worry about the pel density of the font resource object because Host Print Transform (HPT) will rasterize it to fit the printer resolution.

ASCII Printers That Have a Printer-Resident MICR Font

If the ASCII laser printer has a printer-resident MICR font, then there are a few ways to select that printer-resident font by sending a particular PCL font string to the printer. There are also some OEM MICR font packages that can be purchased and then used to load a printer-resident MICR font into the printer. If an OEM MICR font package is used, the manufacturer of that package should include the PCL font string that would be used to activate the MICR font.

After a MICR font has been loaded into the printer and its PCL font string is known, it can be selected by embedding the PCL font string for the MICR font in a spooled file or by modifying a Workstation Customizing Object (WSCST) to include an Individual Font Entry (INDFNTE) tag that maps a unique font identifier (or FGID) to the PCL font string for the MICR font.

The recommended way is to use a modified WSCST object that has an INDFNTE tag with the PCL font string for the MICR font and then reference the FGID for that font in the FONT DDS keyword. This is preferred because DDS will automatically handle change the font back after the necessary text has been printed in the MICR font. Otherwise, the spooled file would have to embed the PCL font string for the MICR font and for the default font.

The following is an example of using the FONT DDS keyword to specify a particular FGID for text that is to be printed in a MICR font:

R RECORD1                   FONT(86)    NAME          20      4  4    AMOUNT        10S 2   4 54    AMTTXT        50      6  4    MICR          30     23  4FONT(35)

The text that will print in the MICR font is set up to print using font or FGID 35. The rest of the check prints using font or FGID 86. Then in the workstation customizing object, you would insert a INDFNTE tag that maps font 35 to a PCL font string that activates the MICR font. The FNTSTR is the hexadecimal PCL command that activates the MICR font.

:INDFNTE   FID=  35   POINTSIZE= 0   FNTSTR='1B28733170313276307330623431303154'X   FNTEND=''X   FNTWTH=''X   EURODATA=''X.

Note: The above example does not use a valid PCL font string for a MICR font. The correct font string to use must be supplied by the printer manufacturer or by the manufacturer of the OEM MICR font package.

The advantage to this method is that the operating system automatically switches the font back for you after the field has printed.

Another way to get the PCL string to the printer is to imbed the string into the spooled file. If you do this, you are responsible to not only imbed the data that switches to the MICR font, but also to change the font back after you have printed the MICR data. There are two ways to imbed a control string in the spooled file. The first is to use ASCII transparency and code in the exact ASCII control string in hexadecimal.

For more information on using the ASCII Transparency (ATRN) SCS control, please refer to the following document:

N1010220: Using the ASCII Transparency (ATRN) SCS Control to Pass ASCII Data to a Printer

Note: You do not need to be using Host Print Transform (HPT) to use this method.

The second way to imbed your own control strings does involve host print transform. Let us assume that the manufacturer of the MICR font tells you that you must send <esc>(10U<esc>(s0p10h0s0b4099T as the control string. This is not hexadecimal data, but character data. All of this data will translate to ASCII cleanly except for the <esc> character. We have denoted this as <esc> but, in reality, it is a single character. In ASCII hexadecimal, it is a x'1B'. The problem is that the operating system does not translate any single character into x'1B'. If you use host print transform, you can set up a workstation customizing object that maps some unique character that you choose into a x'1B'. For example, you could choose the exclamation point (!) to be your escape character, and map the exclamation point to x'1B' using a workstation customizing object with its own translation table.

For more information on sending the MICR font string in a user-modified workstation customizing object, please refer to the following document:

N1010137: Customizing the Code Page 37 to 437 Translation Table


ASCII Printers That Do Not Have a Printer-Resident MICR Font

If a printer-resident MICR font is not available, then a host-resident MICR font can be used instead. Follow the instructions for IPDS printers to setup a host-resident MICR font. After a host-resident MICR font has been set up on the operating system, it can be printed on the ASCII laser printer by specifying that MICR font in an *AFPDS spooled file using the FNTCHRSET (Font Character Set) DDS keyword and then modifying a Workstation Customizing Object (WSCST) to use Raster Mode for *AFPDS spooled files. Host Print Transform (HPT) will then convert the host-resident font to a rasterized image using its AFPDS to ASCII Transform code.

For more information on loading host-resident MICR fonts onto the system, refer to the section titled "IPDS Printers" above, and the section titled "Information on Transferring Fonts to the Operating System" below.


Common Errors with Using MICR Fonts

If you are printing to an IPDS printer, or are using Infoprint Server to convert spooled files to PDF, the most common errors are the following:

1.	The operating system cannot find the font character set and/or code page. Ensure that you place the *FNTRSC objects into a library that the writer job can find. QGPL is normally a library that will be found by the writer job.
2.	We find the font objects, but they are not in the correct pel density. Use the Display Font Resource Attr (DSPFNTRSCA) command to find out what pel density your font uses. If you do not know what pel density your printer uses and you have a Support Line contract, Support Line personnel can help you run a trace to find out what pel density your printer uses. If using Infoprint Server to convert spooled files to PDF, the pel density is determined by the PDF device emulation type (PDFDEVTYPE) parameter in the PSF Configuration (PSFCFG) object.
3.	We find the font objects, they are the correct density; however, your printer does not support MICR fonts. Again, Support Line personnel can help you with a trace that will determine if your printer is telling us it is MICR-capable.
4.	You have correctly coded the DDS that is required; however, when you created the printer file from the DDS, you did not specify DEVTYPE(*AFPDS). It must be *AFPDS to correctly process the CDEFNT or FNTCHRSET DDS keyword.

If you are printing to an ASCII printer and the MICR is not printing, the most common error is the following:

o	If you are using host print transform and the CDEFNT or FNTCHRSET DDS method, see 1 and 4, above.

After you get into workstation customizing or into using ASCII transparency, you might need to purchase a consulting agreement to have IBM support personnel debug your customization. We have consultants who are trained to take the correct traces and dumps that will help detect if your workstation customization object is doing what it is supposed to do. Please note that if you have purchased a MICR font for your ASCII printer, IBM cannot tell you what the control string is to activate it. You must get that information from the manufacturer of the MICR font.