MICR facts for kids

Cheque sample for a fictional bank in Canada using par-crossing MICR encoding for cashing in the United States

The MICR is a device that can recognise human readable characters printed on documents such as cheques using a special magnetic ink. The reader reads these characters by examining their shapes. Characters are printed in a special font. Each character is formed by a 7 x 10 matrix. The MICR has a magnetic head which can detect the magnetic pattern for each character.

The abbreviation MICR stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. This is a type of data input often found in banks. The bank account number and other details are printed onto bank cheques (USA - checks)in a special font with magnetic ink.

The magnetic characters can be read very quickly and accurately by MICR readers.

Numbers in a special MICR font

Images for kids

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  An early demonstration of use of an E-13 MICR font on a cheque. The "transit" glyph differs from E-13B.

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  A cheque signed by Enzo Ferrari in the collection of the Museo Ferrari, showing CMC-7 markings.

See also

In Spanish: Reconocimiento de caracteres por tinta magnética para niños