# Your Color Laser Printer is Now Working for the Government **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 1, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-color-laser-printer-is-now-working-for-the-government/277567 "2004-12-01T20:45:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-color-laser-printer-is-now-working-for-the-government/277567/1 "2004-12-01T20:45:25Z")
[Government Uses Color Laser Printer Technology to Track Documents](http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/pcworld/20041122/tc_pcworld/118664) > [@](#): > > \*\* > According to experts, several printer companies quietly encode the serial number and the manufacturing code of their color laser printers and color copiers on every document those machines produce. Governments, including the United States, already use the hidden markings to track counterfeiters. > > Peter Crean, a senior research fellow at Xerox, says his company’s laser printers, copiers and multifunction workstations, such as its WorkCentre Pro series, put the “serial number of each machine coded in little yellow dots” in every printout. The millimeter-sized dots appear about every inch on a page, nestled within the printed words and margins. > > “It’s a trail back to you, like a license plate,” Crean says. \*\* Remember that next time you print out anti-Bush handouts for your next rally. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-color-laser-printer-is-now-working-for-the-government/277567/2 "2004-12-01T21:00:11Z")
Gotta love my inkjet. It’s sloppy at times but at least it’s not a snitch. ---
**Author:** ![Bleaker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Bleaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bleaker)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-color-laser-printer-is-now-working-for-the-government/277567/3 "2004-12-01T21:06:43Z")
> [@](#): > > Crean says Xerox pioneered this technology about **20 years ago** , to assuage fears that their color copiers could easily be used to counterfeit bills. > > “We developed the first (encoding mechanism) in house because several countries had expressed concern about allowing us to sell the printers in their country,” Crean says. > > Since then, he says, many other companies have adopted the practice. First person to say “Bush” gets… Oops, too late. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-color-laser-printer-is-now-working-for-the-government/277567/4 "2004-12-01T22:35:09Z")
> [@](#): > > Remember that next time you print out anti-Bush handouts for your next rally. Dang, who can afford color for something like that? It’s, like, 70 cents a page, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-color-laser-printer-is-now-working-for-the-government/277567/5 "2004-12-01T22:53:48Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Dang, who can afford color for something like that? It’s, like, 70 cents a page, isn’t it? My thoughts exactly. Isn’t it usually just a bunch of photocopies? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Long\_Road](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-color-laser-printer-is-now-working-for-the-government/277567/6 "2004-12-01T23:01:24Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Dang, who can afford color for something like that? It’s, like, 70 cents a page, isn’t it? Goddamnit! Bush is keeping the cost of color copies out of the reach of the masses. Won’t someone think of the children? They need color copies too. Bush hates children. It’s all a plot! Only the rich will have color copies. Argh!!! ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-color-laser-printer-is-now-working-for-the-government/277567/7 "2004-12-01T23:03:02Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Dang, who can afford color for something like that? It’s, like, 70 cents a page, isn’t it? Not quite. This $395 [Konica color laser printer](http://store.yahoo.com/shophiq/5250214-100.html) gets 1500 copies from a $279 4-color toner pack. That’s 18.6¢ per copy, hardly a budget buster. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-color-laser-printer-is-now-working-for-the-government/277567/8 "2004-12-02T00:07:59Z")
Well, okey-doke then. The 70-cent figure is about what I’ve been paying to have my subversive literature printed at Kinko’s, as I’ve only needed four or five copies at a time. Still, one thinks that if Bush’s presumed jackbooted thugs ever really want to bust down my door, they’ll probably have plenty of other ways to identify which door to bust down than encoded color copies. Like my posts to this board, f’r example. ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-color-laser-printer-is-now-working-for-the-government/277567/9 "2004-12-02T00:32:51Z")
Hm. And Adobe won’t let you play around with dollar bills in PS. Any truth to that? Supposedly, PS will detect US paper currency and not allow you to make the colors resemble an actual dollar. I’ve never tried that myself. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-color-laser-printer-is-now-working-for-the-government/277567/10 "2004-12-02T00:51:55Z")
> [@Chairman Pow](#): > > Hm. And Adobe won’t let you play around with dollar bills in PS. Any truth to that? Supposedly, PS will detect US paper currency and not allow you to make the colors resemble an actual dollar. I’ve never tried that myself. Well, i thought that someone had been pulling your chain, but apparently the latest version, Photoshop CS, does indeed have the capacity to detect and prevent attempts to scan currency. [Here’s](http://www.brainstormsandraves.com/images1/04/photoshopcswarning.png) a screenshot of the warning message. And [here’s](http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,61877,00.html) an article about it. According to [this article](http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,61890,00.html), though, the Photoshop currency detector is pretty easy to circumvent. ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-color-laser-printer-is-now-working-for-the-government/277567/11 "2004-12-02T03:26:59Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Well, okey-doke then. The 70-cent figure is about what I’ve been paying to have my subversive literature printed at Kinko’s, as I’ve only needed four or five copies at a time. The machine they used at the Kinko’s where I used to work cost about .32 cents each to the store, which is why they charge you 70 as a base price (so there can be volume discounts without dipping below their own cost). ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-color-laser-printer-is-now-working-for-the-government/277567/12 "2004-12-02T04:18:54Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Well, i thought that someone had been pulling your chain, but apparently the latest version, Photoshop CS, does indeed have the capacity to detect and prevent attempts to scan currency. > > [Here’s](http://www.brainstormsandraves.com/images1/04/photoshopcswarning.png) a screenshot of the warning message. And [here’s](http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,61877,00.html) an article about it. > > According to [this article](http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,61890,00.html), though, the Photoshop currency detector is pretty easy to circumvent. Holy fuck! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-color-laser-printer-is-now-working-for-the-government/277567/13 "2004-12-02T04:24:01Z")
In case anyone is curious, one of the [many ways](http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/sjm217/projects/currency/) copying machines and software can figure out what is currency and what is not is by detecting a pattern of seemingly-random circles, called the [EURion](http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/eurion.pdf), scattered about the banknote. The green lines linking the “constellations” in the PDF sample are only used as a visual aid and are not actually printed. Sometimes, this pattern is disguised amongst other objects – in the £20 example, it’s in the musical notes. The newest [U.S. banknotes](http://www.moneyfactory.com/newmoney/) also contain this pattern, embedded as the zeroes in the small 20s and 50s printed on the bills. Not every central bank has implemented this anti-counterfeiting measure, however, because some currencies are evidently just [not valuable enough](http://www.listener.co.nz/default,1412.sm).