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welcome

This website was created as a supporting resource during the development of a diploma thesis.

MIC

Welcome to the website dedicated to the issue of Machine Identification Code (MIC) in printed documents. On this website, you will find information about so-called yellow dots that are printed by color laser printers on each of their printouts. These dots are like a unique fingerprint and contain encoded information about the printer and sometimes about the printout itself.

In addition, you will also find on this website mini-applications that can help you with your own research on decoding MIC from a physical printout.

what are the yellow dots

A Machine Identification Code (MIC), also known as printer steganography, yellow dots, tracking dots or secret dots, is a digital watermark which certain color laser printers and copiers leave on every single printed page, allowing identification of the device with which a document was printed and giving clues to the originator.
Developed by Xerox and Canon in the mid-1980s, its existence became public only in 2004. [wikipedia]

Size of yellow dots (pattern Xerox). The scale is 1 cm.
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