Although it has long been possible to embed images that glow under ultraviolet light into paper, the technology to do it rendered it impractical for all but very large jobs. Xerox aims to change that with new fluorescent printing technology, announced Wednesday, that can be applied by conventional four-color printers. The company hopes that the technology will bring customized, high-tech security features to ordinary documents like checks and birth certificates.
“Just as US currency has a fluorescent thread to authenticate it, I can imagine a time when your checks will have your signature printed in a fluorescent stripe,” said Reiner Eschbach, a research fellow in the Xerox Innovation Group, in a statement. “A merchant could easily compare the fluorescent signature with the actual one to validate the check.”
The technology is based on a special combination of dry inks called toners, the type of printing medium used in photocopiers and laser printers. Since white paper has fluorescent whiteners in it that make it glow under ultraviolet light, the special toner combination is used to selectively block that property, making just the “un-inked” portions of the page appear to glow. Eschbach’s group developed the technique while they were working on GlossMark, a technology that would allow users to print glossy hologram-like marks.
Since the new fluorescent printing can be done on ordinary four-color printers, there is no additional step to embed the images, so corporate users will be able to make it part of their ordinary printing process.
