🚀 go-pugleaf

     If you want to have a check cleared through the normal interbank clearing
procedures, it has to follow the American Banker's Association standards
for check format.  Checks written on napkins and such are not invalid
as long as they conform to the Uniform Commercial Code requirements for
drafts, which basically means that the obvious information and a valid
signature must be present.  But you may have to cash the check at the
bank and branch upon which it was drawn.  

     As for making your own checks, this is not uncommon, but you do
need a printer that can print the MICR numbers.  If you are printing them
yourself, you can print the amount in magnetic ink numbers.  (Take a look
at your cancelled checks; the amount and some other information has
been encoded during processing.)  If you write enough checks, you may
be able to get a slight discount on per-check charges for pre-encoding
them, although unless you're writing thousands of checks, it probably
isn't worth the trouble.

      Incidentally, the MICR font has no letters; just numbers and a few
special delimiting symbols.  Alphabetic fonts that resemble MICR numbers
are just decorative fonts, not machine-processing ones.  The MICR numbers
are designed to be read by a very simple reader which has only one magnetic
read head.  The waveform emitted as the number goes by the read head is
enough to identify the character.  Modern readers are usually more sophisticate
d
than that, and many read both optically and magnetically, for redundancy.
But the symbols were designed around 1954, for an early system called ERMA
developed for the Bank of America.


					John Nagle