NCJ Number
151435
Journal
Journal of Forensic Identification Volume: 44 Issue: 5 Dated: (September/October 1994) Pages: 521-529
Date Published
1994
Length
9 pages
Annotation
In past examinations of documents containing typewritten material, type size and style have been identified and typewriter make and model have been determined by comparison to a reference collection; with technology changes, however, typewriters have been replaced by dedicated word processors with letter-quality printers and soft fonts which enable the user to create his or her individual type style.
Abstract
The output of a daisy wheel printer resembles that of a typewriter, but it is limited by speed and ability to print graphics or more than one font or type size without changing the print wheel. While print wheels with a range of fonts and sizes are available, only a few type styles, such as Courier and Elite, appear to have been widely used. Further, with heavy use, print wheel lifetime may be as short as 1 month, indicating rapid change in the print element's individual characteristics. As a result, the print wheel used to prepare a questioned document may be routinely replaced prior to exemplars being obtained. Unless contemporaneously produced documents from the same machine are available, individualization will not be possible. Because of its limitations, the daisy wheel printer has been supplanted by the laser printer. Laser printers offer speed, print quality, and the ability to print graphics. Software has been introduced which creates fonts; letters are created as graphic images and then sent to the printer. This software can make the identification of printed material more difficult. Another difficulty in identifying computer- generated questioned documents concerns the ability of commercially available drawing or graphics programs to produce and export to a word processing program modified or custom designed type styles. 11 references