Xerox Develops Invisible Ink for Standard Printers

June 1, 2007: After recently announcing erasable paper, Xerox has developed a new way to print invisible fluorescent text with most standard commercial printers, opening up new possibilities for security for important printed materials and documents.

The hidden text only shows up under ultraviolet light, enabling businesses to easily add new security features to items such as cheques, tickets, sensitive documents and much more. The method also does not require any specialised inks.

“What's amazes people about the new technology is that we can create fluorescent writing on a digital printer without using fluorescent ink," said Reiner Eschbach, a research fellow in the Xerox Innovation Group. “That means a four-color digital printer can print everything it normally would, and it can simultaneously individualize a document with a fluorescent identifier.”

“Just as US currency has a fluorescent thread to authenticate it, I can imagine a time when your cheques will have your signature printed in a fluorescent strip,” added Eschbach. “A merchant could easily compare the fluorescent signature with the actual one to validate the cheque.”

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