Using Quantitative Characteristics of Document Images for Identification of Laser Printers

Abstract

The article provides a brief overview of the current state of the theory and practice of identifying laser printers and the results of research work aimed at discovering individual features of the printing mechanism of a laser printer.The author analyses the scheme of a laser printer, describes the printing cycle, presents the main results of the analysis of a printer’s mechanism and the influence of its individual parts on the optical density of printing. The method of assessment of the optical density of the print by the digital image of the printed document is proposed, the complex of the necessary technical and program tools is described.A hypothesis on the correlation between fluctuations in the optical density of printing of solid fills and fluctuations in the area of printed elements was put forward and confirmed; a visual representation of the study results in graphical form is presented, the relationship between the shape of the obtained graphs and defects of the printer’s components and parts is substantiated. The author proposes ways to detect the inhomogeneity of printing density on text arrays based on changes in the area of printed elements and processing of the results, which allows comparing distributions for texts printed in fonts of different sizes and styles. Based on experimental material, the individuality of the form of the obtained distributions and the possibility of their use as identifying features of the printing device are substantiated.

Keywords

• questioned documents examination
• forensic identification
• electrophotography
• laser printer
• banding
• quantitative identification features
• printer parts
• print density
• distribution of values
• correlation