What is the MICR clear band area, and how does it affect my printing from a laser printer?
The MICR clear band area is measured 5/8ths inch from the bottom of the check and runs the full length of the check. No other magnetic printing may appear in the 5/8ths inch MICR clear band area. This is especially important when printing from a non-impact (laser) printer, since all the variable information including but not limited to the MICR characters, contain magnetic properties. And since a bank reader/sorter reads the entire 5/8ths inch clear band area, it would also read any other magnetic information contained in that area, and this would cause items to reject due to the interference of other magnetic properties causing the MICR characters to become unreadable. It has been my experience that most rejects that occur when printing with a non-impact printer are actually due to encroachment of other magnetic printing in the clear band area. As an example, digitized signatures, memo fields, five line addresses, borders, etc., must be printed so they do not encroach into the upper 5
