Do photo printers use yellow-dot printer steganography?
Asked 8/23/2012
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2 answers
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Some printers add tiny yellow tracking dots for document traceability. Do printers commonly used for photographic printing use this system, or is it mostly found on office/document printers? If it is present, does it noticeably affect photo quality?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
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No, Inkjet printers do not use steganography, but a good deal of Laser do, but not all.
As en example, I had a run of brochures done a few months ago by a print company that use a Xerox DocuColour 800 laser based machine, and you could clearly make out the yellow dots in the right light. (also my office Dell 1320c, which is a Xerox system does it)
I then had a run done by another company who use a HP Indigo press (ink based) system, which did not have visible steganography.
it very, very minimally effects the image but not much at all.
The reason is for document traceability, it is assumed that inkjet printers will not be used to print off large reams of documentation in an office environment.
Originally by user9999. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user9999
14y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Usually not. Based on the community answer, inkjet printers generally do not use the yellow-dot tracking system, while many laser printers do, though not all. That means printers typically used for photo printing—most commonly inkjet photo printers—are generally not affected.
Where the system is used, it appears mainly on laser-based office or production document printers for traceability. In those cases, the dots can sometimes be seen under the right light, but the effect on the printed image is described as extremely small.
So for photographic printing, especially on inkjet photo printers, yellow-dot steganography is generally not something you need to worry about. If you are printing photos on a laser printer or a commercial laser press, it may be present, but any visible impact is usually minimal.
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