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Microprinting is the production of recognizable patterns or characters on a printed medium at a scale which requires magnification to be read. To the unaided eye, the text may appear as a solid line. Attempts to reproduce by methods of photocopy, image scanning, or pantograph will be translated as a dotted or solid line to the reproduction machine which cannot identify and recreate patterns to such scale. Microprint is predominantly used as an anti-counterfeiting technique due to its inability to be easily reproduced by digital methods. Microprinting is employed as an anti-counterfeiting feature under the assumption that it would be exceptionally difficult for an individual to reproduce accurately without access to resources which are not readily available to the general public. While microphotography precedes microprint, microprint was significantly influenced by Albert Boni in 1934 when he was inspired by his friend, writer and editor Manuel Komroff who was showing his experimentation's related to the enlarging of photographs. It occurred to Albert that if he could reduce rather than enlarge photographs this technology may enable publication companies and libraries to access much greater quantities of data at a minimum cost of material and storage space. Over the following decade, Boni worked to develop microprint, a micro-opaque process in which pages were photographed using 35mm microfilm and printed on cards using offset lithography. This process proved to produce a 6" by 9" index card which stored 100 pages of text from the normal sized publications he was reproducing. Boni began the Readex Microprint company to produce and license this technology. He also published an article ''(A Guide to the Literature of Photography and Related Subjects (1943) )'' which appeared in a supplemental 18th issue of the Photo-Lab Index. ==Usage== Currency commonly exhibits the highest quality (smallest size) of microprint because it demands the highest level of counterfeiting deterrence. For example, on the series 2004 United States $20 bill, microprint is hidden within the border in the lower left corner of the obverse (front) side as well as the Twenty USA background.〔 Bank cheques as well as various other items of value may also commonly leverage microprinting methods, but generally not of such extreme size. For example, personal bank cheques commonly denote the characters ''MP'' next to the signature line of the check; these characters represent ''microprint'' and are used as an anti-counterfeiting feature due to their difficultly in being reproduced and simple deterrent as a warning that the item employs microprint. While microprinting on such medium may be readable to the human eye without microscopy; there is no differentiation between micropinting at these different scales. The first US postage stamp to incorporate microprinting was the American Wildflower Series introduced by The United States Postal Service in 1992. It was also the first commemorative stamp to be wholly produced by offset lithography. The USPS has since issued other stamps with more complex microprinting incorporated along with dates, words, and abbreviations such as ''USPS'' and even entire stamp designs composed of microprint letters. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Microprinting」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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