[WTF] Xerox printer altering print output

[Gamut]

Photocopiers made by Xerox are changing numbers on documents, a German computer scientist has discovered.

In his tests, Mr Kriesel found that often the number "6" would be turned into an "8", and vice versa, with other numbers being affected too.
One room on his copied plans had its dimensions shrunk from 21.11m to 14.13m


Where would you start with that problem??

[TonerMunkeh]

Re: Xerox printer altering print output

BBC News - Confused Xerox copiers rewrite documents, expert finds

Xerox are really in for it with this one. Architects using Xerox machines will be after blood!

[Flash]

Re: Xerox printer altering print output

Supposedly scanning at a higher resolution is a work around.

[Phrag]

Re: Xerox printer altering print output

why is jbig2 substituting numbers in the first place? Why does it need to substitute numbers? Is it trying to swap 4's with an A because is has a few less dots? Or instead of compressing LEET it replaces the 'word' with 1337.


I just don't understand. Is this how Skynet started out?

[Akitu]

Re: Xerox printer altering print output

Oddly enough, according to the article it was an intended feature that went unchecked. Jbig2 compression is at fault, even more oddly is that further compression of the image actually does not reproduce the problem.

Good news for everyone except Xerox I suppose.

[mjarbar]

Re: Xerox printer altering print output

Although I haven't seen it happen, some early Canon's use the same JBig2 compression as the Xerox so we will wait and see!!!