THE COMPUTER-ASSISTED IDENTIFICATION OF COLOR PHOTOCOPIERS

The number of counterfeiting and forgery cases involving colour photocopiers has increased significantly over the last few years. Colour photocopies, produced on 45 different models available on the European market, were therefore studied in order to isolate corresponding identification elements that could be exploited by the document examiner. The photocopied-documents were subjected to a series of optical examinations, at different magnifications and under different illumination conditions. In addition, toner samples were extracted from each photocopy and analysed by diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS). The results obtained permitted the construction of a computerized database that can be used to identify a particular model (or group of models) that may have been used to produce a forged or counterfeit document.