this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2024
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I've long heard arguments in favor of laser printers, but after finding out that every laser printer is printing yellow tracking dots on every page it prints, it's made me question if I actually want one. I haven't been able to find any confirmation that inkjet printers have tracking dots. It's very possible some do, but in comparison it sounds like every laser printer does.
I currently have an Epson ecotank, to refill it I just pour ink in from a bottle. The ink is super cheap (at least compared to regular inkjets, and there's no way for them to restrict what brand of liquid ink I use. Honestly it's a very decent printing experience, and I'm not sure I'd be better off with a Brother Laser.
Only color laser printers put those yellow dots on paper. The black and white ones don't because they can't: They don't have yellow toner.
So get a black and white printer and you'll be fine.
I don't want to be that guy, but if they really want to be tracking prints, black and white printing does not need to make it impossible. There's other ways to code information.
There is, but since color printers are the ones that were used in counterfeiting most black and white printers don't do that sort of thing. Plus I don't know how you'd encode that much information in black and white without making it visible on the paper.
You could encode information as slight "mistakes" in the print. An extra dot here, a missing dot there, some slight "printing error" in some place.
There could be ways, but as you said, it's to combat money counterfeiting. Like the Euro constellation detection in scanners, PhotoShop, and printer drivers. (fun fact: it's quite easy to bypass, not sure why they even bothered... it only stops people who put 0 thought into counterfeiting anyway)