Modern Approaches to the Forensic Analysis of Inkjet Printing–Physical and Chemical Examinations

Documents submitted for forensic examination that have been printed by inkjet printers are becoming much more predominant. With the advent of this technology, there has been tremendous popularity amongst criminals to use inkjet printers and copiers to commit a variety of crimes such as counterfeiting, criminal record keeping, and extortion. In some instances, legitimate transactions such as contracts and wills later become the focus of a criminal investigation. This may prompt a suspect(s) to alter entries, generate new documents in an attempt to substantiate his case, or make false claims regarding the questioned document. Forensic document examiners can perform a variety of physical and chemical examinations that may help link multiple documents with each other or a suspect printer(s), ascertain if the document is legitimate with respect to date, or determine the make and model of the suspect machine. This article will provide a comprehensive discussion of modern approaches to the physical and chemical examination of documents produced by inkjet copiers and printers. In addition, some new ideas will be proposed to provide forensic document examiners (FDE) insight into the future of inkjet analyses.