WHY DID YOU WRITE THIS?

I wanted a free alternative to MIPS/VersaCheck. 'nuff said.

REQUIREMENTS

The first thing that you MUST have to be able to use FreeCheck is a good Type 1 MICR font. I have created one, called "GnuMICR" that I think is pretty excellent - but it has not been well tested. :) There are also commercial fonts you can buy, if that floats your boat. See www.bizfonts.com, for example.

You must also have either a PostScript printer, or a recent version of GhostScript. FreeCheck generates the check as a PostScript file.

Technically, you must also use MICR toner. At a minimum, use a real laser printer.

Also, you should use security blank check stock, not just plain paper.

CONFIGURATION

Edit the file freecheck.cfg to add your account information, and define any new check blanks or styles you want. Take a look at the [Global] section, too, to set things up for your system. Pay close attention to the MICR line specification instructions. Most configuration instructions can be found in this file. If something's too confusing, let me know.

USAGE

FreeCheck just prints a PostScript file to STDOUT. That means that you must either redirect it to a file, a printer, or a viewer (ggv accepts a file on STDIN - I don't think gv does).

So, to print (assuming a PostScript printer, or GhostView filter): freecheck.pl <options> | lpr

To view:
freecheck.pl <options> | ggv

To save a file:
freecheck.pl <options> > mycheckfile.ps

OPTIONS

freecheck doesn't require any options, unless you want it to do something useful. By itself, it will print a couple sheets of standard checks with a dummy account.

Type "freecheck --help" to see what options are available

For now, if you get tired of typing all those command line options, just edit the defaults at the top of the main script.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

FreeCheck is a Frankenstein-like combination of PostScript and Perl, at this point. The guts of the check layout are in PostScript, which is embedded at the end of the Perl script. This PostScript depends on lots of variable definitions to decide what it should actually print. That's where the Perl comes in - reading a config file, and generating lots of lines of the type

/foo {bar} def
which define what's shown on the page.