Abstract: A document is printed on a recoding medium together with a high resolution 2d barcode that encodes desired information about the document, and a low resolution 2d barcode that encode resolution data that specifies the spatial resolution of the high resolution barcode. The low resolution barcode has a sufficiently low spatial resolution so that it can be adequately read by a majority of scanners at their low resolution settings. Thus, if the printed document is scanned at a low scan resolution, the low resolution barcode can be adequately read to extract the resolution data in order to determined whether the scan resolution is adequate for reading the high resolution barcode. If necessary, the printed document can be re-scanned at a higher scan resolution so that the high resolution barcode can be adequately read. Alternatively, the resolution data may specify the print resolution at which the document is printed.

Abstract: A document is printed on a recoding medium together with a high resolution 2d barcode that encodes desired information about the document, and a low resolution 2d barcode that encode resolution data that specifies the spatial resolution of the high resolution barcode. The low resolution barcode has a sufficiently low spatial resolution so that it can be adequately read by a majority of scanners at their low resolution settings. Thus, if the printed document is scanned at a low scan resolution, the low resolution barcode can be adequately read to extract the resolution data in order to determined whether the scan resolution is adequate for reading the high resolution barcode. If necessary, the printed document can be re-scanned at a higher scan resolution so that the high resolution barcode can be adequately read. Alternatively, the resolution data may specify the print resolution at which the document is printed.

Abstract: A method of processing a document is described in which selected area(s) of the document, such as areas containing sensitive information, with a barcode(s) that represents the information in the selected area(s). Selection of the area(s) may be done by a user or automatically. When the processed document is printed or electronically displayed, the selected area(s) is replaced with barcode(s) so the information in the area(s) cannot be visually discerned by a human observer. The intended recipient or reader of the document can decode it using a decoder to display the document, including the selected area(s), in the original form. The method may be implemented in a computer, a scanner/copier, a printer or the like.