SeeingYellow has been around for a little while now, advertising the supposed ‘truth’ about today’s colored printers. According to them, all of our modern printers print out code in the form of small, invisible yellow dots onto our documents and photos. They, SeeingYellow, claims that it’s simply because the government needs to track our use for them. If we’re printing money, the fed and Secret Service will be able to tell where we are, and when we printed it.

“When one person asked his printer manufacturer about turning off the tracking dots, Secret Service agents showed up at his door several days later.” Okay, you have to admit, you’re laughing at this point, right?

Well, they do provide a little evidence in support of their claims, at lease on the dots side of things. Print out a color document from your color printer. Now, use an intense blue LED in a dark room, and they should appear in front of your eyes. You can also use a high quality scanner to scan the newly printed document, and then use GIMP or PhotoShop to only display the blue channel, that should make the dots appear. (Works best on a white or blank part of the document). Valid or not, we’ll leave that up to you to decide.

[…] Did you know you can be traced by what you print? […]