Printed matter examination apparatus, printed matter examination method, and printed matter examination system

A printed matter examination method comprising:

• generating master data containing converted code information by laying out groups of pixels representing unconverted code information contained within original data according to positional information associated with the original data, the master data being data for printing;
• acquiring the unconverted code information, the unconverted code information being a unique identifier of information contained within the original data;
• recognizing the converted code information from the acquired master data using a dictionary associated with a determined data type of the converted code information, the converted code information being a unique identifier of information contained within the master data;
• and
• comparing the converted code information recognized at the recognizing with the acquired unconverted code information and determining that the converted code information is incorrect when the converted code information is not identical to the unconverted code information.

A printed matter examination system comprising:

• a server including,
• a master data acquiring unit configured to generate master data containing converted code information by laying out groups of pixels representing unconverted code information contained within original data according to positional information associated with the original data, the master data being data for printing,
• a code information acquiring unit configured to acquire the unconverted code information, the unconverted code information being a unique identifier of information contained within the original data,
• a code information recognition unit configured to recognize the converted code information from the acquired master data using a dictionary associated with a determined data type of the converted code information, the converted code information being a unique identifier of information contained within the master data, and
• a code information examination unit configured to compare the converted code information recognized by the code information recognition unit with the acquired unconverted code information and determine that the converted code information is incorrect when the converted code information is not identical to the unconverted code information;
• and
• a printing apparatus including,
• an examination data acquiring unit configured to acquire examination data that is an image data obtained by capturing an image of a recording medium on which the master data is printed, and
• a printing state examination unit configured to compare the acquired examination data with the master data and determine that the examination data is incorrect when the examination data is not identical to the master data.