Forensic analysis on printer inks via multivariate data analysis

Printer inks are becoming necessary for utilization for wide range of purposes by society in current times with rapid development in technology and digital media area. Thus, forgery and counterfeiting becoming easier for the criminals. It is dangerous as some criminals will misused the technology by mean of addition and adulteration of parts of text or numbers on document as the inks and document can be made as an evidence in the trial court. Thus, the characterization and differentiation of the printed inks in the suspected documents (civil or criminal cases) may provide important information about the authenticity of the printer inks. The focus of this study to differentiate the chemical component of three different types of sample inks by incorporation of FTIR spectrophotometer with principal component analysis. The unique features of the ink samples were unmasked from the score plots of the principal component analysis. Thus, the graphical representation provided by the FTIR spectra with principal component analysis enabled the discrimination certain chemical in the printer inks.