ABSTRACT
As with trace evidence, the forensic analysis of questioned documents covers a wide range of evidence and uses a wide variety of forensic tools for its analysis. Handwriting analysis can be considered a type of pattern evidence, and a database has been created to store example patterns of writing. Counterfeiting of currency and, more recently, credit cards requires physical and chemical analysis of inks, paper, and plastics. Advances in printing, personal computers, scanners, and copy machines have changed the nature of QD examination in ways that could not be imagined by Albert S. Osborn. Therefore, like the field of trace evidence analysis, analysis of QDs requires examiners to be skilled in a variety of sciences and even, in some cases, art.
