Examination of Firearms Review: 2007 to 2010 - Interpol

In the particular field of Handwriting, we note the emergence of some software
dedicated to help the examiners in his writing report. One of the most distributed at this
time is WriteOn 2.
3.2 The composition of inks: review of the analytical methods
The expert in documents is brought to examine, in the majority of the cases, three major
classes of ink:
• Inks of pen ([66] to [102]).
• Toner ([103] to [111]).
• Ink of inkjet printer ([112] to [119]).
Whilst there are many publications on the forensic analysis of inks of pen inks (37
papers, posters or presentations found), fewer have been written on the analysis of
inkjet inks (8 papers, posters or presentations found) and toner inks (7 papers, posters
or presentations found). However, it seems that today, it is this kind of inks that are
regularly asked to be analysed by magistrates or investigators more than pen inks.
To allow further analysis, the document examiners are often compelled to preserve the
sample he has to analyse.
Today, Raman spectroscopy ([72], [93], [108], [109], [122], [125], [128], [146], [148]),
remains the reference process but we can see some emergent techniques able to make
non destructive analysis applicable to inks.
As said below, it is extremely hard to give an exhaustive list of analytical techniques that
can be used for ink analysis. Listed below are the references appearing in the review
grouped according to technique, the relative popularities of which are likely to be due to
their availability in the university or lab undertaking the tests.
3.2.1 Liquid Chromatography:
• TLC (Thin Layer Chromatography) [74], [78], [80], [81], [85], [95], [97], [98], [119],
[129], [140]
• HPTLC (High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography) [80], [81], [91]
• HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) [91], [104], [119], [134], [140],
[141]
3.3.2 Spectroscopy:
• FTIR spectroscopy (Fourier Transform Infra Red) [76], [85], [89], [108], [119],
[126], [127], [129], [144], [147], [156]
• µFTIR [104], [128]
• Raman spectroscopy [72], [93], [108], [109], [122], [125], [128], [146], [148]
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