CPA Cheque Standards in Canada: Standard 006 Explained

CPA cheque standards is the industry shorthand for Standard 006, the cheque specification that Payments Canada publishes and enforces across Canadian banks. Payments Canada is the only current name for the certifying body; “CPA” is the abbreviation still used in search and in everyday industry language.

Standard 006 covers the physical dimensions, MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) encoding, and image-capture rules a cheque must meet to clear through the Canadian banking system without manual intervention.

What Is Standard 006?

Standard 006 is the Payments Canada specification that defines how a Canadian cheque must be built and printed so it can be processed automatically. Payments Canada is the national organization that certifies cheque printers in Canada and maintains the standard.

This page covers the physical and image-capture requirements: paper stock, print contrast, field placement, and the MICR line.

Image-Capture Compliance

Image-capture compliance means a cheque prints with enough contrast and a clean enough layout for a bank’s imaging system to read it without manual review. The minimum PCS for a compliant cheque is 0.60, according to Payments Canada’s guidance.

PCS measures how well the printed characters stand out from the background; a cheque that falls below that threshold risks rejection during automated image capture even if a person can read it fine.

Design Choices That Break Image Capture

A handful of design choices push a cheque below that threshold or otherwise interfere with image capture:

• Inverse printing (light text on a dark fill)
• Italic or slanted fonts in protected fields
• A border printed directly under the MICR line
• Dark or heavily patterned backgrounds
• Security features placed over an area of interest, such as the signature line or amount box

Any one of these can force a cheque into manual review, which slows down deposit and increases handling cost on both sides of the transaction.

What Happens If a Cheque Doesn’t Meet Standard 006

A cheque that fails Standard 006 gets pulled out of automated processing and has to be handled by hand. That typically shows up as one or more of the following:

• Rejection by the reader-sorter during automated clearing
• Delays while the item moves to manual processing
• Manual-processing fees charged by the receiving institution
• A hold placed on the funds until the item clears

These outcomes trace back to a single root cause: something in the physical layout, MICR line, or image contrast fell outside spec, so the automated system couldn’t process the cheque with confidence.

Print & Cheques Now and Standard 006: Printer #1010

Print & Cheques Now holds CPA Self-Accredited Printer #1010 status through Payments Canada’s Cheque Printer Self Accreditation Program, one of approximately 20 printers in Canada certified this way. Every cheque produced under that credential is built to the specification covered above: correct length, clear band, field layout, and image-capture contrast.

Every cheque ordered under that credential is backed by the Bank Acceptance Guarantee: if a Canadian bank rejects it, Print & Cheques Now reprints or refunds it. For the full breakdown of what CPA accreditation means for the cheques you order, see CPA-compliant cheques. Order at chequesnow.ca or call 1-866-760-2661.