Postage accounting system including means for transmitting ascii encoded

Abstract

A postage accounting system comprising: structure for accounting for postage; printing structure externally of the accounting structure, the printing structure including a printing module and computer structure for controlling the printing module, the printing module including printing apparatus and structure for sequentially feeding each item of a predetermined plurality thereof to the printing apparatus for printing thereon, the computer structure including structure programmed for sequentially transmitting variable information for each item to the accounting structure, the variable information including at least a portion of a mailing address for each item; the postage accounting structure including structure for connecting the accounting module in communication with the printing structure, the accounting structure including structure for sequentially encrypting the variable information received for each item, the accounting structure including a microprocessor, the microprocessor including structure programmed for transmitting to the printing structure a bit-mapped image of fixed information for printing on each item, and the microprocessor including structure programmed for separately sequentially transmitting to the printing structure an ASCII encoded string of characters corresponding to the sequentially encrypted information for sequentially printing on the respective items.