Information encoding and decoding

The invention relates to encoding onto and decoding information from a printing surface. In an encoding process, data fragments of an information entity are incorporated into physical code fragments embodied by electrically readable ink patterns onto the printing surface in a printing process. The physical code fragments are distributed into a coordinate space determined by the printing surface such that each data fragment occurs repetitively in the coordinate space, thus providing redundant representation of information on the printing surface. In a decoding process, the electrically readable ink patterns are detected and converted to physical code fragments. The data fragments are extracted from the physical code fragments, and the data fragments are combined in order to form the information entity.