PRINTER WITH IN-LINE SCANNER

A printing apparatus for variable pre-printed stock comprises storage for customer data, a variety of different pre-printed stocks, printer trays for holding the pre-printed stocks, a scanner for scanning the printed area of each of the pre-printed stocks and for producing tray stock information identifying each of the pre-printed stocks, storage for electronic customer orders, each electronic customer order including one or more of the customer data and selection data for one or more of the pre-printed stocks, a controller for receiving the tray stock information and the electronic customer orders, for matching the tray stock information to the electronic customer orders to produce a match between each pre-printed stock and corresponding tray stock information and for producing print instructions for the match, and a printer for receiving the print instructions and for printing the customer data corresponding to the match onto the matched pre-printed stock.