The process of evaluating and selecting a reading system is critical to the success of the overall direct park mark identification (DPMI) application. While many factors go into the selection of any new equipment, the capability of the reader to consistently read codes throughout the process is critical.

In DPMI applications, distortions to the code are quite common due to part composition, variations in part presentation, or variability caused by the manufacturing process. It is important to select a reader that can tolerate a wide range of distortions to the appearance of the code no matter what the cause.