1. A document audit trail system comprising: data communication means, the data communication means including document data input means adapted for receiving document data representative of historical characteristics of an associated document, which document includes an indicia; conversion means adapted for converting between document data and indicia data representative of a visual representation of an encoding thereof; the data communication means further includes means adapted for communicating the indicia data with an associated document processing device comprising at least one of a printed device, scanning device, copying device, facsimile machine, multifunctional peripheral, and client application; means adapted for receiving a document processing instruction representative of a user-specified document processing operation for the associated document; means adapted for generating document data in accordance with a received document processing instruction; sensing means adapted for sensing a property of an indicia of the associated document, which property includes data corresponding to a history of at least one document processing operation performed on the associated document; means adapted for generating updated property data in accordance with a sensed property of the indicia in accordance with generated document data; means adapted for applying a modified indicia, inclusive of encoded information relating to the user-specified document processing operation and updated property data, to the associated document in accordance with indicia data received from the sensing means; and rendering means adapted for generating a tangible document output corresponding to received document data, which tangible document data includes the modified indicia.