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Margie Dana

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You Won't Believe Your Eyes!

by Margie Dana

Name a printing process that's pretty rare, fun to look at, and moving. Literally.

Give up? It's lenticular printing. I first wrote about it four years ago, and lately, every time I pick up a trade publication, up "pops" lenticular. Is it a renaissance? Not surprising. This may be the most eye-catching type of printing available today.

The word might be new to you, but I'll bet you'll nod knowingly after I describe what a lenticular image looks like.

Picture a photo on a postcard or book cover that shows two different images when you shift the material slightly, back and forth, in your hand.
Do you remember those particular prizes inside a Cracker Jack box - the little paper disks that showed two different images you could "flip between" when you jiggled them?
How about a billboard or other outside display that flips between two images, or even looks like a 3-D object?

That's lenticular. This special technology takes multiple graphics or images, combines them together, and enables them to be printed with a specially designed optical lens. Look up "lenticular" in Webster's and among its definitions are "of a lens" and "of a projection screen made up of a series of small cylindrical lenses set on the surface."

In plain English, lenticular printing allows the creation of 3-D or animated imagery.

When I was young, we had a small, handheld viewing toy called a "Viewmaster," that resembled binoculars. Into it we loaded a paper wheel that had multiple film images of different fairy tales. Peering into this two-eyepiece viewer, I'd see a new 3-D image with each "click." Now I'm wondering, was that a form of lenticular imaging?

In the August 2006 issue of American Printer (www.americanprinter.com), lenticular took center stage, with a cover article about TracerGraphix (www.tracerGrafix.com) and Lithografix (www.lithographix.com), lenticular specialists based in Los Angeles, and their magnificent 3-D image of Spider-Man. Magical!

In the September 2006 issue of PrintingWorld, a Haymarket Publication (www.printweek.com/printingworld), there's a good article about a UK firm who does lenticular (Reflex Printed Plastics), and how their adoption of new and improved software from HumanEyes has really improved the efficiencies of this process.

An insert in the October issue of another trade publication was a lenticular collage for Big3D (www.Big3D.com). (Again with the innovative Californians - should we New Englanders be getting a complex?) The 9" x 8" insert is entertaining, particularly the big blinking eye in the middle. It's a keeper.

Lenticular is hot.

You can get different effects with lenticular imaging, such as:

3-D
2-Phase Animation: 2 different images flip back and forth
Multi-Phase Animation
Full Motion: Sequences are taken from video frames
Morphing: An image gradually changes or "morphs" into another
Zoom: An image grows larger

Learn a lot more about lenticular printing at www.tracergraphix.com, www.lithographix.com, www.lenstar.org, and www.Big3D.com.

Look at lenticular…and enjoy a moving experience. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

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Adobe Systems, Inc.
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FGS
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