Lenticular Printing: Offset vs. Digital

Are you looking for the best Lenticular printing options? An understanding of the best Lenticular printing options available in the market can help you choose the best one as per your requirements. Offset printing has been in existence for a long time and is still one of the most preferred choices. The story of offset printing started early in . In the long run, this conventional printing process hasn’t changed much. Offset printing is a mechanical process where ink is applied in layers using rollers. These rollers maintain specific ink and when they pass over paper they create multiple color layers as ink is passed by the press. They work individually so every roller has some task to execute in the press. The colors that the rollers maintain are popularly known as CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black). The ink combines to form dots which form full-color images.

Link to Jiamei Labels

The Digital Lenticular printing process has fewer steps compared to Offset Lenticular printing. The parts like film and the plate for the rollers are not required under this process. In the modern Lenticular digital printing press, ink is passed to paper in one shot using one head. Different types of images can be transferred easily and swiftly. There is no requirement of extra manpower to handle the in-between process. If you have used any inkjet printers then the principles of both processes is almost the same. For a promotional business where the budget is low, digital printing press provides great support. As time will pass by, more technology will come that will change the printing world.

You need to consider several things in order to determine which method is best for you. Those elements include size, quality, and timing. If you carefully consider these factors then you can get the best results. For bigger size jobs and high-resolution printing, Offset Lenticular printing is preferred and for smaller jobs with lesser quality needed, digital is better. Sometimes conventional Lenticular printing proves more beneficial for your needs than digital. It all depends upon the job.

The Pros and Cons of both printing methods

The Pros of Offset Lenticular Printing:

• For bulk printing jobs, say 500 copies or several batches of 500, offset printing can cut down the Lenticular printing cost.

• In the offset Lenticular printing process there are some presses that can handle large formats like 20" x 28”. When you need big size prints your best option is offset Lenticular printing technology.

• The specialized offset printing technology allows options like glossy coating and even metallic foil also. The press having been set up for Pantone colors can bring in super impressive 3D depth results. Pantone colors are not recommended for Lenticular prints with the flip, zoom, or morph effects. The Pantone colors can result in a ghosting effect, from one frame to the other.

The Cons of Offset Lenticular Printing:

• The overall cost of production in most cases of offset is higher. Since the process is mechanical, manpower is deployed to handle the process. Besides this, the set-up & maintenance cost and special ink, plates, all these add extra cost to unit price.

• TAT (Turnaround Time) is higher as compared to digital Lenticular printing because it involves set-up and manual handling during the entire process.

The Pros of Digital Lenticular Printing:

• Digital Lenticular printing can adjust to any quantity job. Less than 500 copies are just fine for this Lenticular printing method.

• Digital printing allows customized Lenticular printing on each sheet. It can easily handle variable data as it happens, as is the case for postcards and addresses where all the information is different for others.

• For shorter run prints, the TAT is less and cost is also lower as there is no maintenance required for plates and films.

The Cons of Digital Lenticular Printing:

• Most digital printing presses can give you a maximum size of 18” x 12”, so there is always a size limitation factor.

• Pantone colors are usually not supported by digital Lenticular presses. Though in recent years some presses have started offering it but will take some time to bring in the rich feel of PMS colors.

• Typically, the quality is not very impressive. Until recently some presses started offering better quality than offset.

Before making a decision, you should carefully consider the job’s requirements. This will help you save money and bring more leads through advertisement. Here are some important factors that can influence your decision.

Quantity: Offset requires initial set-up cost but if the job is a long run with high quality then the final cost would be cheaper than digital. For small jobs, digital is more better, unless it can be printed on a gang print run with several print jobs on the same Lenticular print sheet.

Turnaround Time: Digital printing doesn’t require set-up, so the output can be fast compared to offset where plates need to be created and presses need to be prepared, to start printing.

Customization: Changes in the file can be done easily on-demand with digital printing but for offset, it is not easy to adjust on-demand prints.

Sheet Sizes: If you want big banners for outdoor advertisement, then offset can offer several sizing options, but digital printing has limited sizes. Lenticular prints over the size of 19x27 inches, requires flatbed inkjet printers.

Color Matching: The digital printing technology uses software to exactly match before converting RGB based office documents to CMYK. Though offset offers high-resolution printing, it cannot offer a wide range of Pantone colors like digital.

Use Lenticular technology to add more glamor to printing

Whatever printing method you choose, if you want to draw more attention from your customers and leave a long-lasting impression, then Lenticular printing is the best choice. If you have UV technology you can print directly on plastic or even paper, in your favorite press – offset or digital. Though the printing machines need to be tuned for best quality and use the highest possible resolution, it’s worth doing it.

What is Lenticular printing?

Lenticular printing converts normal images and produces an illusion of depth, flip, morph, zoom, motion and animation effects. In this process, several images are divided into strips and interlaced. Lenticular plastic is used to print the job. When the prints are viewed from various angles different images can be seen. This Lenticular print technology is used in several commercial and promotional materials for effective advertising. Thanks to this new age technology that lets you add more printing applications. Read on to know how to Lenticular printing.

How does Lenticular printing work?

The Lenticular technology uses the precise procedure to produce wonderful Lenticular effects. Before printing, the images are cut out into strips and interlaced to make a single image. The Lenticular images are printed on the back of a special type of Lenticular lenses. The Lenticular lens produces a depth illusion and makes only one image visible at a time. When the lens is placed vertically, a 3D image illusion is created because each eye sees a different image. There are several popular projects where the Lenticular process is preferred like Lenticular posters, lenticular postcards, 3d lenticular pictures and many more.

6 Lenticular printing effects that can change the way you advertise

Sounds interesting? These effects are very powerful to convey the message to customers. Lenticular advertising is the latest craze in the advertisement world. With the same cost of standard advertising, you get something which is capable of bringing more leads and sales. Whether you have a department store or a small business you can always choose Lenticular products for your business goals. Here are 6 interesting Lenticular effects that you can choose from.

Flip

This is the most basic lenticular effect that produces flip pictures. As the lenticular print is tilted up and down or side to side, the image appears to change. The direction of the flip can also determine image quality. Up/Down effect creates better image quality than Right/Left. This lenticular printing method with this effect allows up to 6 images, depending on the colors and artwork design.The images can be blended together and seen one at a time from different angles.

3D Depth

This effect doesn’t produce any movement but it produces a depth from foreground to background. This makes images appear in a 3D environment which looks very beautiful. This 3D effect is inspired by parallax effect; our eyes are able to visualize the 3D objects.

Animation

Do you love animation and want to see it in Lenticular printing also? Fortunately, lenticular technology allows for a frame by frame (up to 64 frames) accumulation of images to produce a short clip like effect just like a real movie clip. The number of frames depends on the colors and artwork design. The only difference between a lenticular animation and video clip, is that it doesn’t use any energy source.

Zoom

This effect is suitable for a corporate advertisement where a logo or single word is used to create a zoom effect. In a widespread background and using looping pictures a perfect zoom effect can be produced.

Morph

This is an interesting effect where one image gradually morphs into another image. The two pictures are carefully chosen so when the effect is seen it looks more real and attractive. It requires a background image and two transparencies with the object that will be morphed.

Motion

Here video frames (up to 50) are mixed to produce motion effects that look so real. This type of effects is suitable for advertisement of extreme sports, movie releases and motoring sports.

Popular Lenticular Products

Buttons, Badges and Pins: Lenticular lapel pins with custom designs offer a great way to take your message to customers. These badges come with a safety pin so it is easy to wear and go. Lantor, Ltd. also offers several attachment options like pin, bar badge magnet, bulldog clip, swivel pin etc

POP Signs - Counter Cards: The Lenticular counter cards / POP signs are said to best converting advertising methods. They are placed in a place where customers are sure to view. With fantastic Lenticular effects, the works become much easier.

Business Cards: Not just an ordinary business card, use Lenticular business cards to grab customer attention instantly. They stand out among other cards kept in the cardholder. Whenever there is any need for services or products, people will call and sales will increase automatically.

CD and DVD Inserts Carrying Case: These Lenticular printed CD and DVD inserts cases are very attractive to buyers at any retail store. These CD and DVD case inserts are great promotional material which always reminds users of your product thus helps in year-round sales.

Custom Products: The Lenticular printing company provides a facility for custom products. You can choose any product you wish to use for promotion and customize the print work as you require.

Now you know how to make Lenticular prints and the benefits of using Lenticular printing services for your advertisement and promotional needs. The fast-changing modern world needs fast and long lasting branding and promotion. Get started with new fascinating printing method to reap more profits. For obtaining best results, sourcing high-quality Lenticular printing services is very important. Due to increasing popularity of this niche, many companies have sprouted everywhere. Before ordering you should check the experience, printing facility, TAT, cost and customization level of the company. This way you will have peace of mind that the promotion & campaigns you are running are according to your plan and budget.

Lenticular Printing

Converting a 2D images to 3D by
Isaac Cheung
Co-founder of ViCGI.com

Abstract:

Traditionally, making a 3D lenticular print requires taking multiple pictures of the same scene along a straight line. The pictures are then interlaced together to create a lenticular print. However, obtaining the source images this way requires very careful planning ahead of time and it is not always feasible due to various environmental limitations and time constraints. Hence, converting a 2D picture into a 3D image easily has been the interest of the lenticular printing industry for years.

Before Photoshop CS4 Extended, converting a 2D image to a 3D image required ad hoc software. Since CS4 Extended, 2D to 3D image conversion became possible within the integrated environment of Photoshop. To the lenticular printing enthusiast, this is a quantum leap. Nevertheless, it is still not intuitive enough for the novice. Beginners still need to do many trial and error runs in order to gain the experience.

In this paper, the author will explain the theory on how to convert a flat 2D picture into a 3D picture by using only the basic functions of pre-CS4 Extended Photoshop in a systematic manner. By understanding the theory behind the conversion you will become confident in creating successful lenticular prints; whether you are using ad hoc software or Photoshop CS4 Extended. Users of pre-CS4 Extended and other graphics editing software such as Gimp or PhotoImpact will also benefit from this tutorial.

Principle of lenticular printing

Lenticular printing is a technology in which a lenticular sheet is used to let different images be seen by the left and right eyes so that the illusion of depth becomes possible on a 2D image. The theory is simple and it is based on the principle of binocular disparity. To understand this, one can do a simple experiment by looking at an object using the left and the right eye separately. You will find that the relative position of an object seen from the left and the right eye is slightly different. By emulating this binocular disparity using a lenticular sheet, one can see an illusive3D effect come alive.

Principle of 2D to 3D conversion

Figure 1: Spatial relationship of 3D objects

Figure 1 shows the plane view of three objects in different locations. Once this view is captured by a 2D camera, all the depth of field information will be lost and you will notice these three objects appear to be on the same plane as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: 2D picture loses depth information

The linchpin of converting a 2D picture to a 3D picture is the reverse process that converts the image in Figure 2 back to the image in Figure 1.

Figure 3: Binocular shift of objects

In Figure 3, A2, B2, and C2 are the original positions of objects A, B, and C in the 2D picture. In order to create spatial depth, the left eye needs to see objects A, B, and C at position AL, BL, and CL. Similarly, the right eye should see them at positions AR, BR, and CR. When the objects are layered with Photoshop it is easy to create a left-eye picture and a right-eye picture as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: New positions of objects

The foreground, middle-ground, background, and the focal plane

Conceptually, when choosing a 2D picture for the 3D conversion, the best picture should have a very obvious foreground, middle-ground, and background. In Figure 1, one can consider object B to be the foreground, object A to be the middle-ground, and object C to be the background. Although this partition might not be obvious in some pictures, it will be a guideline for choosing a good candidate for the 2D to 3D conversion. Pictures that deviate too much from this property will become either too tedious for the time and effort or it is simply impossible for the conversion.

A focal plane is a plane where there is no parallax, i.e. the left and the right eyes are seeing the same objects on this plane. One can actually set the focal plane anywhere along the axis perpendicular to the picture surface. For example for the three objects in Figure 1 and Figure 3, if the focal plane is set at the same position as object A, then object B will seem to pop out of the picture and object C will seem to be set further into the picture leaving object A to appear as if it is on the lenticular print itself.

The Game Plan

You can download the asset files for this exercise from our 2D to 3D Conversion (34.3 MB) archive.

If you want to learn more, please visit our website lenticular patch.

Figure 5: A 2D picture to be converted

Figure 5 is a picture obtained from Google image by searching the keyword "US Open." The picture has a very clear foreground (the net), middle-ground (the tennis player), and background (everything else). To enhance the 3D effect a tennis ball is added to the picture as shown below. The size of the tennis ball is deliberately magnified to exaggerate the effect that the ball is just right in front of the viewer’s eyes. The position of the ball should be somewhere before the net and in-line with the player’s eye sight.

Figure 6: Adding object to the original 2D picture

For this exercise, let’s plan to set the focal plane on the tennis player, hence the net and the tennis ball will be in the foreground giving the viewer the “popping out” impression. On the other hand, the background will recess into the picture.

Now, let’s open the picture in Photoshop and set the Resolution to 720 dpi if you intend to use an Epson printer. If you plan to use HP or Canon printer, set the Resolution to 600 dpi instead. Set the width to 12 inches. We will explain these settings later.

Figure 7 - Setting of image size

How much parallax?

Figure 8 - Schematic for parallax planning

Figure 8 is used to determine the amount of parallax. Please do not be intimidated by the complexity of the drawing. Once explained, it will become obvious. We also suggest that you print out this drawing for reference so you do not have to scroll up and down.

On the drawing point “a” is the original position of the tennis player and point “b” is the original position of the net and the background. The net and the background span across the entire picture so the mid-point of the picture is considered as their positions. Point “c” is the original position of the tennis ball.

If we are going to use the Micro Lens 40 LPI lenticular sheet, the specifications suggest the viewing distance be 3 feet, i.e. 36-in. The width of the picture is 12-in as we have set.

Since we choose to use the layer of the tennis player as the focal plane, we can ignore point “a” from now on as it already lies on the focal plane.

The tennis ball will be moved from point “c” to point “f”, 5 inches in front of the focal plane. Because of this move, the left eye should see the tennis ball at point “r”, and the right eye should see it at point “g”.

The net will be moved from point “b” to point “e”, 2 inches in front of the focal plane. Again, the left eye should see it at point “o”, and the right eye should see it at point “n”.

Similarly, the background will be moved from point “b” to point “d”, 4 inches behind the focal plane. To account for this move, the left eye should see it at point “m”, and the right eye should see it at point “p”.

The table below summarizes the descriptions above

Object Original position New position for left eye New position for right eye Tennis ball c r g The net b o n Tennis player a - - The background b m p

Now we need to use our knowledge of geometry and trigonometry to find out the necessary shifts. Let’s work out the details on the tennis ball. The net and the background are less tedious and can be calculated by the properties of similar triangles.

Left eye of the tennis ball

The original position of the tennis ball is at point “c”. From Photoshop we know that its x coordinate is .5 pixels from the left, or 8.126 inches if we divide it by 720 dpi.

Since point “b” is at the center of a 12 inch wide picture therefore the length of line “bc” should be 8.126 – 6 = 2.126 inch.

Now to find the shift for “cr”.

Since △rfw ~ △fLt,

fw Lt Lt . rw (2.126 + 1.25) x 5 ∴ ------ = ------ ⇒ fw = ---------- = ------------------------ = 0.545 or 392 pixels rw ft ft (36 - 2 3)

Right eye of the tennis ball

Similarly, for the right eye, we need to find the shift for “cq”.

Since △qfx ~ △fRt,

fx Rt Rt . qx (2.126 + 1.25) x 5 ∴ ------ = ------ ⇒ fx = ---------- = ------------------------ = 0.141 or 102 pixels qx ft ft (36 - 2 3)

The following table summarizes all the necessary shifts which include the shift for the net and also the shift for the background.

Object Original position New position for left eye New position for right eye Tennis ball c cr=392 pixels cg = 102 pixels The net b bo = 53 pixels bn = -53 pixels Tennis player a - - The background b bm = -90 pixel bp = 90 pixels

Using the above table as a guide, we can come up with two new pictures; one for the left eye and one for the right eye as shown below.

Figure 9 - Picture for left eye

Figure 10 - Picture for right eye

If you observe carefully, you will see a slight difference between the above two pictures.

Test drive the depth

To see how it works out, the simplest way is to make an anaglyph picture. This can be done relatively easily.

Use Photoshop to open the right picture first then follow by opening the left picture. Copy and paste the left picture on top of the right picture. Double-click the layer property of the left picture and then disable the [G] and [B] checkboxes under the [Advanced Blending] section. Now you can view the result in the following picture (picture with some red tint) with a pair of red-cyan glasses.

Figure 11 - Setting for creating an anaglyph

Figure 12 - Anaglyph

Interlacing the pictures

We just created an anaglyph by combining a picture that is for the left eye and a picture that is for the right eye. Now it is time to slice these pictures to match them up with the lenticular sheet. Remember we set the resolution of the picture to 720 dpi (or 600 dpi if you use HP or Cannon printer)? Now let us explain why.

Since an Epson printer can print 720 dots per inch, we want to map each dot the printer prints to a single pixel on the image file. This is why we need to set the image resolution to the resolution of the printer, i.e. 720 for Epson and 600 for HP and Canon.

Another number we need to know is how many dots will be under each lenticule. We will continue to use the Micro Lens 40 LPI lenticular sheet as an example. Since 720 divided by 40 equals 18, there will be 18 dots under each lenticule. There are several ways we can arrange these dots, all with the purpose of alternating the dots from the left and right picture. For example, we can arrange the first 9 dots from the left (9L), and the next 9 dots from the right (9R). Alternatively we can have 3L3R3L3R3L3R because this pattern can be repeated and the sum of dots also equals to 18. 2L2R2L2R2L2R2L2R2L won’t work because the pattern cannot be repeated to the next lenticule although the sum is still 18.

Let’s use the simpler pattern 9L9R in the following interlacing example.

To accomplish this, all we need to do is to create a mask for both pictures. The mask will contain vertical stripes of 9 pixels wide and 9 pixels apart. For the left picture, the mask will start with a white stripe and for the right picture, the mask will start with a black stripe. When we paste the mask to the channel of the mask layers, the image will be interlaced as we intended.

Let’s outline the steps below.

Step 1: Create a mask for both the left and the right layer.

Figure 13 - Create a mask for each layer

Step 2: Create a vertical stripe pattern for the left layer and the right layer with the same image size as the image.

Figure 14 - Pattern used as mask for interlacing

Step 3: From the [Channel] palette, highlight and make it visible for the mask layer, paste over the vertical stripe pattern, one for the left and one for the right.

Figure 15 - Paste mask pattern to the mask layers on the [Channel] palette

Step 4: Flatten the image, and print it at 720 dpi on a photo glossy paper.

Figure 16 - Epson 720 setting

Step 5: Put the lenticular lens over the printout and align them to obtain the clearest picture.

Step 6: Laminate the lenticular sheet to the printout by using the double-sided adhesive sheet.

Conclusion

If the steps above are too detailed for you to follow, then try to understand the principle behind the 2D to 3D image conversion. By understanding the principle, you can draw your own diagram, map out the necessary shift for each object, and experiment with the effect by using the anaglyph diagram. The steps described above are part of a tutorial so that you can try them out yourself. The values in your calculation can be quite different depending on the objects and the complexity of the picture you are using.

The main point is that we need to create a picture for the left eye and a slightly different picture for the right eye in order to create proper depth amongst all the objects in the picture. If this is our goal, we can use Photoshop to move the objects left and right to achieve this goal. With this in mind, here is a high-level set of steps for any 2D to 3D image conversion project for lenticular printing.

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