Get a Brief Explanation of Lenticular Printing

Optics may be used to create illusions of depth and motion in print. The technique is referred to as lenticular, and the results can include any blend of motion, stereoscopic depth (3D Lenticular Decorative), and abrupt transitions (flips).

It works especially well with today's high-resolution UV inkjet printers that can print straight on plastics. In the first of two articles, we first examine lenticular printing's definition and method of manufacture.

A printed backing layer and a transparent plastic lens front layer are combined in lenticular printing.

Many people probably first experienced lenticular print as youngsters, in novelty items like bubblegum cards and toys where, depending on how it is turned towards your eyes, the picture may switch between two or three scenarios. Novelty greeting cards, book covers, or lenticular decorative printing depictions of tigers and dolphins are still the most popular uses. A shame because well-executed big-size lenticulars may make an appealing creative or promotional medium, but most are just badly manufactured kitsch.

Although most retail consumers prefer one of the animated approaches because movement is more eye-catching and the impact is seen at shorter viewing distances, stereoscopic 3D may be very effective with big lenses. The effects of 3D are more subtle and aren't visible from all angles or distances.

Although the picture generation process is meticulous, the print in a lenticular image is ordinary. It divides a collection of photos into thin strips and places them side by side (called interleaving).

When viewing small portable pictures, such as those on posters, you may create the illusion of motion or flipping by shifting your point of view by moving your head or hands or by walking past or in the direction of the print. The picture seems to vary as the print moves because the lenses' diffraction sends distinct image stripes straight into your eyes.

Through the use of parallax, which causes each of your eyes to perceive a separate light path through the lenses—one set for the left half and the other set for the right—stereoscopic depth is created, which your brain interprets.

Lens selection

In general, the lenses will be positioned horizontally for pictures like posters that people walk by and vertically for those they walk towards. The lenses from 3D lenticular decorative manufacturer are always vertical.