Digital Presses Can Now Produce Lenticular Effects

HP has announced the availability of its Indigo Lenticular 3-D application in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) market.

HP has announced the availability of its Indigo Lenticular 3-D application in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) market.

Available through an agreement with Human Eyes Technologies, the lenticular kit enables HP's Indigo press s2000 owners to produce the full range of lenticular effects for specialty printing applications.

Lenticular products have a high added value for both printers and customers, and 3-D images have proven to have a 'stopping power' five times greater that conventional 2-D print, and four times the 'staying power,' making them highly attractive to retailers, and producers of direct mail and promotional items, said HP.

Lenticular prints contain multiple images that create the illusion of movement or a third dimension.

Possible effects include flipping, morphing, zooming, 3-D and animation.

The lenticular kit comprises screening software, skew enhancing guide system hardware and a calibration jig - all developed by HP.

There is also software for the creation of lenticular content, developed by Human Eyes and two substrates suited to different applications, provided by the company.

Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager of the Indigo Division at HP, said: "The HP Indigo Lenticular 3-D application opens exciting and entertaining new opportunities for creative marketing organisations.

The simplification of what has traditionally been a slow and expensive process has, with HP and Human Eyes technology, become available for general use." The HP Indigo Lenticular 3-D application is claimed to simplify the production of lenticular images by 'slicing' the images to be used and interlacing them digitally.

When done conventionally, slicing and interlacing was time-consuming and expensive, making short-run and on-demand production unfeasible.

The hardware developed by HP is claimed to ensure alignment between the substrate and the image to optimise the 3D quality effect.

The result is a system that is said to enable, for the first time, production of cost-effective, digital, high-quality, short run lenticular prints.

The HP system is the only digital commercial and industrial system to offer these benefits, claimed the company.

Harry Skidmore is the chief exeuctive officer of Easibind International of Derbyshire (UK) which beta tested the lenticular application in Europe.

He commented: "Everything has been carefully thought through, and all of the materials, processes and software are matched to give you a quality result, time after time.

Lenticular is a proven technology that has been waiting for this solution.

The HP Indigo Lenticular 3-D application combines versatility with consistent quality, which is a winning combination and takes the lenticular process to a new advanced level." Applications for lenticular products include A4 posters, shelf-wobblers, mouse pads, coaters, business cards, greetings cards, POS displays and small promotional items, including buttons, key rings and fridge magnets, for instance.

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