Lenticular prints have been around for a long time, so long that I can remember fishing the tiny blinking-eye version out of a Cracker Jack box in the days when personal computers were found only on TV cartoons like “The Jetsons.” Meet George Jetson!

From their cheesy beginnings as a novelty item, lenticulars have become sophisticated enough for an audience drenched in digital entertainment that blurs reality and fantasy. Lenticulars are eye-catching, extremely effective advertising pieces for virtually any market, from box-office blockbuster promotional posters to trade shows and special events.

A VERY SPECIAL NICHE

Though lenticulars have a lot of advantages over other types of printed promotions in their ability to give three-dimensional life and movement to images, you can almost count on one hand the companies successfully printing large-format lenticulars.

Small-format is a slightly different story, but the preferred printing method is offset, effectively putting it out of reach for companies focused on large-format output. One company that does both small- and large-format lenticular printing—in fact, lenticular printing is its exclusive realm—is Big3D.com, a busy shop in Fresno, Calif.

These backlit 3-D lenticular ceiling panels by Big3D.com adorn Style Club, a hair salon in Dublin, Ireland. The ceiling is comprised of 6’one 2’ x 1’, one 1.5’ x 3’ and four 4’ x 6’ panels. Big3D.com creates both 3-D lenticulars and transition (flip) lenticulars.

“We are seeing more people looking to stand out in their advertising, particularly with direct mail where they want to send fewer pieces and get more bang for their buck. It’s a growing part of our business,” says Tom Saville, Big3D’s founder and president. “We’re growing because we are very good at what we do. If someone wants lenticular, and they want it done correctly, on time and on budget, we’re an obvious choice. It’s difficult to print lenticular. Many companies have found that it’s easier and more profitable to broker it, so a lot of that business comes to us. 

“In addition to doing store signage, retail displays and movie posters, we do DVD covers and direct mail and other promotional pieces—lenticular has added pizzazz. Plus lenticular prints can’t be copied, so when there’s a demand for something that can’t be counterfeited—like concert tickets and NASCAR pit passes—lenticulars is the way to go. Because we only print lenticular, we focus and find many different ways to print it so that we’re able to serve a lot of different markets.”

Saville reports that this past December was Big3D’s best December ever. The company recently expanded into a 100,000-square-foot facility that provides a much larger staging area for all the lenticular projects it’s shipping across the globe. Big3D’s growth during a period of economic doldrums indicates two things: demand has grown while the cost of entry and the level of expertise needed have increased.

The large-format division of Big3D.com printed two hundred 48” x 70” 3D lenticular mall kiosk displays as part of a major-market indoor ad campaign for the movie Legend of the Seeker. Big3D also printed one million Legend of the Seeker variable-data lenticular promotional iTunes cards and 20,000 direct-mail lenticular postcards for the campaign.

STRICTLY LARGE FORMAT

Meanwhile, Indianapolis-based Matrix Imaging shies away from small-format lenticulars in favor of strictly large-format applications. Matrix Imaging is a large-format shop with no desire to get into offset printing, plus it’s simply not cost-effective and competitive for them to print small-format pieces on large-format equipment.

Though a lot of end-use customers would love to include large-format lenticulars in their advertising mix, they are far more expensive to produce than a typical print project. The extra cost is mainly found in the lenticular lenses used to create the various morphing effects that are so desirable. Added to the extra material cost is the time it takes to build an image that will not only change, but will be spot-on when it does change.

“It’s an art, not a science,” says Brian Freije, president of Matrix Imaging. “If you don’t lay it down on the lens just right, you can get travelling where the image doesn’t line up properly. And if you don’t pitch it right, it can flip too quickly. You always ask the client about the viewing distance, because you can look at one from 10 feet and it looks great, but from 20 feet it looks terrible. That’s very important, because you can set it up to flip faster or slower depending on viewing distance.”

In contrast to Big3D.com, Freije adds that the economy has put a damper on Matrix Imaging’s lenticular business. However, lenticular printing is not Matrix Imaging’s core business—it’s available for customers who would like to use it as part of their large-format print program.

When the economy turns around, Matrix Imaging is well-positioned to take care of any pent-up demand for lenticulars. The shop has the right equipment, the know-how and the experience to take advantage of a turnaround. Plus, Freije says large-format lenticulars can be used in almost any application for any market. Now it’s just a matter of loosening those corporate budgets.

EQUIPMENT CONNECTION

Both Big3D.com and Matrix Imaging use an Océ LightJet photo imager for the majority of their large-format lenticular printing. Though inkjet is certainly a viable option, continuous tone photographic printing is overwhelmingly preferred, at least by Saville and Freije.

Matrix Imaging has experimented with printing lenticulars on its Inca Digital UV-curing flatbed printer. But as Freije notes, “Some of our customers are okay with inkjet, but we’re picky and our name is on the line with anything we print.”

Freije is hopeful that the upcoming delivery of the latest Inca press, the Onset S20, will provide an alternative for larger and more outdoor-durable lenticular projects. “The S20 does full-bed array printing. Most machines go side to side, so you see more banding. With the S20, it builds from the bottom up to get rid of the banding. With the new S20 we’ll be able to pull off close to 50 full-bed boards an hour, so we’re talking a whole new high-volume direct-to-board market for us as well,” he says.

The beauty of UV-cure printing is that it’s possible to print in reverse, directly onto the lens, effectively taking two steps and an extra material out of the process. The problem, as mentioned, is the lack of continuous tone.

Big3D.com uses a custom-engineered Lüscher flatbed inkjet printer for its larger outdoor projects. “We worked with the people from Switzerland on it for a couple of years so we could have variable dot size and variable resolution in order to avoid the visual banding that plagues other inkjet machines with lenticular,” says Saville. “We were looking for an outdoor solution for outdoor displays that need to last a year or more in harsh sunlight. The UV inks we run on the Lüscher are rated for at least five years.”

Big3D.com can print up to 10' x 11' with the Lüscher unit, and up to 5' x 10' with the LightJet. For larger projects, such as a 100-foot-long world-record-sized lenticular installed in a Las Vegas hotel, Big3D.com custom-manufactures its own lenses.

For LightJet printing, Big3D.com typically prints the image on either Kodak or Fuji film with a gloss finish. The lens is then laminated precisely to the photo paper. Precision, clarity and brilliance are particularly crucial elements in lenticular printing since the images must register perfectly and really pop out as people move around them.

In situations where people are standing in line or are otherwise not moving around the display, Matrix Imaging created a wall-mounted display fixture that slowly oscillates back and forth to emphasize lenticulars’ special effects. Since the lenticular effect is created only when people move side to side or up in down in relation to it, the Lenticular Motion Display Fixtures allows even a static observer to appreciate the flip motion or 3-D effect.

“They’re a great product and everyone loves them. If you can catch someone’s attention in three or five seconds the piece has done its sales job,” says Freije.