Lenticular Packaging: Don't Blink, You Might Miss It

This printing technique blends multiple high-resolution images that flip when viewed at different angles. It involves conceptualization, image preparation, interlacing, printing, application of the lens — a piece of extruded translucent plastic sheet with ridges, called lenticules, designed to bend the light passing through it — and finishing.

You finalize your vision and decide on the visual designs that bring it to life. You slice your chosen images separately into strips. Then, you place them alternately with perfect precision to merge everything and achieve your desired effect. You print the interlaced image on the back of the lenticular lens with UV ink. Lastly, you put the finishing touches to achieve your desired output.

The lenticules magnify the sliced visual designs underneath them and show the individual graphics’ unbroken versions. The comprehensible design changes as your vantage point does. Witnessing the exact transition point between designs allows you to see both, which can appear whimsical or jarring.

Lenticular printing brings this cereal box to life. Image: World3D

A lenticular print can create an illusion of depth, elevation, motion, distance, and more. Compared to static graphics, packaging solutions adorned with lenticular prints are arresting.

The design possibilities are endless. So are the use cases for lenticle packaging. You can leverage lenticular prints to launch viral marketing campaigns, communicate unique messages to various audiences, or combat theft. Your imagination is the only limit.

For example, updating your packaging design with illusory effects can translate to more revenue. About 72% of consumers let package appearance influence their purchase decisions,

so using lenticular prints to make your product fascinating, fun, educational, or interactive can boost your sales figures.

Lenticules come in any imaginable die cut, making them suitable for primary, secondary, display, and fulfillment packaging solutions.

Lenticular tamper-evident labeling is one of the latest steps in the technology’s evolution. The anti-counterfeit solutions provider that developed it can embed encrypted security information and variable data — such as barcodes and QR codes — into carton packaging.

This innovation uses super-thin substrates optimized for automatic labeling and lamination. The lenticular material is compatible with optically variable inks, among many other security inks, and supports hot and cold stamping as well as full-color overprinting.

The sky is the limit regarding design. This lenticular printing tech can lend spellbinding moire effects — including 3D, texts with motion, radial projections, and lithography — to hot, cold, and cast-and-cure foil labels.

The temperature shown on this Nest Thermostat changes as your vantage point does. Image: World3D

Lenticular prints first captivated the world decades ago, but were ahead of their time. Thanks to modern printing and materials science innovations, lenticular lenses are finally living up to their potential to revolutionize packaging.