Our goal is to provide you with the best product possible. Designing images for lenticular printing may vary from your typical processes. Whether you are creating illustrations, animated sequences, or using photography, special preparation may need to be considered. There are so many variables in art creation that these should be considered just basic guidelines for preparing your job for lenticular printing. Please contact us so we can discuss with you the best ideas for your project.

File types:

• Layered Photoshop
• Flattened TIFF
• Layered illustrations

Resolution:

• Minimum 300 DPI at actual size

Trim:

• Final size + 1/8” bleed (1” horizontal bleed if using a 3D effect)

3D

Elements within an image are layered to give the illusion of depth and perspective.

Tips:

1. 1. Each layer should be named with intended depth position of layer (e.g., foreground, mid, background, and so on, or background starting at 1 and numbering sequentially higher for each layer).
   2. Each layer should be provided in its entirety without holes left in areas eliminated by the foreground elements.
   3. Avoid solid color, black, and white backgrounds. Black or very dark backgrounds reduce the sense of depth. The background in a 3D print should contain some sort of image or texture.
   4. A flattened Tiff file can be used but additional time will be needed to separate the layered effects.
   5. Try to avoid placing detailed graphics on the foreground or background layers as they tend to become blurry.

Flips/Animation

Effect types can be anything from a flip (an animation that simply swaps between two images), a zoom (an image that gets progressively larger in each frame), to a motion image, which animates through a series of images.

Tips:

1. 1. Each flip image should be an individual file or Photoshop layer.
   2. Each flip image file should be the exact same resolution, size, and color space.
   3. Avoid strong contrast between elements of the image that will change. Having elements change from black to white will cause ghosting between the images.
   4. Avoid very thin lines as they tend to break up and look pixilated underneath the lenticular lens.
   5. Text should be at least 14 point san serif.
   6. Keep the backgrounds the same (when possible) while flipping individual images or text of similar shape and color.
   7. Avoid movement that goes from one side of the design to the other.
   8. Flips work best when they are printed using a horizontally oriented lens (up and down). Vertical lenses (left to right) work but the transition between images are not as smooth.
   9. Animations can be submitted as a sequence of images (recommended), or as a movie clip file such as an HD .mov, .avi.  Low-resolution movie files will not work.
   10. Keep in mind that only about two seconds of video can be made into a lenticular piece.