Dec 20, 2006 -- KBA North America, a leading press manufacturer based in Williston, Vermont, recently offered a comprehensive five-day seminar on basic lenticular printing. The professional development seminar, held in late November/early December at KBA's headquarters, brought together KBA's lenticular, printing, and marketing experts with owners and press operators of the KBA Genius 52 UV press. Lenticular printing is a special technique that involves printing an image on the back side of lenticular plastic, allowing the eye to simultaneously view alternating sections of multiple images to give the impression of 3-D, flip, or motion. “Lenticular printing continues to be one of the most sought-after techniques to attract a customer’s eye and provide value-added services to a printer’s bottom line,” said Eric Frank, KBA North America vice president of marketing, who presented a portion of the seminar on markets and other options to the attendees. “It is always one of our most popular print samples and is an area in which we can assist our customers in moving forward to differentiate themselves in their marketplace.” The five-day seminar was broken into succinct segments, beginning with a history of lenticular printing, describing the different animation effects, and moving into the various lens options. Jack Minton of PACUR, a lenticular lens manufacturer in Oshkosh, WI, gave multiple presentations and led discussions on lenticular dos and don’ts. Minton has more than 14 years of related experience and is well known for his expertise on lenticular printing and interlacing. A lengthy portion of the seminar was devoted to exploring prepress, including the art requirements and file preparation needed to produce a successful lenticular piece. Under the guidance of KBA Lenticular Specialist Rob Rudeski, the attendees learned about interlacing, the process of striping and arranging printed information to a given pitch to match a lenticular lens; available software; pitch testing, in which the exact count or number of lenticules per inch (lpi) is measured; and mechanical pitch, the exact and true physical pitch of a lens. Once the attendees had basic knowledge of lenticular printing, they were ready for hands-on production on the Genius 52 UV. This segment was led by Bruce Hathaway, KBA corporate demonstrator. “We were able to explain in depth the printing issues that participants might encounter with lenticular techniques,” said Hathaway. “We showed them the correct feeding and register techniques with a 10-sheet makeready. Then we demonstrated how to finish their lenticular jobs with opaque white or lamination and how to die cut particular projects. Probably the most exciting part was for the group to actually produce some unique lenticular jobs on their own.” These jobs included a 3-D lenticular marketing piece for KBA and multiple animated 3-D pieces. Attendees also had the opportunity to use the latest video motion technology, which requires 32 images on one lens to reproduce a six-second video. Finally, the seminar turned to new markets for lenticular printing, such as packaging, point-of-purchase, direct mail, collectibles, premiums, magazine covers and inserts, art posters, and large format jobs. “We wanted to show our customers that the Genius 52 UV press can produce any type of lenticular job,” said Eric Frank. “Any type of marketing campaign can include a lenticular job and can be easily produced yet set the printer apart from its competitors.” At the conclusion of the five-day seminar, KBA customers were ecstatic over their newly acquired information. Motion Imaging Inc., a Farmingdale, N.Y.–based 3-D motion lenticular product manufacturer, sent four of its employees to the seminar. “Going through the [lenticular printing] process from start to finish really helped me to understand all that needs to be done,” said Beth Humphrey of Motion Imaging. “Having the team of experts on hand was great!” A coworker, Chris Aarseth, commented, “I will definitely be able to apply what I learned in class. KBA has given us several new things to try and a better understanding of why we were having difficulties.” Another attendee, Shari Beasley of Gill Studios, a printer and converter of decals, labels, and posters located in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, commented, “No need went unmet.” KBA was pleased to present the seminar with a number of its vendors, including Lenstar (www.lenstar.org); PACUR (www.pacur.com); Toray, a digital waterless plate manufacturer (www.waterless-print.com/en/index.html), and Kodak (www.kodak.com). All attendees completing the course were presented with certificates. The seminar was so well received that KBA is already planning several repeat seminars for 2007. KBA North America is a member of the KBA Group, a leading supplier of sheetfed, webfed, and digital offset presses located in Williston, Vermont. At KBA, we are dedicated to excellence in printing technology. Our greatest satisfaction comes from helping our customers succeed by building presses that enable their businesses to prosper. From engineering through production, our focus is on people, providing flexible technology, customized printing solutions, and personal service to help our partners differentiate themselves and be successful today and in the future.