August 3, 3007 -- KBA North America, a leading press manufacturer based in Williston, Vt., recently held a second comprehensive five-day seminar on lenticular printing and prepress work in early June 2007. The professional development seminar, held at KBA’s headquarters, brought together KBA’s lenticular, printing, and marketing experts with owners and press operators of the award-winning 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.
“The group assembled for this second seminar came from all walks in the industry-a photographer, pressmen and pressroom managers from leading print shops, prepress specialists, and an entrepreneur,” says Eric Frank, vice president of marketing for KBA North America. “
Seminar covers lenticular printing from prepress to press
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 lead 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.
In addition to Minton, the seminar included speakers such as Barry Johnson of Lenstar.org, a site devoted to providing helpful information that will better the quality and continue the successes within the lenticular industry; Andrew So of Kodak; Jeff Miller of Human Eyes, a software manufacturer that creates printable 3D and animated pictures for advertising, packaging, and events; and Eric Friedman of Toray, a waterless plate manufacturer.
The seminar also explored prepress issues and 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.
Genius 52 produces outstanding lenticular printing
Once the attendees had basic knowledge of lenticular printing, they were given time for hands-on production on the Genius 52 UV. All attendees actually produced a unique lenticular job 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 required 32 images on one lens to reproduce a six-second video.
The seminar also provided information on 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.
Attendees praised KBA for the vast amount of critical information dispensed at the seminar, hands-on activities, and superb hospitality.
- “I was very impressed at the degree to which KBA has embraced the entire lenticular process.  KBA has taken the mysteries out of the process and made it accessible to anyone who has a desire to enter the lenticular market.”
- “The seminar was interesting, especially from the perspective of seeing the whole process done on the Genius 52 UV press. The use of experts in the industry, such as Pacur, Toray, Kodak, and Human Eyes, is a great way to really get down to some serious understanding of where current technology is and how things fit together in production. Your staff really impressed me with their knowledge and expertise. These guys are definitely on top of their game in the pressroom and pre-press, and their combined knowledge and ability to cross over into each other's domain is rare, but great to experience. They definitely have a sense of confidence over what they do, and I think that helps to reassure anyone who has doubts about the process to see that they can let go of their inhibitions. Ultimately, I was very satisfied with the program. It's amazing to see how you have stripped away all of the esoteric layers involved with this type of work, and turned it in to an understandable process.
- “What a terrific [lenticular] program your KBA staff performed. The course really filled in the gaps I had regarding sheetfed lenticular production. I picked up many tidbits during the week that will help me better communicate with printers. The wealth of samples, the ability to print jobs on the two presses, and the interaction between attendees were all positive. I have only good things to say about the program and would highly recommend it. Your company definitely runs a first class operation.”
 Not all work was forged during the five days. KBA produced a “fun” piece for the attendees. The press manufacturer took a picture of all attendees as well as a picture of all speakers participating.  KBA then produced a lenticular flip piece showing all of the attendees and speakers from start to finish.