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A type of printing process that allows printed images to simulate a number of visual effects when printed on, or laminated to, a special plastic substrate. The plastic substrate contains rows of plastic ribs known as lenticules. These tiny ribbed lenticules, or lenses, are evenly spaced on the sheet and may number as many as 200 lines per inch depending on the type of visual effect desired. A variety of 3-D and motion effects are simulated when the piece is manually moved or a stationary application is viewed from different angles. The applications may be very small such as the prizes found in popular snacks or they may be huge outdoor displays. Special software programs are used to divide image files into narrow strips, which are reassembled in such a way as to create various optical illusions when printed on the plastic substrate. The digital files for these images are usually very large so computers with ample power and capacity are required. The two methods most often used when creating lenticular images are: 1) printing the image directly to a special substrate and 2) printing the image on a separate substrate and mounting it to the lens material. Lenticular images are most often printed on direct imaging presses, flatbed ink-jet printers, and roll-fed ink-jet printers.
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