The colours gradually change their shade from one colour to the next. Colour copiers can not reproduce this effect and counterfeits can be detected very easily.

In conventional 4 colour printing technique:

Guilloches are printed security lines - the layout of intersections and geometry is unique. Copying is inhibited by the layout arrangements of fine lines, rainbow print and the exact colour calibration.

Fineline or microprinting refers to very thin and small printed charac-ters or entire words. Without the use of a lens the structure appears as a continuous line. The characters contained in these lines cannot be reproduced with conventional copy methods.

UV (Ultraviolet) ink is invisible under regular illumination. By viewing the card under UV light, all logos, design structures or texts become visible either in blue, red or green/yellow. The UV printing element cannot be copied.

M - Feature The M-feature is defined as a special pigment ink, which is mixed with printing ink. If the element is viewed under IR light, the special pigment ink reflects brown and green colours.

By means of a special decoding lens camera applied to an IR enabled camera, the printed IR colour becomes invisible whereas all logos, design structures or texts remain visible on the monitor. Infrared colours are invisible under the light spectrum of 800 - 1300 nm.

OVI® - Optical Variable Ink OVI® - Optical Variable Ink is a high security feature showing different colours as the angle of view changes. Optical Variable Ink can have a support printing by a dark colour shade to get a luscious colour effect.

Printed Hidden Image The Printed Hidden Image will be produced by means of a halftone displacement of the hidden image. The printed hidden image is only visible with a special decoding lens.

See-through Register A see-through register combines both sides of the card. Parts of any shape or character will be printed on either side of the card. When holding the card against a light source, both parts merge to form a combined picture.

Hologram Holograms are applied to the card surface in a 2- or 3-dimensional appearance. Holograms are well known from credit cards. The range of classifications is a result of the great variety hologram designs. There are holograms with machine readable features which can only be read with special equipment.

Holographic Stripe (Security Thread) A holographic stripe may contain individual logos, characters or other information. The holographic stripe can be implemented horizontally or vertically under the top layer of the card.

Kinegram® A Kinegram® consists of microscopically tiny areas with refractive characteristics. When viewing a Kinegram® from different angles, various designs or structures become visible. A Kinegram® can be implemented in clear transparent or in metallic silver.

TKO Foil A TKO (Transparent Kinegram® Overlay) is a special thin transparent foil, which contains full-faced Kinegrams®. This foil is applied to the entire surface of the card. Information underneath remains readable.

CLI - Changeable Laser Image (lateral axis) MLI - Multiple Laser Image (longitudinal axis) In a highly specialised processing, the CLI or MLI is integrated into the transparent overlay as a live screen. Up to 2 partial pictures are engraved into the live screen in 2 different angles. The optical equiva-lent for this feature is a tilting image.

MLI - Multiple Laser Image

The Hidden Image IPI (Invisible Personal Information) By means of a special software tool, hidden images can be applied to existing pictures on the card - i.e. a photo, cardholder's date of birth or any other personalised information. The hidden image only becomes visible under a special lens. The hidden image can not be copied.

Positive - Negative Embossing By means of a special laminating process, a perceptible relief is produced on the surface of the card. Positive and negative line patterns show a relief including guilloches and microtext. Due to the special characteristics of the embossing, it is actually possible to feel the structure with the fingertip.