What are lenticular images and how are they made?
A lenticular image changes as you move it. Tilt the card and one picture turns into another, a scene starts to move, or the view opens up in depth. Many of us first saw lenticular images on trading cards and chewing-gum stickers.
There is no screen, no battery and no special ink. It is a printed image behind a sheet of clear, ribbed plastic, lined up very precisely.
How it works, step by step
Scroll through the seven steps. The animation follows along.
Step 1
Start with two pictures
A flip card holds two different pictures in the same place. Here we use one Istanbul view, with Galata Tower and the Bosphorus Bridge, by day and by night.
Picture A: day. Picture B: night.
Step 2
Cut both into thin strips
Software slices each picture into narrow vertical strips. We show 10 strips here so you can follow them.
On a real 10 cm card there are about 400 strips per picture, each thinner than a hair.
Step 3
Weave the strips together
The strips are interleaved: day, night, day, night, across the whole width. This is the image we print.
Seen without the lens it looks like a scrambled, striped picture. That is expected.
Step 4
Lay a ribbed lens on top
A clear plastic sheet with tiny ridges goes over the print. Each ridge is a long, thin magnifying lens.
Every ridge sits exactly over one day strip and one night strip. The magnifier shows it from the side.
Step 5
Your eye picks the strip
Each ridge bends the light so you only see a very thin line underneath it. From one side that line falls on a night strip. From the other side, on a day strip.
All the ridges do this at the same moment, so the strips you see add up to one whole picture.
Step 6
Tilt the card, and it flips
Turning the card changes your viewing angle. Every ridge switches strips together, and day becomes night.
This is the flip effect: two pictures, one card.
Step 7
More strips, more effects
Animation. Put 8 or more pictures under each ridge and the card plays a short movie as you tilt it.
3D depth. Use views of one scene taken from slightly different positions. Your two eyes look from different angles, so each one sees a different view. Your brain combines them into real depth, with no glasses.
The three lenticular effects
Flip
Two or three pictures that swap as you tilt. The change is clean and sudden, which suits before-and-after or day-and-night images. Our Istanbul postcards use flip.
Animation
A sequence of pictures plays like a short film as you tilt: a colour change, a movement, a sunset. Some of our cards use colour animation.
3D depth
The parts of a scene sit at different distances, so the picture looks deep, with no glasses. Several of our cards use 3D depth.
How a lenticular image is produced
A lenticular image is a specially prepared digital image printed on PET lenticular lens material. There are two ways to do it:
- Printed on the lens. The image is printed directly on the flat back of the lens.
- Printed and laminated. The image is printed on paper first, then bonded to the lens.
Either way, most of the work happens before printing. The pictures are chosen and prepared, then specialised software cuts them into strips and interlaces them to match the exact spacing of the lens.
The number of pictures is a trade-off. More pictures give a smoother animation or deeper 3D, but each picture gets thinner strips, so the image can lose sharpness. Good lenticular design finds the right balance for each image.
At 3Dimge, we assess the original artwork and adapt it for lenticular ourselves, in Istanbul. Before volume production we make a laminated sample. It is not made with the same technology as the final run, but it shows how the finished print will look. Several rounds of samples are normal before production starts. See how custom editions work.
Common questions
Do I need special glasses to see the 3D effect?
No. The lens sends a slightly different view to each of your eyes, so the depth appears on its own.
How should I hold a lenticular card?
Flip and animation effects play as you tilt the card. 3D depth is visible even when you hold the card still, and grows as you move it slightly from side to side.
Why do I sometimes see both pictures at once?
At the change-over angle your eye can catch parts of both strips. This is called ghosting. It is normal for a moment, and careful design keeps it short.
Does lighting matter?
Yes. Lenticular images look best in good, even light. In dim light the effect is still there, but the colours look flatter.
Can you make a lenticular image from our own artwork?
Yes. We produce custom editions for museums, galleries and brands, from artwork development to sampling.
Lenticular souvenirs from Istanbul
Postcards and cards of Istanbul’s landmarks with flip, animation and 3D effects, for museum shops, hotels and retailers.