T XEIKON WHITE PAPER ON BRAND PROTECTION PRINTING (2)
Compilation: ThuminH PrimA
Editing: Ngo Printer
How dry toner digital printing can help brand owners counter counterfeiting!
It is a fact that owners and producers of both luxury brands and highly popular goods fight a constant battle against counterfeiting. Whether it is in perfumes, pharmaceutical products, high quality brands or game cards, lottery and entry tickets counterfeiting has become a billion dollar/euro business.
Most products in our everyday professional and personal life come in some form of packaging. How else would one present, transport, protect, preserve or promote the products from the production site all the way to the store shelf and into the customers’ hands? For very many products it is the only medium to inform, communicate… and sell. Without print, packages would be nameless containers for unknown contents of unspecific characteristics and unreliable quality. Print is an absolute necessity for distribution, conveying information and tracing quality and reliability. Print, if well used, can also be a strong weapon against counterfeiting, a major headache for brand owners.
Brand owners not only use a range of overt (visible) and covert (hidden) techniques to track and trace their products from the production site onwards. They also do whatever they can to reduce liabilities, prevent severe harm to their brand reputation, and … stop losing millions in unsold products. They absolutely need integrated solutions designed to protect against counterfeiting, fraudulent import (gray market), product-tampering, etc.
This Xeikon White Paper briefly describes how the use of several anti-counterfeiting techniques can be combined with digital printing.
Main reason for doing so is the low cost, since most of these techniques are part of the production printing process, without requiring too many extra investments or special expensive fraud detection systems. And by combining several protection features, counterfeiting will face ever higher technical thresholds and become more expensive… hence be less prone to happen.
“Brand owners and companies all over the world use these characteristics – often in a mixed combination – to fight counterfeiting… with expert printing!”
Take the Xeikon print technology itself…
The Xeikon digital printing presses typically are characterized by:
- One-Pass printing
- Use of up to 5 print station (colors)
- Perfect print registration
- Use of advanced, specialized dry toner
- Handling of a wide range of non-pretreated substrates
- High quality printing in 1200 dpi resolution (4 bit per spot)
- Reliable conversion of data into printable files
An overview of anti-counterfeiting techniques
Microtext
Microtext is standard text or coding but reduced in size so it becomes invisible to the naked eye.
This type of text is so small (down to 1point or 0,3528mm) that it is very hard to copy, duplicate or reproduce the specific hidden messages or codes introduced into the layout. The invisibility to the naked eye also makes it possible to introduce microtext in lineart (illustrations or even text) and other layout elements. In this way these covert messages carry the potential to authenticate the document or packaging by simple visual enlargement of the element.
The example on the left shows how microtext is a covert part of the layout. (Or go to HYPER LINK “http://www.xeikon.com/microtext” www.xeikon.com/microtext to get your sample of the entire Bible printed in microtext on ONE 50cmx70cm page.)
It is the 1200dpi resolution (4bit per spot) of the Xeikon press that allows successful use of microtext. 1200dpi means that the LED array used in the Xeikon presses holds 1200 LEDs over a distance of one inch or 2,54cm, resulting in toner dots of 21 micron. (The human eye cannot discriminate dots smaller than 30 micron!) Hence the sharpness of text and lines.
Guilloches
Guilloches are very special line drawing designs in highly irregular and complex patterns to protect against counterfeiting and fraud of all kinds of documents. If they are printed in a spot color, color copiers for instance have to reproduce them in CMYK which almost immediately introduces easy to spot visible inaccuracies.
The example on the left shows the use of guilloches in the background of a package design.
Again it is the 1200 dpi resolution that makes the Xeikon presses perfectly capable of using this anti-counterfeiting technique.
Xeikon toner: a multitude of brand protection features
Clear toner
Some Xeikon customers use the Xeikon clear toner to add invisible text, codes or shapes to printed results. These are hardly visible unless under a UV light source or a black light emitting in the 350nm-385nm light range, when they will turn blue. The use of clear toner is not easy to copy at all! For that one needs to use substrate that holds no optical brighteners so the effect of the clear toner under UV light is obvious. Holding a print sample under a light source is an uncomplicated, low cost way of immediately checking the authenticity of labeled or packaged goods. Use UV light to see the Xeikon logo as well as specific image parts light up on the left page.
Xeikon developed its clear toner on specific customer requests.This part of the Xeikon brand protection booklet is printed on Sappi 95g/m² security substrate with no optical brighteners.
Xeikon toner lends itself very well to different types of brand protection applications. The toner can be treated in a specific art and manner for specific usage.
Take MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition), a technique with which characters are printed in special typefaces with a magnetic ink or, in Xeikon’s case, magnetic toner. The MICR reading head translates the unique magnetic waveform into readable text. Not protection but very fast and reliable reading of the text is the goal, even if signatures, stamps or dirt covers it. Think of bank cheques. This is only one example of very specific toner developed on demand by Xeikon.
Proprietary brand color toner
Certain brand owners may want to have Xeikon develop their own proprietary brand color toner, again as a measure to, amongst others, make unlawful reproduction even harder.
By lack of the specific PMS color toner, counterfeiters will try to print the spot color with CMYK toners or inks. The visible screening of that combination—due to the overlay of different color screens—already shows counterfeiting. Printing items like guilloches in the specific fifth PMS color also make fraude a lot more difficult.
The orange spot color used in the box on the left clearly differs from the orange CMYK representation. The naked eye and/or a simple loupe will immediately show the difference. Adding specific orange, green or blue spot color toners to the standard CMYK selection not only creates a wider color gamut, but is also a potential security and brand protection element.
Use of taggants inside the toner
Another approach is at the high level of security efforts. It consists of adding one or more taggants or chemical or physical markers to materials like the substrate or the toner itself, to allow various forms of verification. Apart from banknotes and value papers, taggants are already used for tobacco products, alcohol, pharmaceutical, and even specific Fast Moving Consumer goods.
Taggants bring truly unique benefits. They are invisible to the naked eye. They are permanently present and not removable from the toner or the substrate used. They are very difficult to reverse engineer. You can only detect them with special equipment. The taggant reader on the left is developed by Brandwatch Technologies.
Raised images/illustrations
The feel of printed documents can also be introduced as a security and brand protection element. Printing specific images or illustrations in black with 4 toners on top of each other, inside a black field in one black layer, creates a distinct tactile difference. The easy to feel height difference can therefore be used to authenticate the document. This technique is also used in printing money for instance.
The black logo illustration inside a black field on the left allows you to feel the difference.
The Xeikon digital presses offer the required combination of resolution, precise pixel placement and toner handling to realize these security elements in a reliable way.
Variabilization
Images and illustrations
Varying images and/or illustrations throughout the production run is another example of variabilization. Think of varying different pictures of people in an identity card or drivers license.
A keen application is the use of scattered dots graphics or cryptoglyphs as shown on the left. A series of printed dots is randomly placed on the package forming a shape that can only be recognized or authenticated by using a digital scanner and specific software.
A cryptoglyph is a field of micro-dots of about 20 micron, invisible to the naked eye. The designer incorporates the cryptoglyph pattern in to his artwork file. The micro-dots are overlaid on the package design with light toner which makes them seamlessly integrate into the package design. When the final package is scanned using a flatbed scanner, digital camera, or cell phone camera, the image is sent for processing to servers where the verification software is running.
It is the 1200 dpi resolution of the Xeikon presses that results in toner dots of 21 micron. Perfectly fit for cryptoglyphs!
Sequential numbering reversed out of color backgrounds
For product tracking, inventory control and enhanced authentication, brand owners often use sequential numbering. As said already: one can use a standard or a single specific toner to represent the numbering, but it becomes all the more difficult when multiple colors are used in such a way that every printed copy changes in all of these colors. The application on the left shows this variabilization with data reversed out of the 4 CMYK colors, strongly enhancing the threshold to counterfeit. Imagine adding the fifth color inside the Xeikon press to enhance the production threshold even further!
The well-known Xeikon technology advantages such as resolution, registration, precise pixel placement, and professional toner handling, all come in to play here.
Variable data printing will continue to be one of the most important Unique Selling Propositions for digital presses. Using specific, personalized and relevant information creates increased appeal to and intimacy with the end user, reflected in higher response, loyalty and sales rates. It is of course also much more difficult to counterfeit.
Variabilization today is no longer just adding a personal name and address. Virtually any element from the printed piece can vary. Serialized data and sequential numbering is a widely used technique, for both tracking and authentication purposes. Here are three samples of variabilization, enhanced with other protection elements.
Barcodes
Barcodes, typically 2D barcodes and QR codes, are used for all types of authentication and track & trace applications. The use of barcodes is a standard procedure in packaging in almost any industry, for product authentication.
More and more, protection focused brand owners combine the above elements. In this way, variabilization increases the difficulty to counterfeit and supplies specific tools to control further steps in the production and coding processes.
Xeikon digital presses provide the exact level of dimensional accuracy and consistency needed to print professional barcodes. The high 1200dpi resolution with 4bit depth per spot and the built-in sensor based registration tools comes in handy to reach those quality levels. The Xeikon X-800 digital front-end software excels at using all of these brand protection elements in a thorough, reliable, and professional way.
Image manipulation
Bleach
Printed fibre
Hidden screening images
Hiding covert images into the artwork of the protected item is what this is all about. These hidden images only become visible by using special verification keys, typically comprising a film or plastic lens The keys can be image specific or client specific.
The verification keys are typically only available for inspectors or trained staff.
As part of the artwork creation, the use of hidden images does not influence the cost of production. Several images can be combined into the same or into different parts of the design. They can be revealed by either the same or different keys.
Typical use is in tickets, packages, wine and luxury product labels, clothes and textile labels, hang tags.
In the example shown on the left, the Xeikon and BSS logos will appear when applying the lens/key, enclosed in the back cover of this booklet. Just do the verification yourself!
Xeikon works closely with companies like BSS GmbH in Germany ( HYPERLINK “http://www.brand-security.de” www.brand-security.de) to refine the use of hidden screen images. Its high quality 1200dpi- 4bit/spot resolution is indispensable to reach professional results.
Anti copy printing
Counterfeiters will try to copy artwork or printed items, sometimes using a copying device. Anti-counterfeiting efforts can include the use of specific software on image parts inside the package design.
This results in warning messages appearing automatically in the treated areas when one tries to copy the image. Try it out for yourself: put this page on your copying machine or scanner and you will get a result that looks like the image on the right. Again a low cost way of fraude prevention, as part of the prepress activities before the actual printing process starts.
The software used to achieve this effect on this page is from our partner BSS GmbH in Germany (HYPER LIN K “http://www.brand-security.de” www.brand-security.de).
Security substrates
Fluorescent and microprinted fibres, thermo- and UV-sensitive substrates, reactive anti-fraud chemicals, generic or customized watermarks, embedded threads, holograms or foils, a series of chemical and physical taggants… a whole range of different security elements linked to the substrate that can be added to your label or package. And these substrates, like the ones from sappi (www.sappi-securitypapers.com), can be perfectly printed on Xeikon presses, with room to add further security elements.
Sappi (www.sappi.com), with their security papers & packaging products, is one of our members in the Aura Partner Network, a robust and fully-encompassing partner-network that brings together information on all Xeikon partners and their integrated solutions in one central location as a professional networking source. Thorough testing of machine/toner/substrate/ software combinations is the basis of successful cooperation to supply printers exactly with the product solutions they require.
This part of the Xeikon brand protection booklet is printed on Sappi 95g/m² security substrate, with no optical brighteners.
Source:The article has references of Xeikon and some other companies about security
