Fluorescence is playing an increasingly important role in the printing industry, especially when it comes to special effects and security applications. By using fluorescent colours and materials, printed products can not only stand out visually, but also offer additional functions such as counterfeit protection. But what exactly is fluorescence and how is it used in the printing industry?
What is fluorescence?
Fluorescence is the property of certain substances to glow when exposed to UV light or other high-energy light sources. These substances absorb the light and emit it again in a different, usually visible wavelength. In the printing industry, special fluorescent pigments or colours are used to achieve this effect.
Areas of application in the printing industry
- Advertising technology and design: Fluorescent colours are often used in advertising technology to make posters, flyers and other printed matter particularly eye-catching. These colours glow under UV light and therefore attract more attention.
- Posters and banners: Fluorescent colours ensure better visibility, especially at night or in dark surroundings.
- Packaging: Brand manufacturers use fluorescent elements to emphasise their products on the shelf.
- Security printing: One of the most important applications of fluorescence is security printing. Here, fluorescent colours are used to make documents, banknotes or ID cards forgery-proof.
- Banknotes and ID documents: Under UV light, special fluorescent markings become visible that are difficult to reproduce.
- Tickets and certificates: Fluorescence is used to check the authenticity of tickets and certificates.
- Industry and technology: Fluorescent colours are also used in industrial applications, for example for marking or identifying products.
- Product labelling: In manufacturing, fluorescent markings can help to identify products at various stages of production.
Technical aspects
- Printing process: Fluorescent inks can be used in a variety of printing methods, including offset printing, screen printing and digital printing. Each method has its own advantages and challenges when it comes to handling the special inks.
- Offset printing: Fluorescent inks are used here in a similar way to conventional printing inks, but special care must be taken when cleaning and maintaining the printing machines.
- Screen printing: This method is particularly suitable for thicker layers of paint and brighter colours.
- Colour management: Colour management for fluorescent colours is challenging, as these colours can appear differently under normal lighting conditions than under UV light. An accurate colour profile and a good understanding of the lighting conditions are crucial here.
Fluorescence offers a wide range of possibilities in the printing industry, from eye-catching advertising materials to security-related applications. Through the targeted use of fluorescent colours, printed products can not only stand out visually, but also offer additional security features. Those who master the technical challenges and use fluorescence skilfully can take their print products to a new level – and that is exactly what the modern printing industry is all about.
A few days ago Proof GmbH was the first company to be certified for proofing for the new 7C exchange colour space FOGRA55. Fogra has developed characterisation data for extended multicolour printing with the printing colours CMYKOGV – i.e. cyan, magenta, yellow, black (contrast), orange, green and violet – FOGRA55 as part of a research project over the past few years. The characterisation data and the ICC profile Ref-ECG-CMYKOGV_FOGRA55_TAC300.icc have been published on the Fogra website in recent weeks. We have now carried out the certification via GMG ColorProof, as … read more
Whether it’s a large global corporation or a small company, the following often applies to designs or redesigns today: we develop everything for digital first.
From now on you can order proofs for metal decor printing on white sheet metal at proof.de: The ICC profile for Fogra60 is Metal-Printing_MPC1_FOGRA60.icc
Peter Jäger is an expert in colour management that reliably works across the boundaries of printers and monitors, web and print – essentially: cross-media.
Today I received an email in which PANTONE asked how it should orientate its products and services in the future. The users were asked which countries, industries and company sizes they come from, but also what PANTONE products should look like in the future and what customers would be prepared to pay for PANTONE services in the future. Question: How much can PANTONE services cost? PANTONE appears to be orientating itself on the PANTONE Connect prices: All price queries have the lowest price category < $ 7,- / month, i.e. … read more
Offset and Newsprint ISO Coated v2 (ECI) / ISO Coated v2 300% (ECI) Profile: ISOcoated_v2_eci.icc Standard for glossy and matte coated paper Paper: Types 1 and 2, gloss and matte coated Tone value increase curves A (CMY) and B (K) as defined in ISO 12647-2:2004 Characterisation Data: FOGRA39L ISOUncoated Profile: ISOUncoated.icc Standard for uncoated white natural paper Paper: paper grade 4, uncoated white offset, dot gain curves C (CMY) and D (K) from ISO 12647-2: 2004 Characterisation Data: FOGRA29L PSOCoatedV3 / Fogra 51 Profile: PSOcoated_v3.icc The successor of ISOCoatedV2 for glossy … read more
Anyone who has reinstalled or updated their i1 Profiler app in the last few weeks has been confronted with disturbing news: X-Rite announced directly in the start window that it would no longer support its enormously popular i1Display and i1Pro2 devices. Users of the i1Pro 2 devices and i1iO 2 tables, which are extremely popular in printing and colour management, will be particularly hard hit by the announcement: An investment of €6,000 is quickly consigned to the electronic scrap heap. But what can you do if you own such a … read more
Even almost 9 years after the introduction of the successor colour space PSOCoatedV3, ISOCoatedV2 / FOGRA39 is still the most widespread colour space in Europe. We at Proof GmbH count around 200 jobs from time to time for the German Printing and Media Industries Federation, among others. In the last count, proofs in ISOCoatedV2 accounted for around 68% of all proof jobs at our company. This is a clear sign of the continued widespread use of the colour space. ISOCoatedV2: From the classic colour space to the beacon of the … read more
In the current issue of Fogra News “Fogra Aktuell” Proof GmbH is involved in two places. Firstly, a summary of the Fogra report on our first FOGRA55 certification for seven-colour printing with extended colour space in CMYKOGV appeared. You can also find more information on our FOGRA55 certification on the Fogra website: https://fogra.org/en/press-releases/fogracert-erste-cpc-zertifizierung-fuer-fogra55-cmykogv-330 and on proofing.de: And secondly, there was a report on the completion of the research project for textile digital printing, FOGRA58, in which we were allowed to investigate and test the proof capability of the new textile … read more
A new generation of colour measuring devices is entering the market: in contrast to the classic measuring devices, which are available as a fully encapsulated system either as a colourimeter or as a spectrophotometer, and then supply the data to a computer via an interface or app or display it directly, the new generation of colour measuring devices consist only of lighting and software, with the optics of a modern iPhone from Apple being used as the sensor. Until now, there have been two categories of measuring devices on the … read more