Lenticular Printing – How GIF Prints Work

Hello and welcome back for another PFF blog post! Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard your blog requests. So today, here’s one just for you; Lenticular Printing – How GIF Prints Work.

Most of you are familiar with our GIF Prints. You might have read our previous GIF Prints blogs or seen them on our social media posts. But today, we’re here to explain how your GIF Prints are able to animate. Later on, we’ll also be sharing a couple of tips on how to get the most out of your GIF Prints. 

Our GIF Prints make use of technology known as lenticular printing that’s used for 3D displays. When viewed from different angles, the technology allows the images to appear as though they are moving. Essentially, with our GIF Prints, you can have moving photos!

What you may not know is, the viewing angle makes a difference when you’re looking at your GIF Print. 

The photo above show 2 different types of lenticular sheets. The narrow angle lenticular sheets are suitable for 3D effects. Wide angle sheets on the other hand are used for flip or animation effects. For our GIF Prints, we use the wide angle lenticular sheets. This allows viewers to see 1 image at any one angle, thereby creating the “flip” effect when the lens is tilted.

Lenticular Printing Tips

If you’re planning to order a GIF Print, here are some tips to ensure you get the best results! For both our Small Vintage GIF Print & our 4R GIF Print, you should choose photos where the subject fills it up. You should avoid using group photos or scenic shots where the subject is too small.

Bright and well-lit photos work best for our lenticular prints. You should be aware of elements in photos that are not similar enough. This can cause one photo to appear faintly over the other when only one photo should be seen. This effect is known as “ghosting” 

If there are words in your photos, make sure that they stand out else they’ll be hard to see in the final product. The words on your photos should not overlap. You should also avoid serif, italic and very fine fonts as the lenticular screen will reduce its visibility.

Lastly, if you’re going for the Small Vintage GIF Print avoid landscape photos as portraits work better!

One question we get a lot is should I use 2 or 3 photos in my GIF Print? If the photos you select are completely different in terms of colour, background and subject, a two-photo GIF Print would produce a better result than a three-photo GIF Print. 

And that wraps it up! We hope this blog has given you a better understanding of how our GIF Prints work. Do keep in mind the tips we shared with you when picking out your photos. Once you’re done, head over to our lenticular printing page to place your order!

Till the next one, cheers!