GB2411862A

GB2411862A - Printed security information using numismatics

Info

Publication number: GB2411862A
Application number: GB0405464A
Authority: GB
Inventors: James Crowther
Original assignee: SECURITY PRINT SOLUTIONS Ltd
Current assignee: SECURITY PRINT SOLUTIONS Ltd
Priority date: 2004-03-11
Filing date: 2004-03-11
Publication date: 2005-09-14
Anticipated expiration: 2024-03-11
Also published as: GB2411862B; GB0405464D0

Abstract

Security information 20 is formed from parallel lines 22 of shapes 24 which are printed on to a substrate. Each line 22 is formed as a wave. Portions of each line are displaced relative to adjacent portions of the line to give the impression of at least part of the printed surface not being in the same plane as the surface. The displacement of the lines appears to create three dimensional lettering 26. The shapes 24 may touch one another or may be characters such as letters (34a,34b, figure 3d) separated by spaces. The letters may form words (44, figure 4c). The security information may be printed using ink only visible under UV light. The letters 26 are produced using numismatic software.

Description

241 1 862 A printed material having security information printed thereon

and a method of printing security information The present invention relates to a printed material having security information printed thereon and to a method of printing security information. Furthermore it relates particularly, but not exclusively, to printing of security information onto documents to assist in the prevention of forgery and alteration thereof.

It is a known technique to provide two printing steps in the preparation of printed materials which are to be protected from alteration, for example printed cheques. In this example a first printing step is undertaken in which security information, along with other information such as bank details, is printed. The security information may be in the form shown in Figure 1 which shows progressively through Figures la - Id in increased magnification the way in which the security information is built up.

Security information 10 consists of a plurality of parallel lines 12 each having a wave formed therein. The amplitude of the wave is significantly less than the wave length. Along certain portions of a plurality of the lines 12 a displacement is applied to the line, shifting it by as much as the distance between the parallel lines. This printing technique is known as numismatics. A second layer of printing, for example the amount of money that a cheque transfers, is then printed over the top of this security information. It is known for this security protection to be overcome by removing the second layer of printing, by scratching the surface of paper away, or removing the ink using solvents, with the intention of fraudulently changing the amount of money of the cheque. Removing the second layer of printing may also remove the security information of the first printing layer located underneath and it is then necessary to redraw each of the missing portions of each of the lines so as to reproduce the security information. A new amount can then be printed over the top of the security information.

This same security information technique may be used in isolation to prevent copying of documents and is used on bank notes. It is difficult for electronic scanning devices to detect and reproduce the very fine lines used in this printing technique and it has therefore been relatively easy to determine whether a printed item is a copy of an original document because, when viewed with a magnifying glass or microscope, the lines become very unclear. However, modern scanners and printers are able to scan and print at a far more detailed level than was previously possible and can be used to reproduce the security information if set to scan and print at a sufficiently detailed level. Such scanners and printers are becoming more widely available.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention seek to

overcome disadvantages of the prior art.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of printing security information onto a substrate, the method comprising printing a plurality of lines onto at least one surface of at least one substrate wherein at least a portion of each line of a plurality of said lines is displaced relative to an adjacent portion of said line so as to give the impression of at least part of a printed surface not being in the same plane as said surface, and wherein at least one said line is formed from a plurality of shapes.

By utilising the above described printing technique, the advantage is provided that it is surprisingly more difficult to reproduce the printed security information. This is particularly the case in the areas where the displacement of parts of the lines has led to overlap between the lines of shapes and where the shapes have become distorted. Tn these positions, it is necessary for a person attempting to reproduce the security information to know how the shape would be distorted at that portion of the displacement and how the characters would overlap with one another. It is therefore significantly and surprisingly easier for a person inspecting a document, which they suspect has been altered, to spot an alteration since the lines can be compared with an unaltered document to determine whether the distortion and/or overlap of the shapes has been reproduced. Furthermore, the added complexity of the shapes within the lines makes it significantly harder for scanners and copiers to reproduce detail of the shapes within the lines.

In a preferred embodiment a plurality of said lines are substantially parallel to each other.

In another preferred embodiment at least one said line is formed from a plurality of separated shapes.

The shapes may be letters and these letters may be formed into words.

At least one said line may comprise at least one wave and the amplitude of that wave may be less than the wave length of said wave.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a printed material having security information printed thereon, the material comprising a substrate having a plurality of lines printed onto at least one surface of at least one substrate wherein at least a portion of each line of a plurality of said lines is displaced relative to an adjacent portion of said line so as to give the impression of at least part of a printed surface not being in the same plane as said surface, and wherein at least one said line is formed from a plurality of shapes.

The shapes may be letters and these letters may be formed into words.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, and not in any limitative sense, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is an example of printed security information of the prior art shown in increasing magnification from Figure la to Id; Figure 2 is printed security information of a first embodiment of the present invention shown in increasing magnification from Figure 2a to 2d; Figure 3 is printed security information of a second embodiment of the present invention shown in increasing magnification from Figure 3a to 3d;

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Figure 4 is printed security information of a third embodiment of the present invention shown in increasing magnification from figures 4a to 4c; and Figure 5 is printed security information of a fourth embodiment of the present invention shown in increasing magnification from figures 5a to 5c.

Referring to Figure 2, security printed information 20 is formed from a plurality of lines 22 which are themselves made up of shapes 24. In this example the shapes are the letter "S" and have been positioned close to each other so as to be touching. Each line 22 is formed as a wave having a wavelength W and an amplitude A, where the wavelength W is significantly longer than the amplitude A. The lines 22 are arranged so as to be parallel to each other and appear to form a plane on the surface on which they are printed. This is in particular because the lines are parallel and narrow and without the benefit of magnification the naked eye has difficulty distinguishing the lines and shapes. As a result the lines are interpreted as a single mass forming a surface following the surface on which they are printed. The security information may be printed using inks only visible under UV light.

The security information is presented in the form of letters 26 which are formed by the displacement of portions of the lines 22 from their normal path parallel to an adjacent line. These displacements are seen, in particular in the higher magnification figures 2c and 2d, along the edges of the letters 26. The displacements appear to form a surface which stands above the plane of the material on which the lines 22 are printed.

As can be seen in particular in Figure 2d, in which the image of Figure 2a has been magnified by 7.5 times, the edges of the letters 26 show distortions in the shapes 24. As a result, it would be necessary for a person attempting to reproduce a portion of one of the letters 26 to accurately reproduce these distortions and the accuracy of any reproduction can be easily tested against a standard example.

Furthermore, on the upper edges of portions of the letter 26, the lines 22 of shapes 24 cross over each other causing significant interference and making it even harder to estimate what the overall shape of the lines would be following the displacement of the line, the distortion of the line and the interference with the adjacent line. It is therefore almost impossible to estimate what this overall shape would be and could only be accurately reproduced with the use of a reference.

The displacement of the lines 22 uses a mathematical method known to the person skilled in the art. In this example software called Fortunate, Quick Background (Q-soft) from Barco is used to create the security printing shown in Figure 1. In using this software the planar surface of shapes 24 are formed into parallel lines 22, to which a wave is applied, and it is this planar surface to which the numismatic software is applied to produce the letters 26.

Referring to Figure 3, in which the features in common with Figure 2 are denoted with like referenced numerals increased by 10, the lines 32 of security printing 30 are formed from different characters namely the letters "X" 34a and "O" 34b. Furthermore, the characters are separated with spaces between them. As with the example in Figure 2, the portions of the lines which have been displaced are again clearly distorted and on occasions overlap to form complex shapes.

The use of different lettering is further extended, as shown in figures 4 and 5, into using words. Security print information, 40 and 50, is formed from a plurality of lines, 42 and 52, which are themselves made up of shapes in the form of words 44 and 54. It is necessary, however, that the overall impression given by the lines of words is that they form a surface on the printed material and it is the displacement of the lines that appears to create the three dimensional lettering 46 and 56. The use of words potentially allows each printed item produced to be unique by changing the position of the letters, 46 and 56, relative to the words 34.

The distortion and overlap resulting from the displacement of the letters would be unique forcing a forger to estimate the form that the displaced letters would take when distorted and overlapped. A person trying to determine whether a document had been forged could reuse the software to reproduce, as closely as possible, the original printing to act as the standard against which the alleged forgery can be compared.

Each printing could be provided with a code which would allow the software to accurately reproduce the original to act as standard.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the above embodiments have been described by way of example only, and not in any limitative sense, and that various alterations and modifications are possible without departure from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. For example, in the prior art shown in Figure 1 the parallel lines each have a slight wave in. This wave is included, in part, to assist in the clear formation of the letters because it was found that if a no wave was present and the line forming part of the letter ran parallel to the lines that portion of the letter is not clearly defined. The inclusion of a wave makes it extremely unlikely that a portion of a letter can run parallel to the line and thereby improving the quality of printed letters. However, by using lines made up from complex shapes, the lines have an obvious width making them two dimensional. As a result, it is not as important to include the wave shown in the examples in the Figures to produce the apparently three dimensional lettering of the security printing and the lines can be straight.

Furthermore, it is not essential that the lines are parallel.

It is sufficient if, when viewed without magnification, the printed lines appear to form a uniform surface and then the displacement of the lines appears to form the security lettering in a different plane. - 9 -

Claims

Claims l. A method of printing security information onto a substrate, the

method comprising printing a plurality of lines onto at least one surface of at least one substrate wherein at least a portion of each line of a plurality of said lines is displaced relative to an adjacent portion of said line so as to give the impression of at least part of a printed surface not being in the same plane as said surface, and wherein at least one said line is formed from a plurality of shapes.
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said lines are substantially parallel to each other.
3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein at least one said line is formed from a plurality of separated shapes.
4. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said shapes are letters.
5. A method according to claim 4, wherein said letters are formed into words.
6. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein at least one said line comprises at least one wave.
7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the amplitude of said wave is less than the wave length of said wave.
8. A method of printing security information onto a substrate, the method substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to figures 2 and 3 of the accompanying drawings.
9. A printed material having security information printed thereon, the material comprising a substrate having a plurality of lines printed onto at least one surface of at least one substrate wherein at least a portion of each line of a plurality of said lines is displaced relative to an adjacent portion of said line so as to give the impression of at least part of a printed surface not being in the same plane as said surface, and wherein at least one said line is formed from a plurality of shapes.
10. A printed material according to claim 9, wherein a plurality of said lines are substantially parallel to each other.
11. A printed material according to claim 9 or 10, wherein at least one said line is formed from a plurality of separated shapes.
12. A printed material according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein said shapes are letters.
13. A printed material according to claim 12, wherein said letters are formed into words.
14. A printed material according to any one of claims 9 to 13, wherein at least one said line comprises at least one wave.
15. A printed material according to claim 14, wherein the amplitude of said wave is less than the wave length of said wave.
16. A printed material having security information printed thereon, the material substantially as hcreinbefore described with reference to figures 2 and 3 of the accompanying drawings.