Lenticular Printing 3 - End to End

Lenticular Printing 3 - End to End

Lenticular Printing 3 - The Whole Process

Here I’ll go through the whole process with illustrations for a lenticular print. This is just the way I did this - I’m sure there are plenty of options and improvements! Before I get going, I’m not sure if I chose the best images here. The end result was intended to be ‘Seasons Change with the Scenery’ (a quote from Simon and Garfunkel) - a favourite view across the Derwent Valley, near Keswick taken after a drenching storm and in an Autumn ‘Inversion’. Both these images are in my portfolio. However, the colours appear a little gloomy and a bit similar, although it looks quite vibrant ‘in the print’.

The next two shots show the images building in PS. I’ve set the two images as layers in the first document, and are selected (in this case) in 4.5cm wide strips. The same selection can be used on both layers one after the other by toggling the layer selector. After selecting and pasting, the area is cleared, so you can see where the previous selection was made.



In the next image, you can see the stripes being added to a new canvas, twice as wide as each individual image. The stripes almost auto align in PS. I think it is best to work from the centre out.



After all the areas are selected and pasted, you may need to adjust the outer strips to give constant strip widths across the composite image if your strip width isn’t exactly 1/10 (or any even fraction) of the image width. A bit of a stretch or compression of the outer strips won’t be noticeable.

Here is the composite image on PS. Once you are happy with the image and the alignment, you can flatten it. Once it is a composite like this, you can’t make adjustments very easily, so try and get the images ‘print ready’ before slicing!


This image will fit well on two sheets of A3+ paper. In setting the print job up make sure there is some overlap on the central fold, which will be a valley fold.


Exciting bit now. See what the prints look like! The next shot shows the prints trimmed to the central valley fold and aligned. Next step is scribing and folding.


I think the folding is best carried out before joining the two sheets (or multiple sheets). Firstly, measure the print. In this case the strips are exactly 4.5 cm wide. The valleys when mounted will be 2x 4.5/sqrt2, say 6.4 cm, apart. This will give the correct viewing for 90 degrees between the images.


Here you can see the valley folds (lines) scribed from the top, and nicks for the peak folds, which are scribed from the back. Once all the folds are scribed, another fun bit! Folding up the print. I prefer to wear cotton gloves for this. The paper I have used here is Pinnacle Velvet Fine Art 275, from Paper Spectrum. If you have scribed it right it will fold up quickly and accurately



Now join the two halves along the central valley fold from the back and take your first view of the print. Stretch it out to give the 90 degree ridges and view from the centre and both sides. With matte paper, you don’t get reflections so illumination just needs to be bright and even. Here is a trial view (unmounted on my print box)





Once the print is mounted with the correct valley spacing, the slight gaps will disappear and you can enjoy your interactive print! I attach these to a mount board with a little glue from a hot melt gun. Mark the positions accurately and take time. Inaccuracy will show up as slight gaps. I haven’t taken this concept as far as framing yet. I would probably cut a normal mat, slightly over size to give a border then mount in a deep frame behind glass. Until I want to frame one of these I’d probably keep it unmounted – it will fold up very small and not take space on a shelf!

I hope you give this a go – working this out and trying it has been great fun, as has the interaction with John Duder (I just love that image of his…). I’ve really enjoyed the comments and views from our members on this site. Please let me know if try this.