Professional Documents
Culture Documents
banknotes, passports, tamper-evident labels, stock certificates, postage stamps and identity cards.
The main goal of security printing is to prevent forgery, tampering, or counterfeiting.
Special paper
Most banknotes are made of heavy paper, almost always from cotton fibres for strength and
durability, in some cases linen or speciality coloured or forensic fibres are added to give the
paper added individuality and protect against counterfeiting. Some countries including Romania,
Mexico, New Zealand, Israel, Singapore and Australia produce banknotes made from polymer,
in order to improve wear and tear, and permit the inclusion of a small transparent window a few
millimeters in size as a security feature that is very difficult to reproduce using common
counterfeiting techniques.
[edit] Watermarks
A watermark is a recognizable image or pattern in paper that appears lighter or darker than
surrounding paper when viewed with a light from behind the paper, due to paper density
variations. A watermark is made by impressing a water coated metal stamp or dandy roll onto the
paper during manufacturing. Watermarks were first introduced in Bologna, Italy in 1282; as well
as their use in security printing, they have also been used by papermakers to identify their
product.
The very sharp printing obtained from the intaglio process is hard to imitate by other means.
Intaglio also allows for the creation of latent images which are only visible when the document
is viewed at a very shallow angle.
[edit] Microprinting
This involves the use of extremely small text, and is most often used on currency and bank
checks. The text is generally small enough to be undiscernable to the naked eye. Cheques, for
example, use microprint as the signature line.
[edit] Holograms
A hologram may be embedded either via holographic paper, or onto the laminate of a card itself.
The other kind of security thread is the single or multicolor sewing thread made from cotton or
synthetic fibers, mostly UV fluorescent, for the bookbinding of passport booklets.