Lenticular Cup Design Guide

Lenticular Cup Design Guide

Cup Design Templates

Before starting, we find it is best to supply your designers with a template. The template we supply will be an Adobe Illustrator file that can be imported or pasted into your high resolution layered Photoshop file. Your Photoshop file should be full size, at 300 dpi, with the elements on separate layers.

Template

Template with your art added

The template file will show the extra background area needed to add dimension to the file. See the “A” Bleed Area shown above.

The template file will show the “Trim Line” that represents the actual finished edge desired on the image. See the “B” Trim Line shown above.

The template file will also show the “Live Area” line that represents 1/4 inch from trim. All critical items (type, logos, etc.) need to be inside of this line. The “C” Live Area is the innermost line on the template.

We are available and happy to answer any questions about design concerns. We are always glad to help you optimize the effects of our lenticular medium.

Cup Shape Compensation
Tapered cups that have a larger diameter top than bottom need to have the shape compensated for, from their rectangular shaped art, into a shape that will look “normal” when wrapped around the cup shape.

Before Compensated

Compensated

You don’t need to be concerned with compensating your art for our cups. Just supply your art to fit our rectangular template (see templates above.) National Graphics needs to do the compensation as one of the final steps in our process.

For “wraps,” labels and cups that have the same top and bottom diameters, no shape compensation is needed. The compensation is only needed for the taper or conical shape.

Cup Elements Layout

The best image area on the cup (“Sweet Spot”), is a column in the very center of the cup running from top to bottom. The width of this column is approximately 1/2 inch narrower than the width of the cup.

When viewed from the side of the cup, the width of the cup is measured inbetween the top rim and the bottom of the cup (see diagram). In this area the lens is running closest to straight up and down.

On the ends of the cup, by the seam, the lens runs at more of an angle, which is less desirable.

Larger diameter cups will have a larger “Sweet Spot.”

From the very beginning of your design process, try to visualize that the art will be viewed as a cylinder, unlike the flat rectangular shape of the art you supply us with. When viewing the image on the cup, you will see only a small portion of the art’s elements at one time, because of the narrow width of the cup. If you use very large elements, there will be views that will not show much or any of the supporting or background elements. These supporting elements are what give the image much of its depth.

It is helpful to picture the image area as 3, 4, or 5 areas of elements, instead of a single large element. These elements can share a common background that goes across the entire cup. Smaller elements can also be added inbetween and within the “areas of elements.” Elements can overlap. This is helpful to the 3D effect.

Not Optimal

Recommended

Cup Designing Tips

Seam
What works best is to fill the seam area with background elements. We don’t suggest placing main elements continuously across the seam on the back of the cup. It works best when only the background occupies the seam area.

Details
To get the most out of our technology, we suggest taking advantage of texture, shape and contrast in your elements and the background. Texture, shape and contrast give the other elements more to interact with or “play off of,” unlike “flat tints” or solid areas that lack detail. Texture and shape also give the added benefit of subduing ghosting on images that are prone to ghost.

Text
For the optimum readability under the ribs of the lenticular, we recommend that text be at least 10 points in size and 1/4 inch from trim.

Lens Direction
The lens direction for our cups is vertical (this would be with the lines running up and down). We can do both 3D and limited motion with this lens direction.

UPC Codes
For the best scan ability, we place the UPC codes so that the lines are perpendicular to the lens direction. This places the numbers of the code sideways when viewed on the cup.

The UPC code can be used at 90% of the full size UPC code, but, for the best results, use it at 100% when possible.

The customer can truncate or clip off part of the top of the UPC, if size is a concern.

These tips are meant to be a guide, as each piece of art may have unique considerations or objectives. We will be glad to discuss considerations for your art when you send it for review.