In one embodiment, a secure substrate provides a print-ready surface for printing scratch-off products and eliminates the need to print lower security layers for protecting against attempts to view hidden indicia information. In one embodiment, a secure substrate comprises applying microperforations to a dyed substrate that meets a predefined transmission optical density to resist an attempt to reduce the opacity of the dyed substrate by delamination. In another embodiment, a secure substrate comprises applying a lower opacity layer and a lower background layer on a substrate to provide a secure substrate that meets a predefined transmission optical density. In another embodiment, a secure substrate comprises applying a lower opacity layer on a substrate, applying a reflective coating, and applying a lower background layer over the reflective coating to provide a secure substrate that meets a predefined transmission optical density.

A printed security-enhanced document, printing method, and system for ensuring that any printing defects present in the variable indicia also occur in the background on the document protected. By ensuring that random printing defects in the variable indicia also appear in the same document's background, detection of the printing defects becomes more readily apparent.

A security-enhanced document includes a substrate and variable indicia comprising ink having a signal. The variable indicia is of a specific type and is applied to the substrate using a specific application technique. At least one other printed portion, which is a back of the document, has background ink noise, and the type of ink of the back of the document is of the same type of ink applied to the substrate using the same application technique as the ink of the variable indicia. The document also includes a scratch-off-coating applied over the variable indicia. The document has a signal-to-noise ratio of the ink of the variable indicia relative to the background ink noise of the back of the document that is not appreciable, thereby making the variable indicia unreadable with reference to the back of the document when the scratch-off-coating remains intact.

A lottery ticket is printed on a substrate sheet material having a front surface with lottery game indicia printed thereon and a removable covering material, typically scratch-off material, covering the lottery game indicia which is removable by a player to expose the game indicia for playing the game and other game information printed on the substrate sheet material where at least part of the substrate sheet material is formed of a translucent synthetic material to enable viewing through the part by the player.

Disclosed are a label film including a hidden pattern that is displayable through scraping a surface thereof and a manufacturing method thereof. A concealment scraping layer printing ink is formed by mixing, in respect of volume ratio, 1-10% nitrocellulose, 5-15% polyamide resin, 20-30% silver paste, 5-15% pearl powder, 10-20% ethyl acetate, 20-30% toluene, and 5-15% isopropyl alcohol and applied with intaglio printing such that a displayable mark formed of a traditional printing ink and including at least one pattern, character, or mark and at least one concealment scraping layer pattern formed with the concealment scraping layer printing ink are combined together and collectively formed on and attached to at least one surface of a single-layer label film substrate, with the concealment scraping layer pattern set on and covering at least one displayable mark, followed by steps of slitting, bonding, and cutting, to form a label film having at least one concealment scraping layer pattern covering and concealing at least one displayable mark through a combined printing operation.

A system and method for creating latent image indicia that includes a variable mark. The latent image indicia is made of pigmented ink that can only be viewed when illuminated with a specific frequency of light. The pigmented ink is printed in a solid patch by a conventional printing process. The variable mark in the pigmented ink is created by laser ablation of the pigment. The laser ablation is done after the ink printing as a separate step.

A lottery ticket is printed on a substrate sheet material having a front surface with lottery game indicia printed thereon and a removable covering material, typically scratch-off material, covering the lottery game indicia which is removable by a player to expose the game indicia for playing the game and other game information printed on the substrate sheet material where at least part of the substrate sheet material is formed of a translucent synthetic material to enable viewing through the part by the player. In order to allow the ticket to be dispensed in a row of the tickets from a dispensing machine with an optical sensor, a patch of an opaque or semi-opaque material is applied onto the substrate at a location to cooperate with the sensor while it is operating to detect ticket location.

Herein is described a scratch-off structure comprising the following layers in order: a substrate having a first layer showing information thereon, a second layer comprising a polymeric film and being substantially transparent; a third layer comprising a transparent electrostatic ink; a fourth layer, wherein the fourth layer is coloured. Methods for making scratch-off structures and collections of scratch-off structures are also described.

A printing method or system for making a security-enhanced scratch-off document and the document so made are disclosed. The security-enhanced document includes a substrate, variable indicia, at least one other printed portion having background noise, and a scratch-off-coating layer applied over the variable indicia to maintain the variable indicia unreadable until the scratch-off-coating is removed by being scratched off. The variable indicia includes ink having a signal-to-noise ratio relative to the background ink noise of the document's at least one other printed portion, such that the variable indicia are unreadable with reference to the at least one other printed portion when the scratch-off-coating remains intact. Additionally, digitally imaging countermeasures to unassisted and assisted mechanical SOC lift are also disclosed. These methods and systems enhance the overall appearance of the ticket as well as potentially reduce the time and setup costs between print runs.

A color display fan deck or a color card has a substrate having a first surface and a second surface. The color display fan deck or color card has a base layer that is applied to one of the first surface or the second surface of the substrate. The base layer has an adhesion promoting material. A process color is applied to the base layer by a digital printing process. A method of manufacturing a color display device is also provided.