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 direct thermal printable construct, such as a ticket, game piece, coupon, collection piece, label, security card, or voucher includes a thermally printable medium and a metallized layer bonded directly or indirectly to the thermally printable medium. A thermosensitive imaging layer of the thermally printable medium is printable by exposing the metallized layer to localized heat of a thermal printer for inducing local changes in the color of the thermosensitive imaging layer that are obscured from view through both the metallized layer and a base substrate of the thermally printable medium. One or more areas of the metallized layer are arranged to be removable by a scratching action using a fingernail or coin for revealing the underlying local changes in the color of the thermosensitive imaging layer.

A security-enhanced document with a removable SOC is provided that is compatible with process color digital imaging, method and system for producing the document enhances production, and expands the aesthetics of the documents.

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 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.

An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic drawing system capable of drawing a figure having a smooth and clear contour, in which a control apparatus, based on figure data of a planned drawing figure, by operation of a cartesian coordinate robot, moves a paint discharging apparatus parallel to a contour line of the planned drawing figure to be drawn at a planned drawing location, and along with this movement, the control apparatus executes contour parallel drawing control that causes the paint discharging apparatus to continuously perform a paint discharging operation, thereby drawing a contour portion of the planned drawing figure.

An automated greeting card conveyance system is disclosed that includes a first conveyor configured to transport pre-decorated greeting cards along a first conveyance path and a second conveyor configured to transport envelopes along a second conveyance path. A control system controls customization of each greeting card and envelope by (a) determining a card identifier of the greeting card, (b) identifying customized content associated with an order for the greeting card having the card identifier, and (c) causing the customized content to be printed on the greeting card and envelope. A coupling system may also be used to automatically insert the greeting card into the envelope. In addition, a sealing system may be used to automatically seal envelope having a pointed envelope flap.

A full-color protected document, printing method, and system secured by removable Scratch-Off Coatings where the protection against microscratch type attacks is provided by ensuring strategic placement of similarly colored and/or patterned variable indicia. By printing the variable indicia with similarly standards, usability and integrity of the printed indicia are achieved relative to the consumer's perspective while at the same time providing countermeasures to illicit microscratching attacks.

A security-enhanced document including a substrate, variable indica applied to an area of a first side of the substrate, a scratch-off-coating applied over the variable indicia to maintain the variable indicia unreadable until the scratch-off-coating is removed by being scratched off, and digital imaging applied to an area of a reverse side of the substrate from the variable indicia, wherein the digital imaging applied to the area of the reverse side of the substrate includes the same materials as the variable indicia, is uniformly spread over the area of the reverse side of the substrate, and such that the digital imaging overlaps at least 50% of the variable indica applied to the area of the first side of the substrate, such that the variable indicia exhibits an insufficient signal-to-noise ratio relative to the signal-to-noise ratio of the digital imaging on the reverse side of the substrate so that the variable indicia cannot be discerned so long as the scratch-off-coating remains intact.

Disclosed herein is a pop-up or three-dimensional gloss card including a substantially flat gloss layer having at least one color chip with a predetermined gloss finish, and a top layer defining at least one window. The top layer is positioned on top of the gloss layer so that the at least one color chip is visible through the at least one window. The gloss card also has an activator that reversibly bends the gloss layer so that the at least one color chip protrudes through the at least one window to exhibit the gloss finish of the color chip.