Glossary

When two layers each with unique shapes, are partially revealed on the front and back of a data page.

In holography, this refers to the brightness of an image. It is the ratio of diffracted to incident light intensity.

A sculpted image of a person, usually a monarch, that appears on the obverse of a coin or banknote.

The process of converting a holographic image from photoresist or plastic to metal (nickel). See also Shim.

The complete group of waves that range in frequency from radio waves to gamma rays, but all travel at the speed of light.

The technique of scanning a focused beam of electrons to draw custom shapes on a surface covered with an electron-sensitive film called a resist. The whole origination process is undertaken in a vacuum chamber where the e-beam writes onto the resist plate. This is sometimes referred to as a direct write process. It is used to create holographic images.

An EU regulation on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the European Single Market, established under EU Regulation 910/2014 of 23 July 2014.

A data standard for the unique identification of any individual item around the world. Whereas a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) identifies a class of trade item, such as ‘two-litre Acme bottled water’, an EPC can only identify one particular two-litre bottle of Acme water. Only the combination of a GTIN plus a serial number corresponds to an EPC.

A global GS1 product code standard for creating and sharing visibility event data, both within and across enterprises, to give users a shared view of physical or digital objects within a relevant business context.

An electronic authentication technique that is a legal substitute for a handwritten signature.

Security features embedded in the paper during the production process or inserted between laminated layers. These include threads, planchettes, microtaggants, microcapsules and other devices, which cannot be removed or added retroactively without destroying the paper.

The transfer of a raised pattern from a hard plate to a softer material. This mechanical transfer (which can be made through a seal, stamp or die) is usually facilitated by means of heat and always with pressure.

The conversion of information or data into a code.

The conversion of data or information into a format that requires a key or password to access the data.

Repeated, sometimes unspaced lines of text in the background or security thread of a secure document.

An X-ray technique for identifying the elemental composition of materials.

A framework used to assess an organisation’s business practices and performance on various sustainability and ethical issues.

A document in the form of a book or a card with an electronic microchip and antenna. The chip contains the holder’s scrambled personal data: eg. digital photo, name, data from the machine-readable zone, fingerprints, iris. The data is read by special devices and compared to personalisation data on the document, the holder’s physical data and the database.

A GS1 subsidiary organisation administering Electronic Product Code systems and coordinating the development of associated data standards.

An electronic statement of a product’s history and passage through the supply chain, with each movement and transaction recorded so that, at any point in the chain and at its end, the lineage of the product can be obtained. Especially used to record batches of pharmaceutical products.

Ink that rubs off when an attempt is made to erase information in the area that has been printed. The ink will also affect the paper in the same manner as solvent/chemical reactive inks, providing two security features in one. Often used to print the background of a cheque.

A 1D (linear) barcode developed as a superset of the UPC code, with an additional digit allowing a tenfold increase in the number of possible unique values. Like UPC codes, EANs encode global trade item numbers (GTINs) in line with GS1 international standards.

A 1D (linear) barcode of the EAN/UPC symbology, used to label small consumer products with limited space for a barcode.

A body created within the European Union to support EU member states in the fight against terrorism, cybercrime and other serious and organised forms of crime, like currency counterfeiting.

Also called electronic or online visa. It is simply a visa that can be applied for online but is no different to other types of travel visas.

Part of the qualification process to receive a tender document. The buyer (eg. a government organisation) is requesting a provider to express an interest in providing goods and services for a project.

A black rectangle printed on the edge of labels and other printed materials, which is read by a machine to locate where one label starts and the next ends. 

An EU-accredited system for exchanging classified information on false as well as genuine travel and identity documents between document experts. Intranet FADO (iFADO) is the access-restricted, second level of FADO, for governmental and law enforcement use.

A term used in food traceability for describing end-to-end track and trace of food products, from the field where they were grown to the consumers who purchased them.

An open industry association for developing and promoting authentication standards that help reduce over-reliance on passwords. The alliance supports authentication technologies, including biometrics such as fingerprint and iris scanners, and voice and facial recognition.

A new global wireless standard after 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G networks. 5G works at higher frequencies than its predecessors, resulting in greater bandwidth and faster data transfer. 5G therefore enables a new kind of network designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together, including machines, objects, and devices.

Refers to the combination of scanning and software programmes with unique physical characteristics intrinsic to a product or secure document. Fingerprinting is based on the fundamental premise that at the microscopic or molecular level the characteristics of every printed document or package are unique to that item.

A rotary relief printing method whereby a mirrored 3D relief of the required image is created in a rubber or polymer material. A measured amount of ink is deposited upon the surface of the printing plate, which then rotates, making contact with the substrate and transferring the ink.

An optically variable element visually perceived as an image hovering or floating in space above or below a document’s surface.

A type of luminescence, describing the ability of some molecules or materials to absorb ultraviolet (UV) energy and immediately re-emit this energy within the visible spectrum, as a glowing light. The emitted light disappears as soon as the excitation light is extinguished. There is no persistence of emitted light as in the case of phosphorescence.

UV-activated fibres that are randomly distributed across the surface and through the volume of security paper during the papermaking process.

Small coloured or colourless particles of a different size randomly embedded in paper pulp during the manufacturing process. The particles glow when exposed to UV light.

UV-activated ink that ceases to glow immediately after the illuminating light source has been turned off.

Small, coloured discs with fluorescent properties usually mixed into the paper pulp during the papermaking process.

A material comprising a polyester carrier with one or more coatings, a release layer and an adhesive layer. The foil is transferred – generally by heat – onto paper, and the carrier is stripped away, leaving the coating bonded to the substrate by the adhesive. This coating can be plain or imaged, monochrome or coloured, colour-shifting, iridescent, metallised, holographic, etc. Also known as hot stamping or transfer foil. Foils are generally applied to banknotes as a continuous stripe (typically measuring 6-10mm wide) or a patch (typically square, circular or elliptical).

Security feature reserved for special departments or officials. Special tools or laboratories are required to reveal their presence and characteristics. The presence and nature of these features are generally kept a closely guarded secret and they are typically used after an enforcement raid to provide definitive proof of the authenticity of a product or document. Such proof can be used, if necessary, as evidence in a court of law.

A hardware design aspect that defines and prescribes the size, shape, and other physical specifications of components. A form factor may represent a broad class of similarly sized components, or it may prescribe a specific standard.

A general or multipurpose identification system primarily created to manage identity information for the general population and provide credentials that serve as proof of identity for applications such as national ID, civil registry and population registration.

Also known as process colour printing – a conventional printing method based on four colours: the so-called CMYK colours of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Together, these colours can reproduce on paper almost 70% of the colours visible to the human eye.

A papermaking machine consisting of a moving endless belt of wire or plastic screen that receives a mixture of pulp and water and allows excess water to drain off, forming a continuous. Fourdrinier was first machine to produce a continuous web (roll). It is more suited than cylinder mould for producing lightweight paper for documents such as tax stamps. See also Dandy roll.

Capable of being broken. Refers to security labels or tax stamps which break up when removed or tampered with.

A type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for use in lighthouses. The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a conventional optical lens. Instead of the curved surface of a conventional lens the Fresnel lens consists of a series of concentric grooves that act as individual refracting surfaces, bending parallel light rays to a common focal length.

Solvent- or water-based ink printed onto a security document. When solvent or ink eradicators are applied to the document the fugitive ink spreads out creating a smudge, which denotes the attempt to tamper with the print.

A sectoral or single-purpose identification system primarily created to manage identity information and provide credentials that serve as proof of identity for applications such as voter registration, tax ID, social security numbers and driving licences.

An item is fungible if one unit of the item is equivalent to another unit of the same item of the same quality at the same time, place, etc. Fungibility allows an item or asset to be interchanged with other individual goods or assets of the same type. Fungible assets simplify exchange and trade processes, as fungibility implies equal value between assets.