Prepress processes in banknote printing are fundamental to the performance, security, and quality of banknotes. As banknote designs incorporate increasingly sophisticated security features and demand tighter production tolerances, prepress workflows must progress to deliver enhanced precision, operational efficiency, and sustainability. Several years ago, Orell Füssli Security Printing recognized this critical demand and made a bold strategic decision. The whole prepress technology was reimagined from the ground up, ensuring Central Banks receive incomparable precision and security. 

Central to this transformation is the introduction and co-development of innovative laser-based engraving technologies that have redefined production standards. Direct laser engraving of intaglio printing plates delivers unrivaled precision in reproducing complex security elements while increasing plate durability and eliminating environmentally harmful chemical processing. Orell Füssli now offers ultra-high-resolution engraving for intaglio, offset, intaglio stencil, several imprint and varnish plates with seamless computer-to-plate (CTP) transfer that skips traditional intermediate steps entirely, enabling microstructures so refined they define new standards in counterfeit protection. This comprehensive prepress overhaul represents a complete rethinking of the production environment, increasing automation, achieving new levels of reproducibility, and lowering setup times to deliver efficiency gains that directly impact the bottom line. 

In this presentation Orell Füssli Security Printing will reveal how they successfully steered this major transformation from strategic vision to production reality and demonstrate the future technologies in banknote printing. They will show how integrated process innovation can simultaneously strengthen security and precision, boost performance, and achieve sustainability objectives that were once considered mutually exclusive.