Toppan Digital, a Toppan Group company and wholly owned subsidiary of Toppan Holdings, developed Illumigram, a hologram that displays 3D text and images in response to strong light, in June 2022 and provides it as a solution to combat counterfeit and imitation goods.

Illumigram has previously only been available in a single color, but Toppan Digital has now developed a color version, enabling latent images using a special effect1 in multiple colors. Sales of the new color Illumigram are being launched in April 2025, targeting multiple sectors wanting to prevent the distribution of counterfeit and imitation goods, such as pharmaceuticals, beauty products, luxury brand goods, machinery parts, and licensed goods.

Toppan Digital aims to contribute to preventing the distribution of counterfeits and imitations by providing the market with a hologram that delivers even stronger visual impact and anticounterfeiting performance.

Background

Holograms use light interference to produce a three-dimensional luster effect. The unique visual effect and difficulty of counterfeiting mean that they are widely used as a mark of a genuine product, helping to verify authenticity and combat counterfeit and imitation goods.

With conventional holograms, however, it can sometimes be difficult to make a definitive judgment on authenticity or special devices may be required to confirm that a product is genuine. This has prompted a need for holograms that make assessment simpler and easier. In June 2022, Toppan Digital therefore developed Illumigram, a hologram that displays three-dimensional text and images when it is exposed to a strong light source such as a smartphone’s flashlight. Illumigram is used for a wide range of products because it is more counterfeit-resistant than general holograms and allows anybody to verify authenticity with ease.

Aiming to further enhance Illumigram’s anticounterfeiting and imitation prevention technology, Toppan Digital has now enabled latent images in multiple colors. This allows for more types of latent images than the single color (white) version and provides more clarity for authenticity verification. Each of the colors is a fixed color that does not change in response to changes in the viewing angle. This differentiates Illumigram from general holograms, where the colors change when viewed from different angles, and achieves a higher degree of resistance to counterfeiting.

Features of the color version of Illumigram

Latest images in multiple colors appear in response to a flashlight: If Illumigram is exposed to a strong point-source light such as a smartphone’s flashlight, three-dimensional text and images with depth appear in color. Compared with the existing single color (white) version, a much wider range of latent images can be produced in colors such as blue, red, and yellow. Increasing the variations of text and images enhances counterfeit resistance and makes authenticity verification easier.

Fixed colors that do not change with the viewing angle: With general multicolor holograms, the colors change depending on the viewing angle, meaning they are used widely for rainbow-colored decorative purposes. But the level of technical difficulty for rainbow holograms is low, making them comparatively easy to produce and unsuitable for sophisticated anticounterfeit measures.

The color version of Illumigram combines Toppan’s proprietary optical calculation and nanostructure stability control technologies to enable latent images with fixed colors that involve a high degree of technical difficulty and do not change with the viewing angle. This enhances counterfeit resistance while enabling definitive authenticity verification.

Combination with other holograms and authenticity verification services: As with the single color Illumigram, the new color version can be combined with the Toppan Group’s existing hologram manufacturing technologies. To deliver products with even higher design quality and multiple methods of confirmation, it can be fused with Secure Color, which produces pastel structural color, S-White, with which negative and positive images reverse when the hologram is turned through 90 degrees, or Twilightgram, with which latent images appear when the hologram is tilted.

The color Illumigram can also be linked to ID-NEX,2 a service for reading IDs with smartphones to confirm product authenticity, thereby equipping products with a high level of anti-counterfeit performance.

Future

Toppan Digital will provide the color Illumigram in combination with existing hologram technologies and anticounterfeiting services, targeting industry sectors that require prevention of counterfeit and imitation goods, such as pharmaceuticals, beauty products, luxury brands, machinery parts, and licensed goods.