DIDIK.com / Vari-Vue™.com

DIDIK/Vari-Vue
3-D (Stereo) Imaging Technology

Popularizing Lenticular™ technology since 1936

  • Lenticular™ Technology and Licensing
  • Lenticular™ high speed mass printing
  • Lenticular™ (Linear) Lenses and supplies
  • Stereo (3D) and Lenticular™ imagery/photography
  • Stereo (3D) cinematography
  • Stereo (3-D) Television
  • Be sure to review our links section
    at the bottom of the page.

*(Vari-Vue - the company which popularized Lenticular ™3-D, flip and motion technology , and used the word "Lenticular" to describe linier lenses , "Winkies" and others through its predecessor in the patents of 1936 and other registrations in the 1940's and 1950's).

The History and Guide Book to Lenticular Technology and Images on CD-ROM. This is an ABSOLUTE MUST for any one interested in 3-D or who collects lenticulars. It covers and illustrates thousands of lenticulars and gives insight into the technology. CLICK HERE for more information.

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  General Information

  Welcome to the DIDIK/Vari-Vue™ Lenticular/Stereographic website - the popularizer of the Lenticular process. In 1936 the modern Lenticular image was patented and this formed the seed which led to the formal incorporation of the Vari-Vue company in 1948. Vari-Vue popularized Lenticular technology world-wide and by the 1950's, had become a household word. In the 1960's and early 1970's, Vari-Vue created a network of Lenticular license holders world wide which greatly increased the recognition of this technology. Vari-Vue has been the world leader in stereo (3D) and animated printing. For over 60 years, virtually every advancement in the field of Lenticular technology has been developed by Vari-Vue including specialty plastics for maximum refractive indexes and mass production, an enormous variety of Lenticular lenses (linear lenses) ranging from from 1 lens per inch to 360 lenses per inch and a variety of varying focal lengths for each of the lenses, special optical glues which enhance clarity, have little bubble formation and can endure humid, dry, hot and cold climates. In addition, Vari-Vue developed many of the high speed Lenticular production equipment, including sheet fed, continuous run equipment as well as "auto-stereo" large format cameras to which the bulk of all Lenticular images on the planet was shot with. Starting in the early 1960's, Vari-Vue licensed these advancements to companies on all continents. To this day, many, if not most, of these high speed, mass production equipment and techniques remain trade secrets. It is one thing to produce a singe or a couple of medium grade lenticulars on a computer that, when laminated, will last for a few months or, with luck, a few years. It is quit another thing to produce hundreds of millions of high quality lenticulars per year that will last indefinitely, through humidity and temperature changes and, at the same time, be economically viable to manufacture. The technology that we have can do just this. In addition, with the wide variety of Lenticular lenses, many viewing distances can be achieved -- with quality and resolution in mind. Lenticular lenses are far more complex then simply lines per inch. For example, it is possible to have a variety of different focal length lenses having the same number of lines per inch. This is for different viewing distances. In addition, the type of plastic and the additive incorporated into the plastics while being manufactured significantly effects the refractive index and capabilities and quality of the final image. Special outer coatings of the Lenticular lens also effects the final image quality. Vari-vue spent, what amounts to a fortune in research in these areas. In addition, the cost to produce a master Lenticular lens die was very high, since only the finest machine tools can achieve the necessary quality. To give you an example, the cost to produce a singe 40 line 12" x 16" master die was, according to our records, $27,000 ... in 1974! Today, even with CNC machine tools, the cost would be substantially higher. We have a variety of dies for many types of lenses, on hand.

  Today, thousands of people world wide collect early Vari-Vue images. Some of these images sell for thousands of dollars. These lenticulars range from the earliest images of the 30's and 40's, to stereo and animated images of Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, politicians such as Eisenhower, the so called "Op-Art" of the 1960's, full sized highway billboards, conversion tools, 3-D posters, 1939-40 and 1964-65 New York Worlds Fair items, drinking glasses, record and music album covers, games, eye glasses, charms, jewelry, greeting cards, point of sale images and countless other images. Virtually every major American Company and many, foreign companies had Lenticular images produced by Vari-Vue in the 1950's through the 1970's. Today, there has been a resurgence in Lenticular image technology and Didik.com is in the forefront of Lenticular development and new uses for our Lenticular technology. We also maintain what is probably the worlds largest Lenticular image collection. This collection is available to museums and special shows. If you are interested in Lenticular technology or collecting early Lenticular images, you may wish to purchase the "The History and Guide Book to Lenticular Technology and Images on CD-ROM". This master directory covers and illustrates thousands of lenticulars with original prices and index codes and gives insight into the technology. It contains over 100 megabytes of information. If you are interested in this product, CLICK HERE for more details.

 

  For further information, please refer to the pages below. Thank You.

DIDIK/Vari-Vue Stereo 3-D Pages

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**"Lenticular" is a trade name used by Vari-Vue™ to describe linier lenses and was coined in a 1936 patent covering lenticular technology which led to the formal formation of Vari-Vue™ in 1948..

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The second Vari-Vue™ factory in Yonkers, New York (USA) as seen in this 1962 photograph. Over 200 million Lenticular images per year were produced at this 50,000 sqft (approximately 5,000 sq meter) factory from 1957 till 1972. In late 1972, Vari-Vue moved to a more modern facility in Pehlem, New York, where it remained till 1986 when most of the production line and intellectual property was purchase by DIDIK.


One of the many varieties of Auto-Stereo cameras designed and built by Vari-Vue. This particular camera shot most of the famous Lenticular postcards in the 1950's and 1960's. It is capable of taking an unlimited number of photographs of the same image, each varying only slightly from one another.


A stereo pair is another type of stereo image. This type of image can be viewed in 3-D by placing a divider between the two images and looking straight. For more info on viewing, please review the site as listed in the left column. Stereo Pairs were originally conceived in 1838-- only 9 years after the first photograph was shot (1829) and two years before Degarue came out with a type of photography that was later to be known as the Dagarutype.


Vari-Vue™ "INTERNATIONAL" logo as adapted in 1948

 

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The History and Guide Book to Lenticular Technology and Images on CD-ROM. This is an ABSOLUTE MUST for any one interested in 3-D or who collects lenticulars. It covers and illustrates thousands of lenticulars and gives insight into the technology. CLICK HERE for more information.