Intruder Alert!

What machinery is needed?

"Application of holographic security labels does not require special equipment," said Tomas. "In fact, many of them are still hand applied."

Scary but true. Many holograms are still placed on the packaging by hand, but it's the printing and converting end of the spectrum that can and does require special equipment to keep the image in register. As Tomas explained, there are two broad categories of holographic images—wallpaper/background and specific image. The wallpaper images consist of a repeating pattern across an entire web. These tend to convert similar to non-holographic materials.