# How are holograms on ID cards supposed to work?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-holograms-on-id-cards-supposed-to-work/590940>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 31, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-holograms-on-id-cards-supposed-to-work/590940 "2011-07-31T17:56:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-holograms-on-id-cards-supposed-to-work/590940/1 "2011-07-31T17:56:38Z")

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News story about fake IDs out of China, reported to be so good that even bouncers that ‘‘check holograms’’ cannot even identify them as fake. How is the hologram supposed to work?

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**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-holograms-on-id-cards-supposed-to-work/590940/2 "2011-07-31T17:59:42Z")

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When you look at the holographic logo from different angles you see different things.

It isn’t that there is anything magical about that process, it’s just that most back alley ID men are not going to be able to create convincing holograms. Obviously someone with access to professional printing equipment may be able to do so.

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**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-holograms-on-id-cards-supposed-to-work/590940/3 "2011-07-31T18:30:01Z")

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Sometime in the 80s they figured out, first, how to create a hologram that looked three dimensional when illuminated by just normal light. Before that holograms had to be lit with lasers to appear 3D.

Second, they figured out how to cheaply mass produce them. This was famously first demonstrated by National Geographic magazine when they [published an issue with one on (every) cover!](http://www.scripophily.net/nagehoiswad1.html)

Because they were uniquely both difficult _and_ cheap to mass produce they were a perfect anti-counterfeiting device for credit cards. The 3D effect isn’t overly obvious on credit card ones because the images are so small, but if you look at one closely and tilt it around you’ll see that it is truly 3D.