Passports are equipped with a multitude of security features to prevent counterfeiting and ensure the authenticity of travel documents. In today’s threat landscape, passport security features must deliver overt, tamper-evident protection while supporting seamless integration into polycarbonate data pages and secure document workflows. Governments, passport integrators and high security printers now demand solutions that combine Level 1 public verification with nanoscale resistance to replication. Traditional passport security features such as holograms, color-shifting inks, microtext, watermarks, and RFID chips have long guarded against forgery. Yet counterfeiters increasingly exploit AI-driven tools and sophisticated techniques to mimic these elements.
Why do passport security features need superior technology?
Passport OVDs need increasingly advanced technology because they are the world’s most targeted identity documents. Criminals constantly improve their counterfeiting methods. Let’s look at some recent statistics:
- Fraudulent passports ranked as the most common form of identity document fraud in 2025.
- Synthetic identity document fraud surged 311% in North America in Q1 2025 compared to the prior year, driven by generative AI tools capable of fabricating realistic passport imagery and data.
- Interpol’s SLTD database holds approximately 138 million records of lost and stolen travel documents worldwide, with 3.6 billion searches in 2023 alone yielding 232,423 positive hits at borders.
Secure documents start with superior technology. Polycarbonate data pages with advanced nano optic solutions are now essential for staying ahead in government ID and high security printing environments. Superior level 1 security technology makes passports harder to copy, harder to alter, yet easier for public engagement and border systems to verify quickly and accurately.
How does PICO secure™ make passports more secure?
PICO secure™ is the world’s first nano optic, plasmonic optical variable device (OVD) engineered specifically for identity documents. This patented Level 1 feature delivers always-on structural color and intuitive movement effects viewable from both sides of a polycarbonate data page. Built on plasmonic color pixels patterned onto ultra-thin microstructures, it requires no inks or dyes and uses far less material than traditional micro-optics. Nano Optic technology offers a sustainable and versatile solution for achieving vibrant coloration and dynamic effects, ideal for a wide array of applications across identity and government documents. Nano-scale origination, proprietary algorithms, specialized manufacturing and materials for passport security features that are not commercially available keeps documents secure and ensures counterfeit resilience well into the future.
Dual Sided Protection: Animated effects are viewable from both sides through a window, even in low light – securing two sides of the passport data page.
Ultimate Integration: For passport integrators and high-security printers, PICO secure offers unmatched compatibility. It embeds directly into polycarbonate using unmodified industry equipment, supports overprinting, lamination, and laser personalization, and remains fully functional post-processing. Its encapsulated, tamper-evident design bonds into the document core, creating a secure design that resists replication without proprietary nanoscale origination and algorithms. High security printing teams benefit from PICO secure’s sustainable production (100% hydro-electric, no inks, dyes or lenses) and full customization to national themes, enhancing both public engagement and forensic-level deterrence.
Trusted Partner: Authentix has been a trusted partner to governments with a proven track record in the fight against forgery, counterfeiting and fraud dating back over 300 years. For additional passport services like pre-press, machine readable features, overprinting of holograms, die-cut to finishing, the entire document can be produced in-house. Authentix maintains two secure print facilities – one in Consett, U.K., and the other in Haarlem, the Netherlands. Both facilities are Intergraf certified (ISO 14298) for security print processes to ensure the volume capacity and capability required to provide secure printing programs of all sizes. These facilities are also prepared for in-line vision inspection steps that are required for anti-counterfeit measures based on digital fingerprinting techniques. Having multiple production facilities allows us to extend our geographical coverage and assure business continuity to our customers.
As a producer of passport booklets and visa stickers for 10+ countries, Authentix offers transparency backed by long term support and partnership. Multiple high security printing facilities across the globe feature lean production infrastructure with screened employees. We are the first in the industry to offer Nano Optic OVDs, augmented reality, digital codes and block chain technology to physical ID products like passports and government IDs.
Ready to future-proof your passport security features? Contact Authentix today to integrate PICO secure™ into your high-security printing lines. Schedule a custom design workshop and discover how nano optics and plasmonics can deliver unmatched protection for your government clients
