The new Casio Mofrel system, presented at the Consumer Electronics Show CES 2018, adds 3D textures to printouts, turning flat paper into imitation artificial leather, stone, wood and embossed fabrics.

Special paper is used for printing. Each sheet costs about $ 10 and is noticeably thicker than plain paper. It consists of several layers, including a base of thicker paper, a layer of carbon molecules in the form of fine powder and upper layers, on which it can be printed with standard inkjet inks. The black and white image determines which parts of the printout are elevated, creating a texture

Using a special plug-in for Photoshop, the texture is created by first printing a black and white image. Then the printout is placed again in the Mofrel printer, where it is processed by infrared light. Darker print areas absorb this light, which causes the microscopic carbon particles to expand underneath, pushing the top layer up and creating an additional layer of depth and texture that you can feel and see when light falls on it. Then the printout is fed to the other side of the printer, where the printing is completed with standard inkjet inks, adding color.
This technology can be used, for example, when creating an interior of a car. So, it's very difficult to visually distinguish the textured fabric from the actual vinyl

Printer Mofrel almost the size of the table costs $ 50 thousand.