Barcodes have long sat awkwardly in the secure document world. They are fast and cheap, but easily copyable. A barcode is printed data, making it easy to clone, reprint or alter. But the industry is rethinking what a barcode is and what it can do. Instead of just holding a reference number that points to a record in a database, the barcode increasingly carries the actual identity data plus a digital signature from the issuer, drastically increasing its security and usefulness.

Counterfeiters are no longer limited to simple print and overlay methods to make counterfeit security features. High-resolution imaging, better foils, and wider access to precision tooling mean that many familiar ‘tilt effects’ can be imitated well enough to pass quick, first-line checks – especially on identity cards and passport datapages where the attack is aimed at the portrait and personal data.

This is probably not the most attention-grabbing title for an editorial, but for a while I worked at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in London, where part of the lab’s job is supporting standards work through the British Standards Institution (BSI). That experience left me with two impressions about metrology.

Designing next-generation identity documents requires more than layering security features. It requires structured engineering decisions that balance optical security, structural integrity, personalization technologies, and forensic resilience.

In February, the 22nd edition of the High Security Printing™ (HSP) EMEA conference took place in Rabat, Morocco, marking the event’s first appearance on the African continent. Attendance was recorded at 341 delegates representing 146 organisations across 49 countries, with an increased proportion of government agencies and central bank delegations.

The annual Regional Banknote and ID Document of the Year Awards, a highlight of the High Security Printing™ EMEA conference, took place in Rabat, Morocco on 10 February 2026. The event brought together government ministries, national identity authorities and technology providers from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa to recognise outstanding achievements in design, security and technology innovation in identity documents.

This time last year I predicted that 2025 would bring an acquisition wave reshaping the industry, and 2026 is now showing the effect of this.

Electrically controlled reflective films, as presented by Younjung Park and Heeyeon Kim of NANOSILIKHAN Advanced Materials, have taken a class of technologies long known in smart glazing and displays and adapted it specifically for high-security identification documents.

The 22nd annual CLARCIEV (Latin American and Caribbean Council for Civil Registries, Identity and Vital Statistics) conference was held from 1-2 October in San Salvador, marking one of the most well-attended editions in recent years. The event drew delegations from 22 countries and, for the first time, included a parallel exhibition area showcasing technology providers specialising in secure identity systems, biometric enrolment, document personalisation, and data management.

The 2025 edition of Optical & Digital Document Security™ (ODDS), held in Warsaw, Poland (15-17 September), once again confirmed its position as the world’s leading forum for the science and technology of secure documents. The range of technical papers emphasised the strong cross-fertilisation across the sector, which makes innovations in banknote protection equally useful in passports, identity cards, driving licences and civil registrations.