Patent ID: 7357077

Claim:
A method for producing a data carrier having a security element comprising the following steps: a) providing a data carrier material, b) producing an intaglio printing plate while engraving a three-dimensional relief into the plate surface, the three-dimensional engraved relief having a continuous engraving depth pattern, and c) blind-embossing the data carrier material with the intaglio plate produced in step b) such that a halftone blind embossing is produced that represents a stereoscopic image of a three-dimensional original, the halftone embossing having a plurality of different embossing heights or depths that run smoothly into each other; wherein the halftone blind embossing is in the form of alphanumeric characters, graphic elements or halftone images; wherein after step a) a background print not executed by intaglio printing is applied to the data carrier material and in step c) the blind embossing is applied completely in the area of the background print; wherein at least one ink carrying engraved area is executed by the intaglio printing plate on the data carrier material so as to have a central area with high coverage and an inner and/or outer area with lower coverage, and the area with high coverage is disposed over the edge of the background print.