In the past three NIP conferences, we have presented novel techniques for embedding security information into the variable data printing (VDP) for labels, documents and packaging. Recently, we have discovered that fundamental assumptions in other fields—error correcting code (ECC), classification and the use of color, for three examples—are not necessarily valid when functional security is the goal of the printing. It will be shown herein that the assumptions behind default ECC do not hold for 2D or color 2D barcodes with mobile image capture. Alternatives to ECC are suggested. When security-related tasks are the end goals of the printing and imaging, the deployment optimization for image classification is fundamentally altered. Tuning the classification engine to the security aim, rather than the image features as in traditional classification, provides significant improvement in both image throughput and classification accuracy for security-related tasks—such as inspection, authentication and forensic imaging. It will, finally, be shown that there are significant new security approaches either only possible or else greatly enhanced by the printing of color, rather than grayscale or binary, images. These broad results indicate that applied research in security printing requires new basic research in the related image processing fields.