Is there anything more exciting than landing a new project where you can experiment with foil techniques to your heart’s content? As a graphic designer, leafing through a book full of hot foil samples is a bit like a child being let loose in a sweet shop. In addition to the popular gold and silver foils, there are countless other foil colours on the market, which makes choosing them all the more fun. However, foil printing is a traditional printing technique. And that brings with it a whole host of opportunities and limitations. But with the necessary knowledge, you can achieve great results as a graphic designer. A healthy dose of daring and experimentation is therefore very close to our hearts.
Technical knowledge can make or break your design. Your creativity combined with our technical know-how is therefore a match made in heaven. Did you know, for example, that you can print foil and embossing in a single pass, so that your foil is razor sharp on the 3D embossing? Or that you can apply microstructures to foil printing? Below are a few lessons you won’t want to miss!
Sign up for our Buroform Academy on Thursday 13 June 2024 or drop by for a breakfast session with Paul Hermans (autumn 2024, stay tuned for news and updates).
Gold foil or other special printing techniques can be indicated with a spot colour.
Ensure that the minimum thickness of an image in foil printing is at least 0.12 mm. A line that is too fine may be lost during the etching of the printing plate and will therefore not be visible – or barely visible – in the final print of your card.
Foil printing and embossing combined in a single printing pass is a luxury finish that really completes your printed matter. The big advantage is that the foil and embossing are in exactly the same place, ensuring a razor-sharp print result. This printing technique requires a magnesium cliché as standard and a minimum line thickness of 0.5 mm for paper lighter than 120 grams and 0.8 mm for paper heavier than 150 grams. Does your design contain finer lines? Then we recommend that you have a brass cliché made. Please note that the investment for a brass cliché is higher than for magnesium and may require us to revise your quotation. Be sure to ask your order manager for advice if you have any doubts.
Would you like to add a shiny layer of foil to your cards, and will that foil cover a printed design? In most cases, it is advisable to set the specific parts that will be covered by foil to “overprint”. This means that the design underneath the foil will continue to show through. If you do not enable overprinting, the design underneath the foil parts will be cut out, which can cause unwanted edges if the foil deviates slightly from its position. You can enable and disable overprinting via Window -> Output -> Attributes in Adobe InDesign or Adobe Illustrator.
Foil printing is not only popular on cards; we are also happy to give your posters, brochures or magazines a luxurious finish.
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As a leading printing company in Mechelen, Buroform strives to provide innovative and high-quality printing solutions, not only here but throughout Flanders, Wallonia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and even further afield. Would you like to stay up to date with the latest trends and techniques in the printing world? Then subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media. Stay connected for more updates and inspiration to make your printing projects stand out.
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