#LETTERPRESS PRINTING HOW TO#

Engraving printing method is the best way to print bright colors on dark stock.

Also, there is a limited range of foil colors. Foiling is a nice printing technique that can be debossed or embossed, but this printing method is not perfectly clean, so if you want to print very tiny objects this printing method is not recommended.

With foiling printing technology possible to print bright color objects on dark stock.

With silkscreen printing technology possible to print bright color objects on dark stock.

Please note, that metallic ink printed on matte paper looks totally mate, not shiny.

Letterpress inks are transparent, that is why on dark color paper it is possible to print only with metallic ink, for example, gold, silver, and copper.

#LETTERPRESS PRINTING HOW TO#

So there are a few ways how to print bright color objects on dark stock. If you want a bright object to print on dark paper, and you plan to do that in a qualitative way, we always recommend to choose color paper – then business cards edges after cutting will be the same color as the cards faces, and also you will not need to worry about surface ink density. Yes, it is possible to print with digital or silkscreen printing method, flooding white paper with black ink, but this way printed cards will be totally flat, also the edge of such black cards will be white, and will look quite bizarre.

The most unfortunate combination is black paper and white debossed objects. This topic is probably the biggest challenge for many designers and printers while coordinating this type of print works. White ink on dark paper White objects on dark papers can be printed with foil, silkscreen and engraving printing techniques. The best printing technique for this job is silkscreen printing, it is just a perfect printing method for flood printing. Even offset and digital printing not always evenly cover paper large solid with ink. Some people like it, but we do not use this technique for big flooded areas printing. The paper tends to show throw large solids, creating a slightly textured look that’s almost suede-like. Letterpress is definitely not the best technology for that. It is quite complicated to print qualitatively a big flooded area. Coating of large solid areas For nice and even ink covering of large solid areas we always recommend to use silkscreen technique. (Please check table at the end of the topic). Digital printing is a quick and inexpensive method, but if compared to analog printing techniques, it is not so exceptional and has some technical disadvantages. Both technologies can achieve good results. Digital printing method can be based on laser or inkjet technology. For large print run you should plan offset printing, but if you want to print a small bunch of business cards then offset will be too expensive. If your logo is designed with a few colors that have tones, shadows, or you want to print a photo on your business card, then you have to use digital printing method. Midtones and gradients Photos, mid tones and gradient best reproduces digital printing technology.

In this article we will advise what printing methods to choose that your final print work would look really good, especially printing a small print run.

Therefore, it is very important that while designing business cards, invitations, postcards, packaging or posters the designer from the very beginning would think about how this work will be produced, that final product will look exactly the same like designer imagines – what paper will be used, what kind of printing techniques will be chosen, do printing and finishing techniques will not conflict with each other, etc. But will the final printed product always meet fulfillment and price requirements? Sometimes it turns out that creating a beautiful image on a computer monitor is often much easier than producing the real printed product. Print designers have limitless imagination, and nowadays printing techniques can produce all ideas in reality.

Letterpress printing