Adding that Special Touch - Hot Foil Stamping for your Wedding Invitations.

Foil Stamping or Foil Printing 

It goes by lots of different names, and there are a few different ways of achieving hot foil stamping on your wedding invitations.

What foil stamping actually is

Hot foil stamping is essentially letterpress printing using foil instead of ink. The same process, a plate pressed into the paper with significant pressure, except instead of translucent ink the plate is heated and uses opaque, or sometimes translucent, foil to transfer design. The result is a finish that catches the light in a way that ink simply doesn't.

There is another process sometimes called foil printing where toner is printed on the paper and heat is used to fuse the foil to the toner. We don't use this process and prefer the look and feel of hot foil stamping. The difference shows in the finished piece.

Foil brings an elegance and elevated quality that works with almost all designs that can be letterpress printed. If it works as a vector file it will work as a foil job.

Hot foil stamping versus letterpress ink

Foil is opaque, reflective, and it catches the light from across the room. Letterpress ink comes in many colors and is just as beautiful but relies on depth and richness rather than reflection. One doesn't out perform the other. They both have their reasons to shine.

Copper vs magnesium plates

We use both depending on the job.

Magnesium is less expensive and faster to make. It handles most foil work beautifully and is the right choice for the majority of jobs.

Copper is more expensive but holds finer detail and is recommended when working on cotton or heavily textured paper.

Brass? We'll save that for extra credit.

File setup for foil

Foil uses the same basic file requirements as letterpress, vector artwork, outlined text and proper bleeds. One important detail is foil plates can hold finer detail than polymer letterpress plates. Minimum line weight for foil is 0.25pt versus 0.35pt for letterpress.

For the full file specifications our {Artist File Guide} has everything you need before you send. And if you're new to setting up files to print our post on {Raster vs Vector} is a good place to start.

When to chose hot foil stamping for your wedding invitations

It all comes down to the look and feel that you are going for. Both foil and letterpress ink can create beautiful pieces, there is no wrong answer.

Foil makes sense when someone wants metallic details, when names need to stand out in silver or gold on their wedding invitations, or when a client comes in already knowing they want an all gold, copper, or silver suite that fits their wedding vision. Sometimes no suggestion is needed at all.

One place foil genuinely outperforms letterpress ink is on darker paper stock. We print a lot of gold and white on black, as well as copper and silver, and the contrast is striking. Because foil is opaque by nature it reads clearly and beautifully against dark backgrounds and reflects in light in a way translucent ink never quite achieves.

If you are considering foil for your suite or your next project, please reach out. We are happy to talk through what will work best for what you have in mind.

Tom- Lolli P