New 4 Color Raised Ink Printing for Business Cards
Raised ink printing is a high quality printing method used to make business cards for many years. This kind of printing, additionally termed raised thermographic printing, allows the ink on the paper media to extend up on the paper surface so one can feel it on the paper. This raised ink feel is considered to provide a more memorable higher quality feel than a plain flat printed business card.
To create the raised ink a powdered polymer is applied to the printed ink prior to drying the ink. Then when the ink is dried the ink that the powder stuck to dries with a raised feeling of thickness above the flat surface of the paper. Sometimes, it is desired to have only part of the ink raised so some of the ink is dried before the powder is applied. This portion of the ink will stay flat. It is only the portion of the ink that is wet when the powder is applied that will end up having the raised feel.
Lots of times, raised ink printing is kept restricted to a solitary color. Further colors adds to the intricacy of the printing course. If two colors in a design must be printed extremely close each other, this will regularly cause a further handling fee for the tighter registration needed for processing. If a design requires 3 or extra colors it usually causes exorbitant costs from increased intricacy in the printing process.
A basic alternative to aid in giving more color is the use of a colored paper to print on. This must be thought through thoroughly because ink colors will reflect different on different colored backgrounds. Alternatives on colors, strength, plus texture of card media can give a big quantity alternatives for planning out a card design.
An additional design characteristic which adds intricacy and additional expenditure to the raised ink printing process is whether the design entails the ink to extend to the edge of the card. A design that includes ink being printed to the card’s edge is termed to be a full bleed to that card edge. A business card design which uses full bleed causes further handling complications which is regularly handled by further elective charges for each card edge requiring full bleed of the ink.
In the last couple of years there has been the development of a full color option to the raised ink process. Business cards can now be printed with full color plus full bleed on the front of the card and all the ink be raised. For example, you could use a full color photo to cover the front of the design and make it all raised. At this time this is only offered on heavy white glossy paper stock, but it certainly extends the options for thermographic raised ink designs.
This concludes our technical brief on the raised ink printing process. Its time to move on and use your new knowledge and your creativity to produce raised ink business cards that can give your business an outstanding and memorable promotion.