When we are going to make a business card, we usually want it to be attractive and nice-looking. There are many different techniques available when making a business card. So how to choose the suitable one that can better fit our design artwork? Let’s just see some most common ones and how to choose them based on our designs.
1. Glossy/Matt Lamination
Glossy or matt lamination means to add a thin plastic film on the surface of paper. This thin plastic can protect the paper from water and dirty a bit. It can be matt or glossy.
This is usually used for coated paper business card whose paper surface has no pattern itself, to make it shinier and firmer.
When our card design is of colorful pictures or have many colors on it, and we want the printing to be bright and cheap, we can consider this technique for it.
2. Embossing/Debossing/Letterpress
Embossing refers to the technique for creating a raised pattern on the card. While one side is embossed, the other side will be debossed. It is done with a mould.
Letterpress is a printing method. It is a technique of relief printing using a printing press. It can make the card look more professional.
Most people usually mistake debossing and letterpress as the same thing, and some factories might use debossing as letterpress effect. In fact they are totally different ways although their effect is in some extent similar. Debossing is the opposite of embossing which need a mould to be done with, while letterpress is a printing method which is also called Relief Printing, or Typographic Printing. With debossing effect, the words or contents might be misaligned when the mould is not exactly aligned when making or if the words and contents are too much or small, it is very hard to align them well. But with letterpress printing, there will be no such a problem.
So when we want to create a card with the raised effect of our logo or content which is large and plain, and just have content on one side, we can choose the embossing and debossing effect. Some people may want the embossing effect, but do not want the other side to have the debossing effect or they want the other side to have other printing content, actually this is also feasible. We can paste two pieces of paper together to achieve this effect. This is usually done by us during our production.
If our design is of many small words, but with just a few colors, we will suggest to do with the letterpress printing, whose effect will be much better and can make our card look more professional and high end even if the design is plain. Letterpress printing is usually done with high quality cotton paper.
3. Hot Foil Stamping
Hot foil stamping is the application of metallic or pigmented foil on to a solid surface by application of a heated die onto foil. It is a permanent process.
Foils come in a wide selection of colors and finishes, from the most commonly used metallic gold and silver to foils with pearlescent and holographic effects.
When our design of card is of just one color or we want just one of the design color to be shiny, we can consider this making technique for it.
For hot foiling, there are many colors available. The most common one is gold foiling and silver foiling. But actually almost each color or similar color can be foiled, like: red foil stamping; yellow foil stamping; green foil stamping; purple foil stamping; bronze foil stamping etc.
4. UV Coating
UV coating can be applied on spot locations of the paper, called spot UV, or by flooding the page. UV coating application can deepen the color of the printed area. A printed page with UV coating applied can be very shiny or flattened to a matte finish.
When we want part of our card design to be shiny or we want the whole design to be more attractive and de luxe, we can do UV printing for it. The effect of UV printing is usually more
5. Edge Gilding
Edge gilding is to make the cards with a colored edge while not influencing its surface. It is a much more professional way than edge paiting.
Almost each color is available for edge gilding. But the most common ones are gold, silver and black edge gilding. With edge gilding effect, we suggest your card to be of rectangular corner instead of round corner. This is the only request of it and almost every card can be done with edge gilding then.
6. Die Cutting
Die cutting is a way to make the cards into various shapes you need with moulds. This is usually used to make a special shaped card to make it more cute and attractive. It can be any shape as per your design.
These six techniques are the most common ones used for our customers of their business cards, and besides these, some other techniques are available as well, like hologram; laser; hot foil engraving; crystal embossing. Next time we will talk in detail about these.
For all these techniques, actually they are not just suitable for cards, most of them can be used for tags, envelopes, stickers, notebooks, boxes and bags as well. So if you want your printing items to be as attractive and high end as possible, do not hesitate to get in touch with us then to custom your own brand products with these amazing making techniques!
