- What it is
- One card, usually with a matching envelope, carrying a foil-blocked title and very little else. A brass block is cut to the artwork, heated, and pressed through a carrier film so a metallic or pigment layer releases onto the sheet. No ink is involved. Because the block presses as it releases, the mark is also a shallow deboss, and it is that combination — a bright surface sitting below a matt one — that the eye reads before it reads the words.
- What it is printed on
A heavy uncoated or textured card, because foil needs a sheet with enough body to take the strike and enough surface interest to contrast with it. Cotton takes the deepest bite and is the most forgiving of a heavy block. Linen board gives a woven ground that makes the foil look brighter than it is. Matt art card is the flattest and the most predictable, and it is the one to choose when the design also carries process colour.
- Cotton soft white, 450 gsm0.66 mmCompressible enough to take a deep strike without cracking at the shoulder.
- Linen board, 350 gsm0.47 mmA woven ground that lifts the foil — but keep the block off the deepest part of the weave.
- Matt art card, 400 gsm0.41 mmThe flat, predictable option, and the one to choose when process colour shares the sheet.
- How it feels
- Dense and quiet in the hand. The foil is cool and slick against a matt, dry ground, and the deboss is deep enough to find with a thumbnail without looking. A struck card lands on a table with a dull knock rather than a click — that sound is most of the reason this format is chosen for a first impression.
- What it suits
- Launch invitations, private-view cards, wedding and corporate stationery, and any short run where the recipient is meant to keep the card rather than read it and file it. It does not suit fine hairlines or type below about eight points, and it does not suit a design that needs the foil to sit over a heavily inked area — the block will not key reliably onto a dry solid.
- Lead time
- Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days. A cutting forme, a foil block, an embossing die or a screen made for the first time is made before anything can run; a tool already held is not.
- The common mistake
- Placing foil inside 3 mm of the trim. Registration tolerance across a run is about half a millimetre, so a hit that close reads as correct on some cards and cut off on others — and because the block is already cut, fixing it means cutting another one. Hold the foil back from the edge, and hold it off the deepest part of a heavy texture, where the block reaches the peaks of the weave and skips the valleys.
Print idea
Foil-blocked invitation
A single heavy card struck with a heated brass block, so the mark is a mirror set slightly below the surface of the sheet. It reads by reflection and by touch rather than by colour.
Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
What foil-blocked invitation is
One card, usually with a matching envelope, carrying a foil-blocked title and very little else. A brass block is cut to the artwork, heated, and pressed through a carrier film so a metallic or pigment layer releases onto the sheet. No ink is involved. Because the block presses as it releases, the mark is also a shallow deboss, and it is that combination — a bright surface sitting below a matt one — that the eye reads before it reads the words.
A heavy uncoated or textured card, because foil needs a sheet with enough body to take the strike and enough surface interest to contrast with it. Cotton takes the deepest bite and is the most forgiving of a heavy block. Linen board gives a woven ground that makes the foil look brighter than it is. Matt art card is the flattest and the most predictable, and it is the one to choose when the design also carries process colour.
- The trim — where the guillotine falls.
- The keep-out, drawn inside the trim. Nothing struck may cross it.
- The strike, drawn shallow and lit from one side.
The specification
Six fields, and the last one is the useful one.
The same six questions are answered for every entry in this section, in the same order, so two objects can be compared without reading two pages of prose. The mistake is stated last and stated plainly, because it is the one that costs a reprint and it is the reason this page is worth sending to a colleague.
Where this sits.
Every entry is indexed three ways, because a buyer arrives knowing the occasion, the object or the material and almost never all three.
- Application
- Format
- Material and effect
Also worth looking at
- Foil blocking on kraft and dark boardStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Blind emboss and debossStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Letterpress cardStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Combined finishes on one cardStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Name cardsThe specification, and how it is quoted
- InvitationsThe specification, and how it is quoted
- CertificatesThe specification, and how it is quoted
- Every print idea, indexed three waysThe section index
- The materials libraryCaliper, weight and what each finish costs
Send the specification for this, and it comes back quoted.
Every job is quoted from its specification — stock, quantity, sides, finish, size and deadline.
- Quantity
- Stock — or the feel you want, if you do not know the stock
- Sides printed
- Finish
- Flat and finished size
- The deadline
Artwork is welcome but not required to start. Email sales@ezprint.com.sg if you would rather attach files.