Friday, August 8, 2008

New 4 Color Raised Ink Printing for Business Cards

By Bcard Man


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.

Most of the time raised ink printing is kept confined to main single color. Extra colors adds to the difficulty of the printing procedure. If two or additional colors in a design need to be printed quite close to together, then there is frequently another handling charge because the printing requires tighter registration than usual. Printing designs of 3 or additional colors has been a rarity due to the increased difficulty and costs it causes in the printing process.

One of the main options to help with a desire for additional color is the use of a colored paper stock. This must be considered carefully as ink colors will show up differently on different colored backgrounds. Options on colors, weight, and texture of paper stock can offer a very large variety of options for a business card design.

One more choice which could contribute difficulty and also to the price of the raised ink printing procedure is whether it is required for the ink to be printed to the card edge. If the design involves the ink to be printed to the end of the card it is designated as a full bleed to that card end. A full bleed requirement causes extra handling complication inside the procedure which is frequently addressed by optional charges for each card edge the printing ink must advance to.

Recently there has been a new improved full color process developed for raised ink. Business cards can be printed on the front side through a photo like color process, plus have all the edges printed to full bleed, and have all printing raised. As an instance, you can print the front of the card full bleed as color picture and have it all raised. At this instance this is only printed on glossy bright white paper. This new process extends the choices for thermographic raised ink ideas.

This should provide you a brief study of the raised ink printing procedure. So with this information you should be ready to proceed to use your creativity and make raised ink business cards that brand your business image for success.

About the Author:

No comments: