To ensure the success of a project we recommend you communicate with us at design stage. By discussing your layouts you can avoid production pitfalls later as foil stamping and embossing use different techniques than conventional printing.

Typesetting

In general larger text sizes work better than smaller text sizes.

"Fill in" occurs when the foil bridges the gap between the open areas of a character or between two characters, which affects the legibility of the text and the overall appearance.

Typefaces generally appear bolder when foiled so don't track or kern too tighly.

Solids and fine lines

If you are designing large solid areas of foil as well as fine detail in the same piece, this will entail two passes on the press. For a quality result of areas designed with intricate detail be sure the space between the lines in the design is no less than half the thickness of the stock you are using.

Foils and laser printers

Although many foils have a wide temperature range, not all foil can be successfully run through a laser printer.

Depending on both the operating temperature of the printers fuser roller and the foils temperature tolerances, consideration must be given when producing foil stamped materials intended for laser imprinting.

As well use caution if selecting dry, textured, parchment and recycled stocks because the low adherence properties of many of these stocks can cause the foil to release, crack, peel or dull under the heat extremes of a laser printer.

If in doubt ask Intafoil to foil a sample of your stock to act as a test sheet for your printer.

Registration

If the design calls for tight registration of foil to print, foil to foil, or UV coatings and varnishes, please consult with Intafoil for production specifications.

Unlike offset printing, foils with tight registration are kiss fit or butted to the image, so do not use trapping techniques on artwork next to or inclusive of foils.

Stock and foil colour

Because many pigment, pastel tint and pearl foils are translucent, their colour can be altered dramatically by the colour of the underlying stock.

Recycled stock

Due to high compression levels of recycled fibre, stamping large areas requires significantly more tonnage, or pressure, applied by the press compared to virgin fibre stock.Because of this, often a foil will not appear as glossy, and fine lettering or detail presents a greater challenge to compression inconsistencies.

Dark coloured stock

As opacity levels vary with different foil pigments, resulting colours and contrast may not be acceptable when applied to dark stocks. This is true with not only pastel and light foils but with high gloss pigments as well. Check with Intafoil to achieve best results.