A Guide to Popular Printing Techniques
In college in Waterford, Ireland, one of our class projects was called “Techniques.” The brief was to become familiar with every printing technique we could and show them through physical pieces. It was a fun project. However, when you leave school, you don’t always get the chance to work with these really amazing printing techniques or even figure them into your budget, but what I will talk about in this guide are popular and affordable. Consider them in your next print project!
Author: Ciara Panacchia
Note: I will be using a few print design terminologies here, and if you’re unfamiliar with some of these terms, you can get up to speed by reading my guide on preparing your work for print.
Embossing/Debossing
Embossing and dembossing are similar processes that create a different result. Both processes involve making a metal plate and a counter. The plate is mounted on a press and the paper is stamped between the plate and counter. This force of pressure pushes the stock into the plate, creating the impression.
Embossing produces a raised impression on your paper stock, while debossing creates a depressed impression.
Things to remember when designing for a piece that includes embossing/debossing:
- Be aware that embossing is a mechanical process that manipulates the paper stock, so by default, it will also manipulate your design.
- Set your type with more space between letters than usual. If you put them too close to one another, they can merge and become one element once the embossing has been done. Embossing makes design elements look smaller and reduces the sharpness of smaller items.
There are two ways you can emboss your work at home: dry embossing and heat embossing.
Dry embossing, also called relief embossing, is done by tracing a stencil with some paper over it with a special tool called a stylus to get the raised effect on it.
Heat embossing, also referred to as stamp and heat embossing, is done by stamping an image on a piece of paper, sprinkling powder over the stamped image, and then applying heat.
From Amanda Woodward found on Flickr.
Silk Lamination/Lamination
Silk lamination provides a soft, silk-like finish, is water-resistant and tear-resistant, and complements vibrant colors. Pieces are traditionally printed in full-color, like any regular business card, however one additional step is taken to get their unique texture — the cardstock is coated with a durable, weather-resistant, silk laminate
finish.
Lamination can be a liquid that dries to a tough gloss or dull surface, or it can be a film. Both adhere to the surface to protect it and give it a sheen or a muted effect. The effect could be glossy, dull, or even satin (a look that’s in between glossy and dull).
Varnish
A varnish is a liquid coating applied to a printed surface to add a clear glossy, matte, satin, or neutral finish. Here are the types of varnishes:
| Varnish Type | Description |
| Gloss Varnishing | A gloss varnish gives the printed surface a glossy, sheen look. |
| Matte Varnishing | A matte varnish gives the printed surface a non-glossy, smooth look. |
| Silk or Satin Varnishing | A satin varnish gives the printed surface a neither a high gloss or matte, but the middle ground. |
| UV Varnishing | Ultraviolet (UV) varnishing is a process for achieving an even more striking type of coating on your printed material. |
| All-over UV varnish | Simply put, this is a UV seal applied all over the printed surface. |
| Spot UV Varnish | A spot varnish is applied to chosen spots (areas) of a printed piece. This has the affect of highlighting and drawing attention to that part of the design. |
Foil
To get the gold /silver stamp, a foil layer is affixed to a certain material by a heating process. It isn’t too complicated of a process and getting the files ready are quite similar to uv-spot printing. See my guide on preparing files for print as a reference and talk with your printer about how to supply the files. Foil printing normally requires vector images and/or outlined fonts of what you want to have stamped.
Thermography
Thermography produces raised printing similar in appearance to engraving, but using a different process for attaining the effect.
In thermography, a special powder is added to the ink that is to be printed on the paper. The printed piece is heated, causing the powder and ink mixture to dry, which in turn results in a raised effect on the paper.
From Demetrio Mancini
Die Cut
Die cut involves cutting irregular shapes in paper or paperboard using a die. A die can be used in printing for cutting, scoring, stamping, embossing and debossing. Dies are normally custom pieces, but your printer will usually have some standard dies (such as for rounded corners) available if you don’t need a custom template; check with your printer to see what they have — it may help reduce the cost of printing a special piece.
Letterpress
Letterpress is the oldest printing process. In this method, a surface with raised letters is inked and pressed to the surface of the printing substrate to reproduce an image in reverse.
Typically, metal type has been used, but other possibilities include carved wood or stone blocks. Most popularly used on wedding invitations, this process can also be used to create unique business cards as well as other custom printed products.
From iglooletterpress.com
Silk Screening
Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that allows ink to transfer onto the material. A roller or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing or pumping ink past the threads of the woven mesh in the open areas.
From PataPri
From PataPri
From PataPri
Printing Technique Summary Table
Here are the 8 printing techniques mentioned in this guide.
| Printing Technique | Description |
| Embossing/Debossing | Embossing creates a raised impression on stock, debossing creates a depressed impression on stock. |
| Silk Lamination/Lamination | Silk lamination provides a soft, silk-like finish, is water-resistant, is tear-resistant, and complements vibrant colors. The effect could be glossy, dull, or satin. |
| Varnish | A varnish is a liquid coating applied to a printed surface to add a clear glossy, matte, satin, or neutral finish. |
| Foil | A foil layer is affixed to a certain material by a heating process. |
| Thermography | Thermography produces raised printing similar in appearance to engraving. |
| Die Cut | Die cut involves cutting irregular shapes in paper or paperboard using a die. |
| Letterpress | A surface with raised letters is inked and pressed to the surface of the printing substrate to reproduce an image in reverse. |
| Silk Screening | A printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that allows ink to transfer onto the material. |
27 Comments (Add yours)
Dainis Graveris
Jul 27 2010
Hm.. Interesting printing techniques. I haven`t know about these tips, when I will make my own business card, I will know which technique to use :)
william karles
Jul 27 2010
Nice post… I like the information. Very well written and easy to read. The card examples are sick. I checked out more cards by that studio. Sick stuff – nice find author.
Callum Chapman
Jul 27 2010
Contributor
Mmm, beautiful printing techniques. #nomnom. Haha! Great little guide.
Nick
Jul 27 2010
Its nice to be reminded of the possibilities there are.
Thanks for the article.
Simona
Jul 28 2010
Contributor
This is a great article, thanks for sharing Ciara. I love Letterpress. Check out The Mandate Press @ http://themandatepress.com/. They do some really cool stuff.
ciara
Jul 28 2010
Contributor
very cool stuff thanks for sharing the link
Eric Vasquez
Jul 28 2010
Contributor
I also enjoyed this article very much. It’s always cool to explore the possibilities with print and finishes. Some of these techniques are really cool but I have never been able to find a good printer who can actually produce any of these. Does anybody know of any printers that can do stuff like this without breaking the bank?
ciara
Jul 28 2010
Contributor
Glad you liked it eric I can’t say who to go to in NY but I have often used jakprints.com for digital runs but I highly recommend http://www.yorkeprinte.com/ in IL for the special stuff they do alot of work with AIGA in Chicago. This is a recent piece of theirs http://news.mohawkpaper.com/?p=4186 but you can see more of their stuff linked from their twitter. Hope you get to use some of the techniques.
Kim Phillips | Lucid Marketing
Aug 03 2010
Nashville is a printing hub and you can get outstanding work there at a reasonable price. I represent one; comment here if you’re interested.
Ted Thompson
Jul 28 2010
Great article. Very useful, learnt a lot! Thanks for sharing.
le
Jul 29 2010
This is exactly what i learned from working at the printers! great article! :)
Creative Entrepreneur
Jul 30 2010
Awesome post and roundup. Thanks!
Kim Phillips | Lucid Marketing
Aug 03 2010
This line-up leaves out offset printing and digital printing, the two most common ways of printing. The descriptions are fairly general and don’t hint at how very expensive these techniques can be. Designers often get all excited about the WOW! COOL! factor, but is it in the client’s budget?
ciara
Aug 04 2010
Contributor
Hi Kim,
As I mentioned in my intro “you don’t always get the chance to work with these really amazing printing techniques or even figure them into your budget”, by far the most popular, well-known and widely used printing is offset and digital, I probably do 95% digital printing but there is aleast one or two clients who DO have it in the printing budget to do something different. I think that printing is a discussion that generally starts in the concepting stage to see what you can rule in and rule out of your design. I am not saying that these techniques don’t come with a price tag but by the examples above there is a market for it and people are willing to pay for it. I just received a direct mail from Sprint digitally printed but that has a pretty cool die-cut. This article was merely a guide to other printing techniques that are often overlooked normally due to tight budgets, but it is still nice to know what is available and out there after all who doesn’t like options.
Heidi
Aug 04 2010
I would love to see Photoshop tutorials on all these so I can incorporate them into web design! :)
ciara
Aug 05 2010
Contributor
that is defiantly something I will look into ;)
jared thompson
Aug 04 2010
Brilliant guide for the novices out there, a great article for reference.
shilpa sharma
Aug 11 2010
Best link I have come across on printing techniques. Thanks for sharing the knowledge!!
kieran
Aug 16 2010
A great guide, thanks for the advice, I wonder the addition on price for each different technique.
ciara
Aug 16 2010
Contributor
Hi Kieran,
That would all depend on quantity I believe, but I welcome any printer interested in posting a price or a url to a basic price list.
Welgevormd
Aug 16 2010
Great post about some nice print techniques! This is definitely going to give me some inspiration :)
Krishna
Aug 16 2010
one to bookmark!..thanks! :)
Lily Reiche
Aug 20 2010
Fantastic post – thanks so much! Well written and easy to follow with great pics. Much appreciated.
Al Tucker
Aug 22 2010
Great Post Ciara! I’ll definitely be using this with my Graphic Arts class this coming school year!
ciara
Aug 23 2010
Contributor
glad you liked it
A Different Designer
Aug 23 2010
Great article – so glad I found your site.
Vincent Hadi Wijaya
Aug 30 2010
Well written. At least, I know what technique will be used for my bizcard later. :D
Thanks for sharing.