HOT FOILING
An Overview
At Invitation 2 Print we offer both types of Hot Foiling: we have a selection of hot foil machines that can foil anything from a pencil or business card up to an A3 poster
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Hot Foils come in an ever-expanding myriad of colours: from the classic gold and silver through to modern favourites like metallic hot pink and purple. Matt options are available as well as holographic and rainbow.
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Toner Foils do not have quite the same range of options but there are still plenty of colours available.
HOT FOIL STAMPING
aka Hot Foil Blocking/Printing
Hot Foil Stamping uses heat and pressure to permanently apply foil to a material commonly; paper, card, leather, PVC, etc.
Plates or Letterpresses can be used for the design or text. Plates can be made from Magnesium, Brass or Polydiam.
A standard plate will give slight debossing (depression) when used in a hot foil machine. Embossing can also be produced by creating a male-female pair of plates.
Hot Foil Stamping is a more expensive option than Toner Foiling due to the cost of the plates but gives a crisper, more reliable image plus also gives a debossed or embossed finish.
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TONER FOILING
aka Sublimation Foiling
Toner Foiling is a method that uses heat and pressure to apply foil to a laser printed image or text. The heat process re-melts the toner and the foil adheres to this providing you with a flat-foiled image without the need for a plate.
Because we don't need to get plates made for this it is a cheaper option than Hot Foil Stamping although the quality is less and it does not produce as consistent results. This method is also limited by the thickness of paper/card stock that can be used - both from a laser printing perspective and via the foiling machine, so if you want foiling on thicker card (> 350gsm) then stamping is the only option.