We pride ourselves on finding new ways for businesses to print products efficiently. For example, we have combined separate functions of cutting and creasing into single systems known as slitters cutters creasers, which can be used for producing such documents as:
- Menus
- Business cards
- Greeting cards
- Vouchers
- Invitations
However, it remains important to pay attention to not only how you print but also what the finished product you eventually end up with. After all, your efforts can ultimately count for little if you fail to attract customers to your brand for the long haul.
This gets to the heart of why you should be looking for ways to give your marketing output that extra visual flourish capable of piquing customer attention just long enough for you to reliably sustain it. One key piece of the puzzle here could be investing in embellished prints.
What is print embellishment?
The term ‘print embellishment’ refers to a printing process where texture and pattern are added to an object’s surface. Essentially, if you have ever run your fingers over a print and felt a convex or concave finish on it, you have handled an embellished print.
Embellishing a print is not as complex or daunting a procedure as you might have initially assumed, as it can all be done digitally with the right technology.
Still, exactly how you embellish a print digitally will depend on the specific form of this technology you use for the job. Some machines can add embellishments ‘in-line’; that is, during the printing itself. The alternative is to embellish ‘offline’, meaning after the printing part of the equation.
Embellishment finishes and how to apply them
There are many different types of embellishment for you to choose from.
What kind of embellishment you do opt for will have implications for what machinery you need to source in order to initiate the embellishing digitally. Here are several examples of aesthetic effects you could consider — and, for each one, how you would be able to implement it.
Foiling
Metallic finishes like gold and silver doubtlessly convey a prestige image — especially as you can often see light reflecting off them from a fair distance away.
You have likely seen such shiny highlights adorning labels of wine bottles and other consumer items that typically espouse luxury. Adding these touches to two-dimensional prints is called foiling. The other colours in which you can foil include:
- Rose gold
- Red
- Blue
- Green
Traditionally, foiling has been carried out through means of hot or cold stamping — involving the use of, respectively, heat or glue to put the foil into place. However, innovations in digital embellishment have made it possible for businesses to foil while forgoing either stamping technique.
Again, foiling can be done in-line or offline. However, though the latter route has tended to be taken more often, you can pick up a Duplo DuSense with it’s digital foil printing unit that would enable you to deposit metallic colours in the same run as the printing ink — all without any lamination being required.
Die-cutting
The Collins Online Dictionary defines die-cutting as “the cutting by machine of paper or card into shapes with sharp steel knives, such as in the manufacture of cardboard boxes”.
We offer digital cutting tables and die-cutting machines with which you could cost-effectively cut shapes to create any of the following:
- Greeting and business cards
- Small packaging
- Labels
- Stickers
- Tags
- invitations
Through die-cutting, you can produce a wide array of promotional supplies in unorthodox shapes and, as a result, more easily leave a lasting positive impression on members of your target audience.
Nonetheless, exactly what die-cutting method you utilise can make a meaningful difference. The conventional approach entails pressing die plates into the substrate. While this would still give you a large amount of say over the design, you can cut out more precisely by using a digital die cut printing machine.
This is because the unit would use a dynamic blade — rather than dies and plates — to do the cutting, allowing you to save a lot of time and money.
Embossing and debossing
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary explains that the adjective ‘embossed’ means “ornamented with or having the form of a raised pattern, design, image, etc.” — citing the example of “an embossed envelope”.
To emboss a surface, you would press a pattern or design onto it — as is possible with, for example, business cards and invitations.
Embossing is another technique that, depending on the technology used for it, can be undertaken at the same time as printing. The many functionalities of Duplo-branded DuSense digital embellishment machines include embossed printing as standard.
This will be heartening for many businesses — as, until recently, it was not practically possible for many of them to financially afford printers capable of digital embossing.
As you can probably already imagine, deboss printing is the reverse of the embossing equivalent — in the sense that, with the former, the design is depressed into a substrate to form a concave impression.
Spot UV coating
You may or may not have heard of ‘sensory marketing’ — so-called as it is intended to court customers by appealing to each of the following five senses:
- Sight
- Touch
- Hearing
- Taste
- Smell
The first two have obvious relevance when it comes to print marketing. Indeed, it has been found that, when people can both see and touch something, they value it 24% more highly than an alternative they are only able to see.
For this reason, you shouldn’t underestimate the promotional power of spot UV printing. This, too, is functionality we have made readily available under our Duplo DuSense brand.
The process of spot UV coating itself involves printing clear spot UV varnish on a flat sheet, resulting in a unique embossing effect. It enables the surface to mimic such familiar textures as those of:
- Water
- Leather
- Footballs
- Beaches
Given how selective you can be about where the varnish is applied, you can even go as far as, say, making a business card feel as though streaks and drops of paint have dried on its surface.
Learn more about print embellishment possibilities
In this article, we have aimed to provide you with inspiration for how you could strengthen your organisation’s image through clever, creative use of print embellishment techniques.
On our website, you can scroll through a lengthy gallery of images showing what can be achieved with printers available for businesses to order from Duplo.
If you have any remaining questions about how to leverage this technology for artistic — and, as a result, promotional — benefit, please get in touch with the Duplo International team by filling in and submitting this contact form.
