Remember, the printing style used on your wedding invitations lends just as much beauty and character as the design and colors you’ll choose. There are several types of printing processes used across the wedding invitation industry today. We’re happy to explain the printing processes we’ve chosen for wedding invitations and other fine stationery created here at Invitations by Dawn.
THERMOGRAPHY PRINTING
The Process: A form of resin is sprinkled on a printed invitation sheet while the ink is still wet. The invitation is then exposed to heat, which causes the resin and ink to fuse together. The fusion of resin and ink raises the lettering above the invitation’s surface.
The Result: The invitation’s design and wording is slightly raised above the paper’s surface, which resembles a much more expensive printing process called engraving. Also, thermography ink features a bit of shimmer, which lends a sparkling quality to thermography designs.
The Benefits: Thermography produces beautiful raised printing while remaining very affordable. Thermography wedding invitations preserve the traditional look and feel of engraving without the high price tag.
DIGITAL PRINTING
The Process: Digital printing technology uses high-resolution, digital color to print elaborate designs and images with excellent quality.
The Result: Digital wedding invitations feature brilliant, long-lasting colors and the designs can be incredibly detailed.
The Benefits: Since digital printing is a faster process, customers are able to get the designs they want in the quantity they want within a short timeframe.
FOIL PRINTING
The Process: A die of your invitation design and wording is created and pressed against foil. Heat and pressure are then applied to transfer the foiled design and/or wording onto the invitation paper.
The Result: A smooth method of printing which lays flat on the paper’s surface. Foil wedding invitations are stunning due to the bold qualities of metallic and matte foils.
The Benefits: A truly eye-catching look guests will never forget! Foil stamping can be combined with digital printing as well, which allows for colorful wedding invitation designs with shimmering foil accents.
LETTERPRESS PRINTING
The Process: Letterpress wedding invitations begin as digital designs, which are sent to film as a negative and then exposed to a polymer plate (the modern-day “metal” plate). The plate is then pressed to individual sheets of paper.
The Result: A heavily impressed image on thick paper leaves the design and wording crisp and sharp in appearance. This is the highest quality of printing available at Invitations by Dawn.
The Benefits: The letterpress method of printing is centuries old. Printers of fine stationery continue to use this method due to its distinct beauty and character. Letterpress wedding invitations reflect both style and tradition.
My sister is getting married soon and she wants me to help her pick a printing company to help with the wedding invitations and I don’t know much about options so I am glad that I found this article. it is interesting that there are so many options for printing from foil to letterpress. My sister wants the style of her wedding to have a very classic feel so I like that digital printing gives long-lasting colors and classic designs that can be extremely detailed because she will love that. Also, the fact that digital printing is a fast process is great because then I can get a few and see if I like them before printing all of them.