Raised ink printing for business cards have been a popular standard high quality method of printing offered for over 50 years. This type of printing, also called raised thermographic printing, allows the ink on the paper to rise up and harden so one can feel it sticking up on the paper. This raised ink feeling is thought to give a memorable higher quality feeling to what would normally be a flat printed surface.



To create the raised ink a powdered polymer is applied to the printed ink prior to drying the ink. Then when the ink is dried the ink that the powder stuck to dries with a raised feeling of thickness above the flat surface of the paper. Sometimes, it is desired to have only part of the ink raised so some of the ink is dried before the powder is applied. This portion of the ink will stay flat. It is only the portion of the ink that is wet when the powder is applied that will end up having the raised feel.

Lots of times, raised ink printing is kept restricted to a solitary color. Further colors adds to the intricacy of the printing course. If two colors in a design must be printed extremely close each other, this will regularly cause a further handling fee for the tighter registration needed for processing. If a design requires 3 or extra colors it usually causes exorbitant costs from increased intricacy in the printing process.

A basic alternative to aid in giving more color is the use of a colored paper to print on. This must be thought through thoroughly because ink colors will reflect different on different colored backgrounds. Alternatives on colors, strength, plus texture of card media can give a big quantity alternatives for planning out a card design.

One more choice which could contribute difficulty and also to the price of the raised ink printing procedure is whether it is required for the ink to be printed to the card edge. If the design involves the ink to be printed to the end of the card it is designated as a full bleed to that card end. A full bleed requirement causes extra handling complication inside the procedure which is frequently addressed by optional charges for each card edge the printing ink must advance to.

In recent years there has been the evolution of a 4 color choice to the raised ink procedure. Cards can now be printed full bleed on all edges, through a full 4 color printing process and have the whole printing raised. As a case in point, you might fill the front of the card with a color photograph and have it all raised. For now this process is only available on heavy weight bright white glossy paper media. It definitely extends the alternatives offered for thermographic raised ink prints.

This should provide you a brief study of the raised ink printing procedure. So with this information you should be ready to proceed to use your creativity and make raised ink business cards that brand your business image for success.