I want my printed material to really shine. I want to show customers my business’ value. I want to stand out from the crowd. If you’re asking these questions, then consider printing with metallic inks.
One of the more interesting materials we print with are metallic inks. Gold, silver, and other metallic inks shine and glow on paper. These inks are just like regular printing inks and can be used on the same presses, on the same papers, and for the same costs.
When would you use a metallic ink?
When you’re looking for your printed materials to truly pop and reflect your brand in the best light. Logos, branding, packaging, signs, and labels. Metallic inks can be used for most any purpose.
When you think of gold or silver you think of value, and that is the effect these inks have. A gold ink on paper stands out and gives a look of luxury.
Metallic inks especially look great when used in large areas of color. That way you can really see the shine and reflective properties. One way designers can take advantage of this is not to print text with a metallic ink, but instead to use large areas of a metallic color and knockout the text from it.
These inks are also more opaque then other printing inks. That means they won’t be as affected by the color of a paper. This is great because it allows you to use these inks on dark papers – black, navy, or dark metallic papers to great effect.
Gold, Silver, Bronze. That’s nice and all. But do they match my business?
We use colors like gold and silver to give you an idea what metallic inks are like. It’s easy to imagine these colors and their impact. But it really is just the beginning when it comes to metallic inks.
Pantone makes 300 hundred different metallic colors available to printers. Metallic whites, pinks, blues, and a whole bunch of varying golds, silvers, and other metals. There are plenty of options available to reflect any brand or campaign identity.
What do I need to know about printing with Metallic Inks?
Metallic inks contain actual flakes of metal in them. These flakes are designed to form together as the ink dries and create a layer of shiny metal on the surface of a paper in a process known as leafing.
This process works best on very smooth papers that hold a lot of ink on the surface. This gives the shiniest and most metal like performance. Rougher papers or papers that absorb a lot of ink will work well too, but they won’t have quite the same luster as the smoother sheets.
Its also important to consider that using metallic inks for thin lines or fine point text isn’t a great idea. At thin levels of ink, the effect of metallic shine doesn’t work so well. If you really want to get the most out of the metallic effect think big. Big areas of color, big fonts, and big graphics.
Lastly, we’ve talked about what it means for print to be laser safe on our blog before here. It’s important to know that metallic inks are not laser safe. The heat from a laser printer can peel those leafing metal inks right off the page. And they could end up stock in your printer, which could mean an expensive replacement of rollers or a fuser. Not good.
If you want to give it a try
Sound interesting? If you’d like to learn about adding a metallic ink to your next promotional piece or other printed project than feel free to contact us, or stop on by the shop.
cutpasteandprint Printing, graphic design, binding, and promotional product specialists in Huntingdon Valley, PA. We proudly serve the Bucks and Montgomery County areas with superior quality, great customer service, and a commitment to getting you and your the best possible printed materials. Our services include: Digital Printing, Offset Printing, Graphic Design, Promotional Items, Bindery, and Copying.
estimating@cutpasteandprint.com • 215.364.3898
