What is cold foil printing and what is the process?
Cold foil is a metallic film with a removable polyester liner that is applied to the press sheet inline on press. The cold foil unit is attached above the second printing unit on the press and the roll of foil runs from an unwind roller, through the printing unit between the blanket and impression cylinder and back out the press to a take-up roller. An adhesive is printed in the first unit using the traditional litho method, much like a varnish. The adhesive pulls the metallic foil off the polyester liner in the second unit adhering it to the press sheet. The foil can be overprinted in the subsequent printing units to achieve a full spectrum of metallic colors. As complicated as it may seem, the end result is astonishing, impressive and we do it all right here at DVC.
How does it compare to hot foil stamping?
Hot foil has a limited color palette and most foils are solid colors. Hot foil stamping is typically done on top of printing to produce a solid opaque metallic or pigment color. Hot foil is also done offline in a second pass adding to the turnaround time.
Cold foil is applied before printing and can be immediately overprinted inline. This allows you to alter the color using the entire CMYK color gamut.
Cold foil is applied to the press sheet using adhesive while hot foil uses heat and pressure to bond the foil material to the paper. Cold foil also uses a printing plate for the adhesive, while hot foil uses metal dies to create the foil area. How do we know all this? Because cold foil is a DVC hallmark.
Cold foil is a metallic film with a removable polyester liner that is applied to the press sheet inline on press. The cold foil unit is attached above the second printing unit on the press and the roll of foil runs from an unwind roller, through the printing unit between the blanket and impression cylinder and back out the press to a take-up roller. An adhesive is printed in the first unit using the traditional litho method, much like a varnish. The adhesive pulls the metallic foil off the polyester liner in the second unit adhering it to the press sheet. The foil can be overprinted in the subsequent printing units to achieve a full spectrum of metallic colors. As complicated as it may seem, the end result is astonishing, impressive and we do it all right here at DVC.
How does it compare to hot foil stamping?
Hot foil has a limited color palette and most foils are solid colors. Hot foil stamping is typically done on top of printing to produce a solid opaque metallic or pigment color. Hot foil is also done offline in a second pass adding to the turnaround time.
Cold foil is applied before printing and can be immediately overprinted inline. This allows you to alter the color using the entire CMYK color gamut.
Cold foil is applied to the press sheet using adhesive while hot foil uses heat and pressure to bond the foil material to the paper. Cold foil also uses a printing plate for the adhesive, while hot foil uses metal dies to create the foil area. How do we know all this? Because cold foil is a DVC hallmark.
