Wedding Invitations - printing

There are may ways a invitation set can be printed. They can be printed on a desktop printer like the ones many people have in their homes or offices. Sometimes this labor intensive but cost saving method can still allow room in the budget for a custom designed invitation that is provided to you as a high resolution rgb file. You will need to purchase all the paper and envelopes and may have to cut and trim many sheets of paper.

Commercial printing or offset printing involves separating artwork into cmyk plates and look very clean and professional. Trimming and collating are included. Commercial printing also has the ability to ad specialty inks such as metallics, pastels, clear gloss, and spot colors. You can think of spot colors as a type of paint or premixed color that can be used when a color is hard or impossible to made with a combination of cmyk (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black). Commercial printing also has the ability to add dye-cuts, embosses, debosses, and foil stamps which can add exceptional beauty to an invitation.

Another method of printing no longer cost effective enough to be used on a large scale but still popular for wedding invitations is letterpress. This method creates a distinctive look and feel as the areas of color are actually pressed into the paper. While standard commercial printing can deboss areas they cannot match the quality of a letterpress.

Another method used for wedding invitations is thermography. This involves heat setting the areas of color, which can only be solid colors and leaves a raised texture. Most popularly used for inexpensive business cards this can also be a cost effective solution for invitations on a tight budget.