Micro and Nano Embossing with Foil
Hot foil stamping on envelopes is an excellent way to increase value and recognition and build trust for your brand. In direct mail marketing, silver, copper, or gold foil is often used and occasionally in conjunction with embossing. When incorporated with litho-offset printing, foil stamping delivers beautiful, eye-catching envelopes. Stamping and embossing are just the beginning of hot-foil’s capabilities. We have previously blogged about the value foil stamping brings to your brand in direct mail. Now we will review some lesser-known, but equally impressive, features that can be incorporated with foil.
Micro Embossing
Micro embossing adds a pattern of very fine lines to the foil’s surface without affecting the substrate itself, resulting in an image that creates a moving effect depending on the viewer’s angle. The appearance can be similar to the movement you see on a motion coating or holographic material. This style of stamping allows for extremely fine detail and texture, as well as numerous creative, custom patterns.
Beautiful, elegant, and fully customizable, micro embossing checks many boxes for high-level creativity and brand representation. Even better, the application process is the same as a flat foil stamp, with the only change being in the die manufacturing process, making the increase in cost nominal!
Nano Embossing
Nano embossing is very similar to micro embossing but with 40% finer foil-stamped patterns. The enhanced detail allows clients to achieve looks like brushed metal, gradients, detailed movement patterns, woodgrain, matte/glossy transitions, and more. Due to the improved detail, nano embossing dies generally require a slightly longer turnaround time and a marginally higher cost.
Another very impressive nano embossing feature is lenticular stamping. This process shows images in the foil that switch back and forth depending on the viewer’s angle and gives clients a fantastic visual interaction. Creative options are extensive, so it is simple to include a company logo, teaser, or any image that will pique curiosity to get your envelope opened! Please keep in mind that lenticular stamping has the greatest effect when smaller in diameter. When using a lenticular pattern, remember to keep the images under a 2.5” diameter for best results.
“Photorealistic effects,” or images on the foil that look like they are etched into metal, can be achieved due to the high level of detail offered with nano embossing. This process leads to stunningly beautiful graphics that are sure to draw some serious attention to your envelope.
It is important to note that both micro and nano embossing require the tonnage and dwell time only offered by a flat-bed stamping system. These effects cannot be achieved with a rotary foil application.
Using foil adds value, recognition, and trust to your brand—especially when used with the features previously listed. Specialty foil stamping components are underused in direct mail but have a proven and reliable performance in the “battle of the shelf” with cosmetics, wine and spirit labels, and jewelry. The process falls in line with standard foil stamping, making it very cost-competitive for large-volume direct mail. Now is the perfect time to add these creative foil elements to your envelopes to enhance your direct mail marketing. They get envelopes opened, establish and support your brand, increase response rates, and have an incredible ROI!
If you have any questions regarding hot foil stamping, embossing, or other specialty coatings, contact Parkland Direct today. Another excellent resource for foil stamping capabilities is Hinderer+Mühlich, a KURZ company.
Parkland Direct’s mission is to help clients get their envelopes opened! Our extremely efficient process produces beautiful envelopes for large volume direct mail marketing. Let us know how we can help!
Check out our Portfolio page to learn about the eye-catching foil elements we can offer.
Questions or ideas? Please e-mail us at: envelopes@parklanddirect.com.