An important thing to take into consideration before we even begin designing your wedding invitations is how they will be printed. It’s crucial to think about this in advance because how you print your invitations will dictate what you can and can’t do design-wise. Printing methods can also greatly impact the overall cost of your invitation suite, so you want to make sure you know what to expect when the final invoice comes. This article will touch on some major printing and finishing processes, but it’s not an exhaustive list. Here at Jubilee Paper we love pushing the envelope and thinking outside the box when it comes to execution—if you don’t see something here, it doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Basically, if you can dream it, we can do it!

Digital Printing

Digital printing (also know as flat printing) is an incredibly flexible, fast, and cost effective way to print your invitations. There are essentially no limitations to what you can print design-wise—this method is perfect for watercolors, photographs, typography, detailed illustrations, and so much more. There is no limit to how many colors can be used, and with the right printer you can even print large swatches of background or fill color onto white paper if you want a very specific paper color that you can’t find anywhere else.

As the name suggests, the finish of this print method is “flat” in that there is no texture or areas of impression left behind by digital printing. Clients interested in texture, deep impressions, or handmade paper will probably be better suited for letterpress printing. Digital printing is not the most luxe option we offer, but it can be elevated tremendously by including bells and whistles such as vintage stamps, envelope liners, and calligraphy to your suite. Take for example this suite we did for clients Bianca and Andrew above. All of the cards were printed digitally due to time constraints, but by adding plenty of other details we were able to give the suite a really high end feel overall.

Letterpress Printing

One of our favorite printing processes! Letterpress refers to a historical printing process where a metal or polymer plate is inked and pressed into a piece of paper, leaving your design and an impression behind. It works well on any kind of paper, but is especially beautiful on handmade paper or duplexed (extra thick) paper. Letterpress tends to be more expensive, but it depends on how many colors your design uses. Only one color can be printed at a time, so the more colors you include in your invitations, the more labor is involved in printing them. The presses can also be run without ink to leave what’s called a blind impression or blind deboss, which counts as a “color” when pricing.

Designs intended for letterpress must be vectorized, meaning that they must be reduced to mathematically defined lines (rather than pixels). This means that photographs, watercolor, and very textured illustrations can’t be printed with letterpress because it’s often difficult or impossible to reduce them to simple lines. However, it is possible to first print digitally on a card and then letterpress on top of it, so you can have both a watercolor crest and letterpress type if desired!

Hot Foil Stamping

Printing with metallic foil is very similar to letterpress in that a plate is created and foil is pressed onto a card, leaving your design behind. There are a ton of foil options out there, including classics like silver, gold, and copper but also unique options like pink, blue, green, and holographic foils. It’s also a great option if you’d like to print solid white on dark paper—letterpress ink is semi transparent so light colors don’t show up on dark paper. Solid white foil is a great way to achieve that white ink letterpress look.

Screen Printing

Screen printing is a great way to print on non-traditional materials like acrylic, fabric, and wood. It allows us to get a nice opaque ink on a surface that would otherwise be unprintable. We especially love using this method for printing on acrylic, like these very special reception dinner menus above.

Laser Engraving and Cutting

This printing method doesn’t use any ink at all, but rather etches your design into a hard surface like acrylic or wood. While it doesn’t produce quite the effect of ink, laser engraving is still very legible and can be very versatile for creating that wow factor at your wedding! In addition to laser engraving, lasers can also be used to cut wood into custom shapes, words, and designs.

Die Cutting

Similar to laser cutting, die cutting is a great way to achieve a custom shape when used on paper. Popular shapes include circles and arches, but we can die cut your invitation cards into any shape under the sun! Tacos? Check. Puppies? Check. Mountains? Check.

Dip Dye

Dip dye is a dying process done by hand, and it’s exactly what it sounds like—your paper is dipped into a dye bath, leaving color behind. This method can be used to leave just a small strip of color, like on the invitations above, or it can be used to dye the majority of the card. An ombre effect can be achieved with this method by dying sections of the paper in increasingly longer time intervals. Dyes are custom mixed and colors are created just for you!

There are a ton of options out there for making your wedding invitations and day of paper goods as unique as you are. If you’re ready to start creating one of a kind invitations, fill out our contact form and let’s get started!

Choosing the rightprinting method for you