One of our brides getting married in the Florida Keys wanted beautiful invitations, but didn’t have the budget for formal letterpress. The solution? Thermography – a simple process used in conjunction with any conventional wet-ink printing press. The printed sheets coming off a press pass through a powder application, where resin is applied to the wet ink. The resin is then removed from all areas, except where it adheres to the wet ink. The paper is then heated {hence the “thermo”} causing the resin to melt and fuse to the ink. The substrate is then cooled, which finalizes the process.The raised letters from a thermographed print are shinier than engraved characters {the look is similar, but it is not the same as Engraving}, so we played up this effect with a lovely shimmer paper. The hot orange and magenta were a perfect combination for the process and looked amazing on the shimmer paper – especially the custom designed flowers on the invitation. The invitation set was completed with another adorable map full of manatees, dolphins, an alligator and other destination icons. Also on shimmer paper, the map was flat printed, and backed in orange metallic paper to match the rest of the set.
While we love the look of letterpress, we also LOVE thermography! All the invitations on our site are available in any color combination and in letterpress or thermography. As a note, our pricing on two color thermography is a few hundred dollars less than the cost of one color letterpress, so it is more affordable, yet still gorgeous!