Special Custom Printing Effects

While we're known for our high quality 4 color printing, PrintingForLess.com also offers a wide variety of distinctive printing and finishing options, such as the examples you see here. Please contact us for consultation and print pricing on your next custom printing project.

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4 Color Process Printing Also called full color printing, 4 color printing uses cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks (CMYK) to produce a crisp, accurate printed image. This is the standard printing process you find in publications and marketing materials. At PFL, our highly skilled experts use top-of-the-line Heidelberg printing presses for the highest quality results. How process printing works.

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Spot Varnish Varnish comes in gloss, satin, and dull finishes. One interesting use of spot varnish is to put dull varnish on a 4 color image, giving it contrast against a gloss background. Or do the reverse: here we used gloss varnish to make the 4 color butterfly pop off the dull/matte paper. You can also add varnish to create a subtle rendering of images or larger text. Learn more about varnish and press coating options.

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Pantone Spot Color Inks The Pantone Matching System® (PMS) is the most widely known and trusted brand of spot color available. Pantone colors encompass a wide color gamut, allowing you to print hues that can’t be perfectly reproduced using 4-color process inks. The butterfly was printed with PMS 286 ink. Learn more about using spot colors.

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Embossing Embossing uses a specially-made die under high pressure to form a raised three-dimensional impression that allows you to literally feel the design. It is a graceful effect that brings a touch of class to your piece. Embossing can be used on its own or in combination with 4-color printing or foil stamping (as we did for the words "Special Printing Effects" below.) Learn more about using custom embossing options.

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Metallic Ink Special inks with fine reflective metallic particles create a shine and luster you won’t see in standard inks. Silver and gold metallics are most common, but metallic inks also come in bright blues, hot reds and burnished coppers. Metallic inks are a brilliant way to add pizzazz to your design or highlight a logo or headline. In this example, we created the butterfly using silver/blue and gold metallic inks. Learn more about printing with metallic inks.

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Die Cut Die cutting lets you create a limitless range of contours – from unconventional corners to perfect circles to the outline of an image or logo. A die cut provides a tactile and visual edge to distinguish your piece. Watch a die cutting video, see more samples and learn more about using custom die cutting.

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Foil Stamping A heated die fuses the foil onto the paper, bonding the design to the surface. Hot foil stamping adds shimmer and texture to highlight specific text or images. Gold, silver, and other metallic colors can be used, as well as clear and holographic foils. In this sample we have used a blue foil to accent the 4-color image. See more samples and learn more about using hot foil stamping.

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Embossing and Foil Stamping A heated die fuses the foil onto the paper, bonding the design to the surface. The same area is then embossed with a die to create a raised three three-dimensional image. On the left, the words "Special Printing Effects" were gold foil stamped and then embossed to create the raised type.