Am I the only one who thinks foil is cheesy?

I’m getting more requests for foil but no one wants to pay for it. I have a nice setup I pieced together with an old foil boss and made my own thermo base.I understand the beauty of a matte white foil but seriously…Besides the people fooling magazine readers with their foil submissions… Why the heck are people calling for this garbage? It’s so gaudy and cheap looking…but very expensive to produce.

Bryan,

Congratulations on your foil boss and thermo base! Not many people can say they made an old one work and make a heated base too. What press did you hook this up to?

I respectively disagree that foil is “gaudy and cheap looking”. Can you letterpress print matte white and get the same opaque coverage in one pass on colored paper? How about metallic inks…do you really think ink vs foil will give the same pizzazz? Gold or silver ink will not be as shiny and bright as foil. With foil you have NO dry time or worry about set-off and having to slip sheet the job. 

Please look at this website: http://www.fsea.com/index.shtml

And especially this post: http://www.fsea.com/newsarticle.asp?item=WhitePaperRequest#.VhMVvflViko

Don’t forget foil is recyclable. Many studies have been done. Here is another link: http://www.fsea.com/article.asp?ID=106#.VhMYLvlViko

Every foil stamping job I have produced is beautiful, timeless, elegant, and definitely not “cheap looking”. I guess to me, cheap looking is desk top publishing at the local copy shop.

Just remember the first print/foil/emboss/diecut/etc. on any job is the most expensive one. You still have to buy a die, paper, include makeready/set up and press time, & your overhead costs…whether it be foil or ink.

Take care,

Happy printing and/or foiling 

Yeah, I understand the white foil thing. The last time foil was big was back 15 yrs ago, that’s why I bought my first foil unit. I make my own plates so I don’t need to order them. I also run all windmills and a KSB CYLINDER.I’m going to stand by my original comments. Foil is really trendy right, just like blind emboss was a few years ago. The recyclable quality is just silly. The carbon footprint of foil and the waste created from the acetate rider material negates the recycling aspect of the final product.From 2005-2012 I produced all the letterpress for Crane & CO when my shop was in Holyoke. Foil was only used on the lower end stationery lines. We used it primarily for white type on dark paper.

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