Embedded Files
What to check for when working on custom foil designs
Foil Design Guidelines
There are a lot of limitations to foil - even with CFT enabled.
Knowing these limitations will help you spot problems, create
correct foil design files and avoid extra work or customer
dissatisfaction in the proofing process and beyond.
Registration
Orders with a large number of cards can cause some “drifting” of paper sheets.
As the paper sheets run through the foil process, the alignment can shift, causing the foil registration to move from its original placement by up to 1/32”.
Avoid adding foil elements that need to be perfectly aligned next to a non-foil element.
Example: For cases like this monogram, the file appears to be
ok and spaced correctly, but when the order is being printed,
it is almost impossible to have the monogram placed perfectly
and to keep the text centered. It's best to foil-press the entire
monogram, including the separator, to avoid misaligned foil-press.
Please be sure to let the customer know as well.
Large blocks of foil
Avoid using foil in really large blocks.
Really large areas of foil can have trouble
adhering to the paper and may result in
the foil flaking off.
Example: The green area would be difficult to foil in this design. Instead we should foil the text “LET’S I DO THIS THING.” and leave the green background.
Note: Please address this in your QC note to the customer.
Super thin lines and
small elements
Foil has a difficult time adhering
to paper when it’s applied in very small areas.It’s best to thicken those elements slightly by adding a stroke.
Example: Thin lines and small dots.
Stroke weight
If a thick stroke is added to Custom Foil Text, this will cause the foil to bleed. In other words, the foil will overlap into the spaces in letters, causing the foil text to be illegible.
It’s always best to have a very thin stroke or no stroke at all on regular fonts, rather than a thick stroke that will cause bleeding.
Script fonts should have at least an 0.1 stroke, as is usual. But avoid putting thick strokes on script fonts too.
For very small text, we recommend increasing the size by 1 or 2 pts, so it will print legibly. But never increase the stroke weight.
Round corners for strokes on script fonts
For custom foil text cards, script fonts must always have the “round join” corner option selected in the Stroke panel.
This will avoid having the foil print with jagged edges caused by the stroke.
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