High end low quantity printing service?

Oracle1729 said:

A friend of mine asked me to design some programs and menus for their wedding. The samples they showed me of what they're looking for are fairly simple designs, but they're printed in foil on pearlescent card stock with embossed areas.

I've been searching but can't find any companies that will print the design for me in reasonably low quantities. Does anyone know if/where I can have something like this printed?

Thanks.

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What you need is a letterpress company. What you are looking for is foil stamping with embossing. The pearl stock can be order directly from a paper supplier by the printer doing the work for you.

When you are asking a print house, ask if they can do foil stamp & emboss. They will know what you are talking about. It will not be cheap though. Dies have to be made to preform both task and they are expensive. So is the pearl paper. Quantity should not matter, as it will only give you a slight price break for larger amounts. It is the process of what has to be done that is expensive.

I am in the printing industry for 38 years now and have done this type of work. It is actually old school printing and very few people do it anymore due to the expense of the supplies you require. And the machine you need to do it with are getting harder to come by.

You're best bet is a letterpress or diecutting company. Your average small printer would have to send it out to be done.

Oracle1729 said:

Thanks for your reply. Looking online, letterpress does look like the right process, but I can't find an online supplier that seems to deal with the public, most want a business contact. I suppose that would be my local printer, but are there places I can just send an indesign/illustrator file or pdf to that will run off a batch of 100 copies? I understand it's not going to be as cheap as ordering flyers at vistaprint.

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Not likely. This is really specialized printing you looking to have done. A lot can go wrong by trying to order it online, even if that is an available option. One option to get around the foil stamping is to go with metallic inks, which can give you many colour choices. Just remember with metallic ink, it will POP more, but is still not foil.

Not trying to discourage you here in anyway, but my best advice is going to a local print shop and talking directly to them. If they can not do it, they will know someone locally who can do it. We do it for our customers, but even then we have to outsource it.

I personally would be leery of having it done online. That includes having the embossing done online as well. Also consider having it done well in advance of the date as it takes a few extra days to do this kind of work. Also in case a mistake happens.

For what it's worth, I don't ever letterpress locally, the place I primarily use is in Minnesota (I'm in Texas). I do deal with folks who really know their stuff, however, give me proofs via e-mail and know exactly what they need as far as artwork, specs, etc.

You could also call any local printer and ask about doing an emboss, foil, etc., and if they don't do small runs they might be able to recommend someone who can. Just know that it's going to be really pricey if you do, there's zero economy in doing 100 copies of something on an offset press.

Most online shops are bargain/digital printing type operations and aren't going to give you the quality that you want.

Oracle1729 said:

I went into one of the stores selling the finished product, and they said it's foil stamped, not letterpress. Is there a difference? I'm finding web searching frustrating because there's 1000 "look at the pretty thing I saw" pages for every useful site.

The invitation store I visited charges $3 per unit (in 100's) for a single flat page of nice card stock with foil printing on it. The thing is their whole business model is designing the print on the page and sending it off to a printing company, which makes them an entirely useless step in what I'm trying to do.

I'm in Toronto, so there must be some good print shops, but so far all I've found are as limited as a Kinkos staffed by clueless clerk.

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I used to work in Toronto. 20 Years there. Give me a rough idea of where in the city you are and I will give you a contact. I know a lot of shops there that can do this for you. If you are worried about posting your location, PM me. I will be happy to do this for you.