Metallic/Hologram Foil Board Projects File Preparation

In most aspects, preparing digital art for printing on metallic or hologram-effect foil board is the same as preparing for any other commercial printing project.

Of course, the primary difference is that the substrate is highly light-reflective – where opaque/flat substrates tend to absorb most of the reflective light. This becomes important because most conventional PMS and process printing inks are translucent in nature. For this reason it is important to define your expectation of what the final piece should look like – as the "shimmery" nature of the light reflected from foil board surface will pass through the translucent inks.

Most often projects of this type can be somewhat difficult to visualize before the piece is actually produced on-press. Fortunately, our Sales Reps have a great deal of experience with these types of projects and will gladly discuss the project with you and provide finished samples of similar projects to help you gain an understanding of the possibilities and limitations of this type of project.

Foil Board projects often require an "opaque" Litho White printer underneath the process inks most often require the creation of a CMYK + Spot Color DCS (Desktop Color Separation) image file. Our prepress techs are well-versed in this procedure and can create these files for you if the desired effect is clearly communicated. If you prefer to create these files yourself, consult the Adobe PhotoShop™ Help/Tutorial menu and select the in-depth "Spot Color" tutorial, which is also available online at Adobe.com.

Unlike using "opaque" Litho White inks on clear or translucent substrates, most foil board substrates accept Litho White ink very well and can create the illusion of opacity without multiple passes through the press – depending upon the desired effect.

As always, we recommend that you talk to your Sales Rep about your Foil Board project and feel free to contact our Digital Prepress Department with any specific technical questions.

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