Print quality and paper weight can make or break a marketing project. If you’ve ever worked tirelessly on a piece of marketing collateral and then had your excitement deflated when you saw the finished product, you know what I mean.

I spent my final year in college interning with a commercial printer. In the beginning it seemed like everyone I worked with spoke a different language. I couldn’t tell you what a die cut was or the difference between 80# text and card stock. I quickly learned the importance of those specifications.

You might think that printing is simply printing; that it’s something you can do on your standard office printer. But in reality, quality commercial printing and fun production techniques can take your marketing project from good to outstanding – spoiler alert: that’s a big difference!

WTH is CMYK?

Many commercial printers use a four color printing press that uses the colors cyan, magenta, yellow and black to create an infinite number of colors. This process is also called full color printing. Many people compare the CMYK color process to that of RGB (red, green, blue) which is the color process used when images are created for display on a black screen such as a computer or TV.

UV Spot Coating

UV spot coating is the process of printing a product with a matte finish, with the exception of one high gloss portion. War Room recently created business cards for our friends at Morales Construction Services. We first designed a rich black logo, meaning instead of using only the color black we added cyan, magenta and yellow to the mix to create a richer shade of black. Using this rich black as a basis for the branding, we designed the business cards in only black and white.

Because the design is simple, we wanted to do something to make the cards really pop! To do this we submitted our cards to Today’s Print Resource in Dallas. TPR’s own business cards feature the process of UV spot coating – check out how the gloss makes the red pop.

TPR’s Owner, Randy Alva, helped us determine the best course of action for these cards and the finished project didn’t disappoint.

Die Cutting

Die cutting is the process used to cut paper into shapes using a steel-cutting die. Die cutting can be used to cut out a shape in the middle of a print project or to create the shape of the project in itself. Die cutting adds a 3 dimensional element to your project that might otherwise fall flat.

Foil Stamping

This is my favorite printing technique simply because I adore all things sparkly.  Foil stamping is the process of applying foil with heat to a particular part of a solid surface, in this case paper. Like UV spot coating, foil stamping is used to make a specific spot of your print project really shine.

Depending on how it’s done, foil stamping can be both trendy and classic.

If you want to make a great first impression while quickly demonstrating the quality of your business, invest in high quality business cards printed by a great commercial printer.

The options for unique printing techniques are endless. Which one is your favorite?