

The Art of Foil Stamping

What is the meaning of Foil Stamping?

Foil Stamping may not be new to you. You may have come across the term a few times or heard it during a discussion, especially when you're planning for Christmas or a wedding. No doubt, the name will always come up when you're interested in our foil printing wedding card or when you want to buy our wedding invitation card.

Foil printing involves the art of creating glittering and gorgeous designs by attaching the foil to the visible part of the paper.

Even though the foil-pressed products we have these days are basically regarded as expensive stationery, many people are not aware of the interesting age-long stories behind the practice of foil printing. In recent times, many people have come up with different names for foil printing. These names have different meanings as the foil printing techniques differ from individual to individual.

Our technique at art in card gives rise to a stylish, elegant, and perfectly smart customizable stationery. We achieve this by using a hot stamping technique on cardstock with real metallic foils.

The difference between the usual marketing material and a gleaming and enticing piece is the foil stamping. Foil stamping is the best way to Combine class and luxury to your printing and giving it a distinct and premium look. So, foil stamping is a definition of class, sophistication, luxury, and uniqueness.


Foil stamping method includes foil blocking, foil printing, hot stamping, foil pressing, cold printing, and all other terms that refer to the transfer of specialized foil on paper for a decorative or fanciful effect. Foil pressing began with the decoration of handset gold leaf many years ago. It was first discovered on bible covers in Morocco during the twelfth century.

Admittedly, foil pressing finds the most use on book covers. Most of the antiquated techniques for foil stamping no longer find widespread use because of their extreme labor requirements. These methods range from hand-setting gold leaves into leather book covers or letter bound manuscript covers or calligraphy and customizing engraved metal plates by foil stamping gold into them.

Before Gutenberg designed the movable type printing press in the fifteenth century, manuscripts and books previously had to be copied by labor-intensive page by page wood printing methods or by hand. Because of these reasons, foil printing in large volumes was impossible, and demand for them was low. Gutenberg inadvertently caused a rise in the desire for foil-pressed detailing. This rising demand made more people think of better ways of making foil-stamped detailing.

In the 1830s, a realization in the Americas that while black ink on cloth book covers will run and spoil quickly, but that the foil will not do so, caused a small revolution in the industry. The printing of gold foil into cloth book covers by hot stamping ( another foil pressing method that made it very useful) started. By the 1880s, the stereotype that only gold foil could be used in foil stamping had been broken by newly developed silver hot stamping techniques.

Ernst Oeser invented Modern foil stamping machines in the 1880s and substituted precious gold and silver with metallic foil that was cheaper and easier to buy, to reduce the associated costs. Foil stamping has only got less expensive since the 1900s once George M. Whiley created foils from layering gold dust on thin polyester sheets. Whiley’s “Manufacturers of Highest Quality Stamping Tools” also cataloged stamping foils and tools in the foil stamping.

By the 1960s, Whiley’s foil had become the popular foil choice in foil stamping and is the precursor of modern foils today. With rises in the price of real gold in the 1950s, imitation gold use became the norm in foil stamping to reduce its costs.

These old machines used heated plates to apply metallic foil to cards and papers, leaving them debossed and textured because the heat also causes the foil to press on the paper stock or card.

The new digital foiling techniques and machines now give us luxurious foil stationaries, thanks to technological advancements. Debossing and texturing are avoided by printing directly from a computer file, which also reduces set-up costs. It uses a dye in the stead of heated plates and sticks the foil to the design permanently. With moderation, modern foil printing can make your brand come across as premium and can be the perfect wedding stationery.

Benefits of Foil Stamping

There is no need for any chemistry or dye preparation with digital foiling. Compared to the traditional methods, digital foil stamping has dramatically reduced production times, which makes it produce cheaper and little to no harmful chemicals. Since it uses a lot less energy and produces less CO2, pollutants, and other greenhouse gasses, it is a very eco-friendly process.

The FSEA (Foil Stamping and Embossing Association) found in a 2008 study the complete recyclability of cold and hot foil-pressed products. Because of this report, foil-pressed stationaries are environmentally friendly in all ways. This means that you won’t have to sacrifice environmental safety for beauty.


Wedding invitation cards and holiday cards are some of what customers regularly seek out in foil stationaries for their visual depth and timeless elegance. However, the advantages in this new age foil-stamped stationary do not end with aesthetics.

Since there is no ink involved in the art of foil stamping, its versatility is practically endless. It can not only be used on black-colored papers but also on papers of all colors. Adding some sparkling gold letters and lustrous silver frame to your luxurious wedding stationery is a significant uplift from the famous old dark-colored style.

We hope that we have had success in convincing you of the eco-friendly nature of digital foil products and their usefulness as luxurious stationaries. Proper digital foiling for your small print jobs is friendly to both your neighborhood and your pocket. Let's make the world a better place while not sacrificing the aesthetic.

Check out our Foil Collection here.