Printing Options for Wedding Invitations

There are many methods of printing that you can employ for your invites. Right now, letterpress is extremely popular, but cost-prohibitive for some couples. I must say I, too, am intoxicated by the rich feel and texture of a letterpressed invitation. It just invokes illusions of grandeur for the wedding celebration to come. But we also recommend different printing techniques to my brides, as letterpress is becoming a little overused. At any rate, the four methods of printing I will discuss here is: engraving, thermography, lithography and letterpress.

Engraving: The practice of cutting grooves onto a hard, flat surface that results in a printing plate (usually made of copper) used for printing images on paper, which are called engravings. Other terms often used for engravings are copper-plate engraving and line engraving. Engraved invitations have a raised print appearance. It is pressed through the paper so that it can be felt on the back of the paper. Engraving is the most traditional and formal printing option. It is the oldest printing style, as well as the most expensive.

Thermography: Less expensive than engraving, thermography is very similar in that they both have raised lettering. They differ in that thermography produces a shinier, glossy finish and the print does not press through the back of the paper.

Lithography: Lithography uses chemical processes to create an image. In nerd terms, lithography uses oil and water to divide the smooth surface into hydrophobic (water-hating) regions which accept the ink and hydrophilic (water-loving) regions which reject it and thus become the background. This produces the type of printing you see used in most books today—flat and non-raised. Also known as offset printing or flat print, lithography produces sharp, clean images and text more easily than letterpress printing. It is the most widely used printing style for wedding invitations and it is less expensive than both engraving and thermography.

Letterpress: Letterpress printing is achieved by printing text with movable type, in which the raised surface of the type is inked and then pressed against a smooth substance to obtain an image in reverse. Since most letterpress equipment can only print one color at a time, printing multiple colors can be a challenge. The inking system on letterpress equipment is also less precise than lithography or engraving. Letterpress is an expensive, but beautiful option, as many times, each sheet of paper has to be manually fed one at a time.

Visit Font Space for an extensive inventory of weddings fonts for your own DIY invitations. The readability and scalability of fonts are an important consideration when choosing a printing method. In the next post, I will guide you in the etiquette of addressing your invitations to your honored (or honoured?) guests. Leave a comment and tell us what printing method you used or will use for your stationery.

Photo Credit(s): Martha Stewart Weddings