Thermography Considerations

Although thermography can be very effective across a wide range of printing, there are a few possible limitations which need to be borne in mind. To achieve the raised effect, the thermographic resin has to be heated for a few seconds to a very high temperature, and because of this, certain types of paper cannot withstand the heat. This means that, in general terms, we would not recommend attempting thermography on papers below a weight of about 80gsm, or on window envelopes. Nor would we recommend that thermographed items are subsequently passed through a laser printer, as the heat may melt the resin.

Another important factor is that, because the resin is heated, melts, and then cools again, in very small typesizes part of some of the characters (such as the hole in the letter “e”) may well fill in. It is best to avoid typesizes below around 8pt, if you want the text to be thermographed.

It is possible to thermograph more than one colour, but this would always depend very much on what the work actually consists of - and we would therefore need to see the work, in order to advise you on whether it is feasible.

And finally, it is only possible to thermograph one side of the sheet, not both sides.

But don't let all that put you off! Generally, there are no problems with running thermography, and more often than not, when we do spot potential problems, we can advise you of alternative ideas which will solve them. If you're not sure, give us a call.