In printing, gilding brings elegance and a unique feel by putting a light impression of gold onto paper. It adds a play of light to a business card, reinforces the high-end feel of a brochure, adds distinction to the cover of a book, adds refinement to an invitation, provokes a reaction when on a leaflet…

It’s a finish that adds a high-value effect when integrated into the overall graphic design. From the point of view of artistic creation, two approaches are possible:

Treat gilding as a graphic element in its own right.

Use it to highlight certain letters, titles, motifs, etc.

Some technical details: hot gilding (or hot stamping) is a dry transfer process that adds a thin metallized or pigmented layer as a result of heat and pressure. It perfectly reproduces the look and feel of gold and silver and can be applied to almost all paper, whether film-coated or not.

Cold gilding is a type of lamination done at the same time as printing a document using a special printer. It allows for a very wide range of metallic tones with a great precision of nuances and gradations even on complex patterns, without any surface limit.

Gliding

Of course, you can combine gilded elements with other types of effect, depending on your creation and the desired look. Gilding can for example be accompanied by embossing to subtly enhance the overall impression. But given the strong visual impact of this type of finish, you don’t need to overdo these effects to achieve the desired result.

Tip
If you are looking for a gold colour rendering without a metallic look, instead of hot stamping, you can use a Pantone colour such as 871.

Note
In addition to the classic gold and silver, there is a wide palette of gilding colours available such as copper, red, green, blue, violet etc. Your Pulsio Print consultant will be happy to help you discover all the possibilities on offer.

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