800-934-2247
800-934-BAGS
www.bagsbykaren.com
Hot stamping or foil stamping is a printing method of relief printing in which pre-dried ink or foils are transferred to a surface at high temperatures. I set actual metal-magnesium characters in the jaws of a hot stamping machine and then place foil on top of the substrate being expanded vinyl ( your bag ) in my-our case. When I lower the lever putting pressure and heat onto the foil between the character ( s ) and the vinyl, the heat makes the dried ink release onto the bag. It dries instantly and can be used immediately after the bag is stamped!
As with any ink printing such as this, or screen printing, it could be destroyed with the wrong or right chemical-solvent coming in contact with it. Foil printing will generally hold up longer than screen printing especially the gold which can have a tendency to fade after a while. It is NOT bulletproof and I can't think of any printing ink process that is! Unlike inkjet printers-print, run some water across your inkjet printed page and you are going to have the tears and mascara show real quick - ruined/smeared print! That is NOT going to happen with foil printing! You should always avoid harsh chemicals and solvents around any printed material! Keep the nail polish and lacquer thinner where they belong for their intended purpose which isn't cleaning these bags! The only thing you should clean your bag is with water, perhaps a mild detergent and a soft cloth. This would stand true for a screen printed bag as well!
The beauty of hot stamp printing is that you can get VIBRANT- BRILLANT and reflective print which you can not obtain with screen printing! We have different foils such as flat - satin - metallic and a variety of colors to choose from!
Regarding the print we have Times New Roman ( upper and lower ) and Goudy Cursive. I would say that 90% plus of our printing is with ALL CAPS Times New Roman. We have a set of Arial CAPS as well. These upper case CAPS are 36 point which is about 1/2" high. ( see pictures below for reference ) We have set parameters as to how much we can stamp in one line. The widest we can print one line is about nine ( 9 ) inches wide which translates to about 24-28 characters including a few spaces which you must count. The most important and biggest factor is the size of the bag that we are printing on. Obviously you can't print an eight line of text on a six inch bag!!!
We can and have printed two and three lines of text on a bag. Anything you have in mind or questions please DO NOT hesitate to call and we will address your questions and concerns and present the options that are available to you for your intended task.
HOT STAMPING INFO
This is a picture of the "jaws" - typeholder of one of my machines. This is the MAX width that it can open up to which is around 9 inches. Below is the type-print that was in the machine during photograph.
This is a picture of a piece of vinyl with this wording for reference. This is 28 characters wide including spaces. The average line is a MAX of about between 23-28 depending on characters. A "W" is wider is than an "I" as you can see.
This is a picture of a magnesium die of a fish image that I had made which I can stamp and some TNR characters. The first three "T E S" are they way they get set in the "jaws" The last "T" is just flipped over for reference here.
36 Point TIMES NEW ROMAN
