Crayve Presentations has their own in house printing division with a team of experienced foiling machine operators, and using a process called Hot Stamp Foil Printing we are able to custom brand your products. Branding your product using hot stamp foil printing offers the possibility of adding your name a range of metallic eye-catching colors to your product.

 

What are printing plates?

A plate is like a stamp which is made from a negative of your logo and is engraved on a metal brass plate. These plates are produced exclusively for Crayve Presentations to produce the highest quality print possible.

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Think of printing plates like a "rubber stamp".....you need the rubber stamp (the printing plates), to dip into the ink (we use foil), and then we stamp (hot stamp foil print) onto the product. Like with "rubber stamps" we can only print in a one colour print.

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The general sizes we make are 20mm, 30mm, 38mm, 50mm, 70mm or 100mm plates.

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What are the different size plates used for?

This can vary alot depending on your logo and the plate size, but here is a basic guideline.

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• 20mm plates - for small boxes (rings, earrings or universal small boxes), small pouches, small envelopes.

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• 30mm plates - for small boxes (rings, earrings or universal small boxes), small pouches, small envelopes.

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• 38mm plates - for small to medium boxes (rings, earrings or universal small boxes), medium to x-large pouches, large envelopes.

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• 50mm plates - for medium to large boxes (earrings, necklace, bangle or bracelet boxes), medium to x-large pouches, large or long envelopes, or small carry bags.

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• 70mm plates - for large boxes (necklace or bracelet boxes), medium to x-large pouches, large or long envelopes, or small or large carry bags.

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• 100mm plates - for large carry bags.

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Printing plate set?

We always recommend the printing plate set, this set will comprise of 5 plates with varying sizes. Depending on your logo, the set will either be:

• 20mm,30mm,38mm, 50mm and 70mm (5 plate sizes)

• 30mm,38mm,50mm,70mm,100mm (5 plate sizes)

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What is the cost for printing plates?

When a customer orders a printing plate, there is a standard fee for a set of plates comprising of approximately 5 different size plates. This may vary depending on your logo and requirements.

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You can also purchase the plates individually, if you are only needing to print one or two size packaging items.

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Drop us an email at customers@crayve.co.za and we can send you the most updated pricing.

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​What type of printing service do we offer?

Crayve Presentations only offers hot stamp foil printing. Your printing plate is mounted onto a foiling machine and is heated and pressed onto the product, over a sheet of coloured foil. Your logo is embossed on the plate and then debossed on the product, with or without a coloured foil.

 

This printing technique is especially good for printing in metallic colours, such as gold and silver. Unfortunately, this technique also has a few limitations.....very fine details and very large areas are difficult to print.

 

If in doubt whether your logo can be used? Please allow us to help you. We have a lot of experience with foil printing and can guide you through this process.

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The quality of the printing?

The quality of the print will depend on how well the engraving is done and more importantly, how fine the logo is. The finer the logo, the more difficult the print certain surfaces. Also, we rely on good surface area for the foil to take (ie - affix / transfer itself to the surface area), however very large areas are difficult to print as well. For this transferal, we use heat and pressure to make contact between the plate, the foil and the surface printing area. The logo on the plate heats the foil which in turn transfers the logo onto the surface using heat and pressure.

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As you can imagine, there are many factors affecting the foil printing process so the quality cannot be comparable to printing your logo from a laser, bubble jet printers or litho printing.

 

Some Design Tips?

Foil Printing Letters and Numbers

• The font for the letters and the numbers should be uniformly at least be a minimum of 0.3mm (0.85pt) thick all around to enable a clear foil print.

• Letters and numbers that require spacing between them must have a spaces of no less than 0.3mm (0.85pt), to prevent the bleeding of the foil from closing these spaces.

• Gaps inside the letters and numbers will also require a minimum of 0.3mm (0.85pt) gap in between, to prevent the bleeding of the foil from closing these gaps.

• It is advisable to refrain from using cursive text that may have uneven lines in the letters, unless the cursive is quite uniform.

 

Foil Printing Lines and Designs

• Any lines or designs should be uniformly at least be a minimum of 0.3mm (0.85pt) thick all around to enable a clear foil print.

• Lines and designs that require spacing between them must have a spaces of no less than 0.3mm (0.85pt), to prevent the bleeding of the foil from closing these spaces.

• Gaps in the line and designs also will require a minimum of .3mm gap in between, to prevent the bleeding of the foil from closing these gaps. 

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What artwork formats are required?

We prefer receiving your logo or artwork in the following vector formats to ensure the highest print quality.

1. Adobe Illustrator (.ai) file, with all graphics and text converted to vector format (or curves)

2. EPS (.eps) file, with all graphics and text converted to vector format (or curves)

3. Corel Draw (.cdr) file, with all graphics and text converted to vector format (or curves)

 

Although these are the formats that work the best for us to make your plates we can work with most other files too. Image files such as JPG, PNG, TIFF, PSD, and even PDF or Word documents do not pose much of a problem, provided that you upload a file in a high resolution (large image) and we can check if they are suitable.

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If you upload a logo of poor quality, a lot of work goes into recreating the logo in a quality appropriate for printing. We may have to charge a small fee of R250 per hour for this service. If you upload a non-vector file with a type font that we do not have, we may require a different file, or we may have to change the type font.

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For all of the above, should a customer require any minor changes or additional artwork done then we charge at a rate of R250.00 per hour (min charge of R250,00) and with only one allowable change.  

 

We do not offer a full design service so it is advisable to utilise the services of a professional graphic designer. 

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What is a vector file?

 A vector file is a graphic display of an image that uses mathematical principles such as points, lines, curves, etc., to describe the the logo, and the distance and ratio between the different parts of the logo.

 

For example, we take a logo that contains a circle. The vector file contains exact information regarding the size of the circle in relation to any text, the angle of the curves, the placement of the text in the circle, etc. The size of both items is not absolute, only the ratio between the two. This means that the file can be expanded endlessly, without having consequences for the resolution and thus quality.

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A vector is more a pure form of a logo only using solid lines and shapes.

 

The opposite of a vector file is a raster file or pixel file. These files are more difficult to use as they comprise of small dots which make up the logo. These files do not resize very well and due to the nature of the tiny dots the quality is poor.