The Printing Process of Invitation Cards

Ordinary printing simply stamps ink rolled on lead type onto the paper. It is a messy process and does not produce very high quality lettering. Lithography, on the other hand, is a method of printing which retains a very high quality replica of drawn or sketched artwork. It produces very sharp and distinctive inking.

If you and I could afford ordinary printed invitations cards, then the socially elite needed to distance themselves from such an abomination. They then elected to have their invitations “engraved”. This served a second purpose. It permitted the printed invitation card to emulate hand writing since engraved copper plates were made by hand.

Engraving, as the name implies, requires an artisan to “hand write” in reverse into a metal plate using a carving tool. To this day, the finest invitation cards are engraved.

Along comes a cheap version of engraving called Thermography or ‘raised ink’ printing. Unlike ordinary printing, engraving actually cut the surface of the paper. The print quality was beautiful and you could feel where the ink was deposited because you could feel the slight cuts in the surface of the paper.

The thermography process, unlike engraving used ordinary lead type washed with ink. When the printed paper is removed from the press with wet ink, a plastic powder is sprayed on the wet ink and then blown off. The plastic powder absorbs the ink color. The paper is then heated until the plastic powder melts leaving a raised ink which you can feel.