Combinar acabados de impresión: qué funciona junto, qué no y en qué orden

Short answer: most finishes combine well. The ones that fail are fighting over the same surface. Print goes on first, then foil, then emboss or deboss, then the die cut, and edge paint last. Every one of those is a separate pass with its own registration, so never design a hairline fit between two finishes: leave 1 mm of air, or overlap by a set trap. When two finishes want different papers, stop forcing them onto one sheet and build the card in plies.

This guide assumes you know each finish on its own; if not, start with foil artwork preparation, letterpress file setup y emboss and deboss file setup. Here we cover what happens when you stack them: the order, the tolerances between passes, the house compatibility rules, and how to supply the file.

El orden de los procesos

Finishes run in a fixed order: print, foil, emboss or deboss, die cut, edge paint. The order isn't a shop preference. Each step either needs a flat, uncut sheet to register to, or would damage the step before it if it ran later.

1. Impresión. CMYK en offset o digital, o letterpress, con una plancha por color. La tinta se aplica sobre un pliego plano y abierto, que se convierte en la referencia para el registro de todas las pasadas posteriores. Cualquier laminado se aplica justo después de imprimir.
2. Foil. Una pasada por cada color de foil, sobre papel sin imprimir, nunca sobre tinta. El troquel necesita una superficie plana contra la que presionar.
3. Relieve o bajorrelieve. El pliego se moldea después de aplicar el foil; si se hace al revés, el troquel plano del foil aplasta la forma. Cuando el foil y el relieve deben coincidir con exactitud, se unen en un solo golpe con un troquel combinado.
4. UV selectivo y UV en relieve. Capas de recubrimiento sobre la superficie impresa o laminada, antes de cualquier corte.
5. Troquelado. Después de esto ya no queda pliego al que registrar, así que todos los acabados con registro deben estar aplicados.
6. Pintura de cantos. Al final, porque las tarjetas cortadas se apilan, se sujetan planas y a escuadra, y se pintan por el canto de la pila.

Dónde va la unión en una tarjeta dúplex o tríplex

In most builds, each ply is printed and finished on its own before bonding, then cut and edged as one card. That is why a multi-ply file needs one artboard per face and a spec line that says which finish belongs to which ply. A few constructions change the sequence, and we confirm yours at proof.

Cada pasada es un nuevo registro: la acumulación de tolerancias

Each finish is positioned independently, and the tolerances between passes add up. A foil die, a letterpress plate and a cutting die each hold their own geometry perfectly. The movement happens between them: where the sheet sits against the guides on each run, how it stretches under heat and pressure, how a stack shifts under the blade.

La acumulación de tolerancias ocurre cuando dos de esas relaciones coinciden en un mismo elemento. El foil se registra con la impresión a ±0.5 mm y el corte a ±0.8 mm, así que en el peor caso el foil puede quedar 1.3 mm más cerca de un borde de la tarjeta de lo que lo dibujaste. Dos pasadas separadas de foil y relieve pueden desviarse 0.5 mm cada una respecto a la impresión en direcciones opuestas y quedar a 1 mm entre sí. La mayoría de los pliegos quedan muy por debajo. Aun así, diseña para el peor caso: tendrás en la mano cada tarjeta de la tirada, no la media.

Diseña para que no se vean las capas

• No hairline fits between finishes. Don't nest foil 0.5 mm inside a printed frame, outline a deboss with a printed keyline, or ask spot UV to land exactly on the edge of a printed shape. Bold UV over a bold printed shape is fine; a UV outline chasing a printed outline is not.
• Separate or overlap, never butt. Where finishes of different kinds meet (foil and ink), separate them by 1 mm. Where two passes of the same kind touch (two foils, two letterpress colors), overlap them by a 0.3 mm trap on the shared edges.
• Keep parallel edges away from the trim. A foil border 1.5 mm from the edge will read 0.7 mm on one card and 2.3 mm on the next. Keep foil and critical art 3 mm inside trim, or bleed it 3 mm past.
• Put exact relationships inside one pass. Anything drawn on the same plate or die holds its geometry perfectly. If two elements must align to the tenth of a millimeter, they belong on the same plate, the same foil die, or one combination die.

Matriz de compatibilidad

Most finish combinations fail for one of three reasons: the surface won't take the second finish, the second finish lands on the first, or a physical process (a clamp, a cut, a scanner) can't cope with the result. This table is our house rulebook.

La tabla se entiende mejor como una lista de lo que cada acabado necesita debajo. Si la superficie no es la adecuada, ninguna preparación del archivo salva la combinación.

Foil y relieve en registro: el troquel combinado

If the foil has to sit exactly on the raised form, it has to be one die. Run foil and emboss as two passes and each lands at ±0.5 mm to print, so the emboss can shift off the foil by up to 1 mm. What you see is a crescent of flat foil on one side of the shape and a bare, un-foiled shoulder on the other. A combination die is a sculpted, heated die with a matching counter: the foil transfers and the paper takes its form in the same strike, so the foil edge and the emboss edge are one edge.

Dúplex y tríplex: la clave

When two finishes want different surfaces, or would fight through one sheet, give each its own ply. A duplex card is two sheets bonded into one, typically 32 pt (0.8 mm); a triplex is three, typically 48 pt. Because each ply is printed and finished as a separate sheet before bonding, finishes that would fight on a single sheet stop meeting at all. That is the reason most of our multi-finish work is built thick. The plies are the point; the thickness is a side effect (see grosor de tarjeta de visita).

• Front deboss, back letterpress. On one sheet, a deep impression on either face telegraphs through to the other. Split across two plies, the glue line absorbs any bulge. For a deboss that must not show through, 32 pt duplex is our floor.
• Different stocks front and back. A black ply on the front for gold foil and a white cotton ply on the back for letterpress. Letterpress ink is translucent and needs the light sheet; foil is what reads on the dark one.
• A colored ply instead of a flood. Letterpress solids over 13 cm² (2 in²) mottle on cotton. Make the color field a dyed ply and let letterpress carry only the lines and type.
• A colored core as the edge. On a triplex card a colored middle ply shows as a stripe around the edge with no paint at all. Painting the edge covers the core, so choose one: a visible core or a painted edge.

Cómo preparar un archivo con varios acabadosNIVEL AGENCIA

One file, one artboard per side, one layer per operation, and a written spec line. Every finish is a separate physical tool, and we make each tool from its own layer. If two operations share a layer, someone has to guess, and guessing is how finishes end up in the wrong place. The general rules are in archivos listos para imprimir; these are the multi-finish specifics.

• Un solo PDF, preferiblemente PDF/X-4 (conserva capas y canales de tinta directa).
• Una mesa de trabajo por cara, FRONT y BACK. En una tarjeta dúplex son las caras exteriores de las capas delantera y trasera.
• Una capa por operación, con el nombre de su muestra: ART para las tintas, luego FOIL-GOLD, DEBOSS, SPOT-UV, CUT. Cada color de foil tiene su propia muestra, capa, troquel y pasada.
• Cada capa de acabado es solo vectorial, al 100% de un único color reservado y en sobreimpresión. Sin tramas, degradados ni imágenes rasterizadas.
• Tinta calada bajo cada foil, con el margen de 1 mm dibujado en la capa ART. Reventados incluidos en el arte: el segundo foil se extiende 0,3 mm bajo el primero solo en el borde compartido.
• Para foil y relieve en registro: formas idénticas en las capas FOIL y EMBOSS, y "combination die" en la línea de especificaciones.
• Línea de troquel en la muestra CUT a 0.25 pt, vista previa en 100% magenta, un único trazado cerrado. Pliegues en CREASE, 100% cian.
• La pintura de canto no es una capa: va en la línea de especificaciones con una referencia Pantone U. Los códigos QR van en la capa ART, en tinta.

Después, describe la construcción en una sola línea: frente, reverso, construcción, canto. Esa línea de especificación es como comprobamos tus capas frente a tu intención.

Tres construcciones, desmontadas

Tres piezas habituales, desglosadas en capas y pasadas, cada una con el error que más a menudo la arruina.

Proyecto 1: una invitación de boda en letterpress, foil y canto pintado

Front: letterpress PMS 7545 U + FOIL-GOLD; Back: letterpress PMS 7545 U; 32 pt duplex cotton; edge painted PMS 7545 U. A 5 × 7 in card (see invitation sizes) with letterpress text, a gold foil monogram and a painted edge that matches the ink.

The landmine: the flood. The request is usually a colored background with the names knocked out in white. Letterpress floods mottle on cotton, and white letterpress ink on cotton isn't something we offer. Make the colored field a dyed cotton ply, foil the names in white pigment foil or gold, and keep letterpress for the fine type it does best. Second landmine: a gold border drawn close to the painted edge. Foil stops 3 mm inside the trim on any card with a painted edge, and it never bleeds into it.

Proyecto 2: una tarjeta de visita con foil y bajorrelieve en seco sobre dúplex negro y blanco

Front: FOIL-GOLD on black ply; Back: blind DEBOSS on white cotton ply; 32 pt duplex, black front ply and white back ply; edge painted. The front is a gold wordmark on black, the back a blind debossed monogram, and the edge shows the build.

The landmine: the deboss on the black side. A blind deboss reads by the shadow in the impression, and black uncoated stock barely shows a shadow. Put the blind deboss on the white ply and the gold on the black ply, and each finish gets the ground it needs. Two more to watch: a black or dark foil on the black face reads as sheen rather than contrast, so it can't carry the phone number; and if the card needs a QR code, it goes on the white back in ink, never in foil or deboss. The edge crosses a black ply and a white one, so choose the paint color with that in mind; a deep color reads as one continuous edge. On a very dark build we may recommend edge foil instead of paint; that is a case-by-case call we make at quote.

Proyecto 3: una funda de embalaje en CMYK, UV selectivo y troquelado

Outside: CMYK + SPOT-UV on coated board; CUT and CREASE dieline. A printed sleeve for a box, with gloss UV picking out the logo and a shaped window.

The landmine: the late switch to uncoated board. Somebody wants a more natural, kraft-looking sleeve after the artwork is built, the board changes to uncoated, and the spot UV stops working, because UV soaks into open fiber instead of curing on top. If the board goes uncoated, the UV layer becomes foil or a blind deboss, and the file changes with it. Two quieter rules: keep UV off the glue flap, since adhesive needs bare board to grab, and keep it off the crease lines, where a hard coating cracks when the sleeve folds. Draw the UV layer clear of both and we set the exact hold-back at proof.

Preflight: checklist multiacabado

• Cada acabado se aplica sobre una superficie capaz de recibirlo.
• Ningún foil toca la tinta: se reserva con una separación de 1 mm. Los foils que se tocan llevan un solapamiento de 0,3 mm; los foils separados quedan a 1 mm.
• Nada depende de un ajuste más preciso que la tolerancia entre sus pasadas.
• El foil y el relieve que deben coincidir comparten un mismo troquel combinado.
• El foil queda 3 mm dentro del corte o sangra 3 mm por fuera; se detiene a 3 mm de un canto pintado.
• Cantos pintados: esquinas rectas, cortes rectos, sin grosor mínimo; el grosor define cuánto se ve la línea.
• Huellas en ambas caras: dúplex, una por capa.
• Códigos QR y de barras en tinta.
• Una capa por operación, una muestra de color reservada para cada una y una línea de especificaciones que las nombra todas.

If a combination isn't in the matrix, ask before you build the file; a build is cheaper to fix at the sketch stage. Order a kit de muestras to see duplex, foil, deboss and painted edges in the hand, or browse the paper library for the stocks each finish needs.