How to mimic foil printing

You can easily mimic foil printing by choosing a metallic material base and using white ink to create opaque, vibrant colours.

White ink underprinting is the secret weapon of printing on effect materials because it unlocks three ways of designing for metallic materials:

1. Metallic base: When you do not add ink to your effect materials, the metallic base can shine through in all its glory. This is the genius of mimicking foil printing. You can use a metallic base instead of paying extra for metallic foils.
2. Metallic colours: You can also print any CMYK colour directly into your effect material. This will create a metallic effect for that colour.
3. Opaque colours: If you want parts of your design to have "normal" colours, white ink comes into play. We first hit these spots of your design with a layer of white ink. This will cover up the metallic effect. Then, we add another layer of ink and, tada, this layer will appear completely opaquely.

But before we jump into more detail, you might want to take a look at our article "What is foil printing".

When to mimic foiling 

Mimic foiling when working with a tight budget and looking for a glossy, white or black (or any other colour) base with metallic highlights.

Creating your foiled effect this way is much cheaper and often even faster.

The trick is that we simply leave the parts of your design you want to appear gold, silver, holographic or glitter free of ink. This will allow those effects to shine through.

The way foil printing works usually means that you can only use one material. But when you mimic it, you are not limited to white or black but can print plenty of colours onto the metallic materials.

Let's look at some examples.

Silver and black

These labels use a silver base and print black around it. See how the black looks normal and not metallic? That is because there is white ink underneath it.

You can create exactly the same look using foiling on a white or black material. But why would you when this creates the same look and is cheaper?

Blue and gold

This candle label shows you how you can use colours. Instead of white or black ink, it uses blue to print onto the gold material, creating a fantastic look.

With foil printing, you can often only print on clear or white material, so this really opens up your options.

Which materials are available? 

We offer holographic, glitter, gold and silver metallic effect materials. You can use these to create any look with unlimited colours and white ink.

Each of these options is also available using an eco-friendly base. This means that your stickers and labels are biodegradable and can be put in your food waste bin at home after use.

Please not that our clear materials are not suitable for this if you want to create a metallic effect.

Why can't you mimic clear foiling?

The whole point of mimicking foiling is that we use a metallic base to create metallic effects. Clear materials have a transparent base, so they do not have metallic effects we can print over.

When we print colours onto a clear material, it creates a stunning stained-glass effect, as you can see below. It is amazing, but it is not metallic.

If you want to add gold or silver to a clear base, you need to use foil printing methods - there is simply no other way.

Some manufacturers will give the option of using a metallic base and physically removing the parts you want to paper clear. However, this comes with limitations to how detailed your cut and be.

Mimicking foiling is a great way to add metallic effects without the premium cost of foil printing. By using effect materials with white ink underprinting for opaque colours, you can get an amazing look. If you want to create stunning labels or stickers that mimic foiling but don't have the budget for traditional foil printing methods, give us a call - our team of experts is ready and waiting to help bring your ideas to life.