Plastic cards with metallic silkscreen

Metallic base/print is nothing more than the use of a special paint that contains metallic, glitter particles. Metallic shades allow for great color depth and illuminated visual effects.

Three main colors are used to produce plastic cards with a metallic cards: gold, silver and pearl.
Additionally,each color comes in two shades, giving a total of six available color options. It allows us to select the appropriate metallic base for the project in order to achieve the desired effect.

Methods of printing metallic varnishes

Metallic prints can be made in two ways:

• as full background
• and as a selective print

As a full background
Although you can cover the entire surface of the card with a metallic print, please remember that the selected metallic color may not match the colors of the card design, e.g. the color of the metallic background may clash with the color of other prints.

For example, a card design with a lot of small, light text will be difficult to see if it is surrounded by golden and silver glitter.

The solution in this case may be, for example, a golden background darkened with a bit of color. The uniform glitter background is then maintained, and at the same time, the contrast with bright inscriptions is increased.

As a selective print
Traditionally, to highlight important elements on a plastic card, they are covered with silver, gold or pearl selective lacquer – shiny or matte. Or you can use print with metallic glitter particles. Thanks to this, the card will have a visible and tactile logo, which will also have a metallic shine.

Laminating metallic cards
Like most plastic cards that we produce, cards with a metallic prints can also be secured with a laminate – glossy or matte. Additionally, you can print gold, silver and pearl on transparent cards, which will make them even more unique!

How to prepare a design for a card with a metallic background

Since the main card design is offset printed and the metallic print is screen printed, two files are needed. The card will be created in two stages of production, so a separate file is necessary for each of them.

The attached example illustrates the correct preparation of files for printing. On the left we have graphics in CMYK (offset), and on the right we have a preview of the silver glitter background (100% black). Both files must be saved to PDF, in curves and in the 89×57 mm format (the excess, i.e. the so-called bleeds, will be cut off when cutting the cards from the sheets). As a result, we will get a card as shown below.

Metallic printing is one of the best methods to add elegance and exclusivity to your cards. We also invite you to check out similar options that add elegance to cards – spot varnish prints, embossed inscriptions and hologram. If you already have a ready design for cards requiring metallic prints, use the quotation form to obtain the initial cost of producing such cards.