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Foil Printing: The Past, Present, and Future




Foil stamping is a practice that dates all the way back to ancient Egypt.

Back then, the Egyptians would hammer gold into super thin strips for use in embellishment. The designs would be used for fashion and to adorn their deceased’s tombs and mummified bodies.


Around a thousand years later in Europe, printing processes using foil were becoming more popular. They were ultimately limited due to being labor intensive, and expensive. More improvements were made in the 19th century and a concept of hot foil stamping was invented. In the modern age more, advancements to foil stamping were made. The invention of Cold stamping allowed for bigger runs and lowered expenses because of lowered setup times and material costs.


MGI’s 21st Century foil and varnish technology has changed everything we know about foil stamping. For example, we have alleviated the limitations of being locked into one repeatable design when using foil. Using our process, there is no longer a need for dies, long setup, production times at press, and no more recouping cost savings via large runs. DMS Color knew this would be a big opportunity to serve our customers a “new” way to look at print. We set out to acquire this technology and create our own methods of printing and designing. This lead to the creation of our DigiLab, a specialized branch to experiment, discover and combine new ways of implementing foil, varnish, and CMYK print. Our DigiLab is dedicated to improving our methods to create stunning pieces of work. DMS Color and we at DigiLab pride ourselves on creating designs our customers will be excited to share with their audience and make their message more effective.


The insights we’ve gained during our journey have been incredible and allowed us to expand our capabilities to entirely different services than we originally offered. For example, we recently expanded into small packaging when we recognized a need for short run – high impact packages – with short turn times. We love that we continue to evolve to help meet our clients’ needs as our knowledge expands. The sky is the limit with what foil and jet varnish can do in the print world.


We believe foil and jet varnish is truly the future of printing. We are creating pieces that capture the imagination and were not previously possible or practical. We are learning how effective high visibility marketing can be, and that print must evolve to become more competitive with expanding digital marketing methods. DMS Color doesn’t want you to just see our prints, we want you to experience and feel them! To learn more about how we are trying to change the print world sign up for our email list.

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