Dynamic Foil is a stunning way to add color, texture, and shine to your press cards! It enhances your custom designs on Press Cards, Folding Cards, Flat Artistry Cards, and Folding Artistry Cards, creating an eye-catching, premium finish that clients love.
Creating these designs requires a few extra steps to ensure your foil aligns properly and prints beautifully. Follow the instructions below for best results.
1. Download the Correct Photoshop Guides (Here)
Start by downloading the Photoshop guides for your chosen card size (postcard or folding card).
These guides show the trim lines, bleed areas, and safe zones for your artwork.
Note: Foil can be applied to one side of the card only, but you can still design a two-sided press-printed layout.
2. Design Your Card and Identify Foil Elements
Once your design layout is in place, decide which areas you want to appear in foil.
Foil elements can include text, outlines, icons, borders, or decorative accents.
Alignment & Shift Tolerance
During production, a small amount of movement can occur between the printed image and the foil overlay.
Industry standards allow for up to 1/16 inch (0.0625") of shift in either direction during printing and foiling.
To ensure your design looks perfect even with this natural tolerance:
Avoid using foil as a thin border around images or along the card edge.
Increase your design borders to at least 1/4 inch (0.25") whenever possible.
If foil closely aligns with printed artwork, slightly overlap the foil and image layers to prevent visible gaps.
Designs with very thin lines, small text, or tight registration between foil and print may show minor misalignment and should be adjusted accordingly.
3. Set Up the Foil Layer
Create a separate layer in Photoshop for all elements that will print in foil.
Everything intended for foil must be solid black (100% K).
No gradients, shadows, or transparency—these effects will not translate to foil.
You’ll choose your actual foil color later in ACI Flex during ordering.
Example file:Full_Design.jpg — All layers visible (press-printed artwork + foil artwork)
4. Save Your Files
You’ll need two separate JPEGs for upload:
A. Press-Printed Design
Turn off your foil layers.
Save your file as a JPEG for the press-printed portion of the design.
B. Foil Design
Turn on only your foil layers.
Turn off all press-printed layers.
The background must be pure white (#ffffff). Any other color will affect foil application.
5. Upload Your Files in ACI Flex
Once your files are ready:
Log in to ACI Flex.
Upload both your press-printed and foil JPEGs.
Select your foil color, back style, corner type, coating, envelope options, and any color upgrades.
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