Before an embossing job goes into full production, usually the die maker will
provide you with what's called a strike. It's a proof.
It's a test emboss of the stock that's going to be used on the final job.
And you need to inspect that to make sure it looks the way you expect.
You want to check the depth; is the embossing the proper depth you were expecting?
And if you're using a multi level or a sculptural embossing die, make sure
there's sufficient difference between the levels, and you can see the detail that
you were hoping to capture in the embossing.
And, speaking of detail, you want to check for broken type, broken rules, any small
art components. You want to make sure that they're
rendered with fidelity. You want to check for distortion.
Are smaller details distinct? And since embossing involves pressure, and
you're really just sculpting the paper, you want to check for stock buckling.
And this is especially true of very heavy stock.
And if you're performing the embossing near a trim or a fold, you want to stay a
certain distance away from trims or folds. But in heavy stock, it can still have a
bit of deformation of the stock. Because heat is often used during
embossing, you might see some scorching of the paper.
Not so much with dark stock but with light stock, you might see a bit of scorching.
You can actually use that sort of as an artistic component.
A lot of people do. But if it's not what you want, then you
may have to either change the stock or you might have to change a bit about the dye,
so that not so much heat is required and that no scorching occurs.
If it's thin paper or if it's coated paper you have to beware of tearing.
If you're embossing printed pieces. then you have to check for registration.
So does that embossed area align with the printed area?
If you're using a combination die you want to make sure that the foil aligns
with the embossed area that it's supposed to align with.
And you want to make sure that it interacts with that foil correctly.
You want to check for splitting or tearing.
So just like going to a press check for a job that purely invovles print, this
really counts. When you're looking at a press proof or
you're looking at a proof that a printer gives you before running a press job.
This is the time to really pay attention to all the details because once you set it
in motion, you want to make sure that your going to be happy with the finished piece.
You put allot of work into a job that involves specialty finishing like
embossing and you really want it to turn out nicely.