Silk foil technology is close to hot foiling, except that the cliché is not needed. It is based on an image created by screen printing (UV), which is then hot-foiled, depending on the technology available (flat or cylindrical), with or without multiple cliché. The image is created by using a special 3D UV varnish. Thus the embossment is not pressed but printed.
This is a massive advantage over traditional hot foiling because when foiling with this method, it does not matter what surface is foiled: paper, cardboard, textile, plastic, film, other synthetic material, wood, leather, glass, metal, etc. It is not possible to foil on many of these materials by the traditional hot foiling method. In addition to avoiding surface deformation, this technology can perform much more precise work, resulting in much thinner lines and finer details on all listed surfaces. Oddly enough, one of the advantages is economical. Because each design does not require a separate cliché, especially when printing many different designs on a single print sheet (e.g., printing religious-themed postcards), high costs are avoided.
All work can be done with both roll and sheet-fed presses.
Large selection of colours: in addition to the standard gold and silver (matte and glossy), there are about 30 different colours and shades, including metallized and holographic.