So you want to letterpress on black paper. I don’t blame you it looks amazing. I mean. Look at these pictures of great letterpress cards all on black paper.
We have some rules you should know first before you decide that it is for you. Listed below in convenient list format.
1. White ink does not look white on black paper. I know it seems like a great idea. White on black and all. And it is. Truly. But the ink that we use is oil based and will just soak into the black and fade away. It will be opaque and won;t stand out. It sort of turns into a muddy grey. And since that isn’t what you wanted, neither you or we will be happy. It isn’t white on black.
2. Pretty much any color ink will not show up on black paper. The same thing is true of the other colors that you love so much. Inks do not stand out on the black as the color that they purport to be.
3. The exception is metallic inks. Use them. Oh and varnish. And black ink. Look at all these amazing examples of inks and varnish that you can use.
4. Foils are a great option for printing on black paper. Foil works great. It gets pressed into the paper as well and gives you the impression that you wanted and also shows up. Everyone wins. The only problem is that foil is not available in every color. But lucky for you there is a white foil option. And it is beautiful.
5. Screen printing is another great option to print on black paper. Look at these screen printed cards. The ink lays on top of the paper here and so can show up on the black and not become a part of the paper. You can see that it is raised a bit there so it also has a very cool texture.
6. All of these rules apply to the edging that we do as well. Keep that in mind. Duly noted.
Now rules are of course made to be broken. If you have a concept that will turn out with a broken rule above. Do it! We love rule breakers. Just know that you need to understand the rules before you break them.
