There are 500 full-color cards in my game and the front-side of the cards are all the same however the back-side of each card is different. I need these cards to have a aqueous finish but the printer told me they are unable to do it because the variable data forces them to print my cards on a digital press which uses toner. According to the printer the aqueous coating will dissolve the toner and printed offset means paying more for all the plates they will need to create because of the variable data. I am not interested in lamination, any ideas?
Printing variable data on my game cards.
Fri, 02/12/2010 - 06:58
Fri, 02/12/2010 - 12:15
#1
Don't laminate?
If your cards aren't going to be shuffled often (if ever - like the cards in a trivia game), you may not need to bother with coating or lamination.
I've made super-short run card games at Kinko's. They used a printer that I imagine is similar to what your printer will use for your cards with variable data. I didn't get any lamination or coating on them and they looked fine. Quite nice, in fact.
So, ask yourself if you really need to have the cards coated. If not, you're good to go.
Sat, 02/13/2010 - 17:19
#2
Printing
Your printer is giving you correct advise when he says you cannot AQ a digitally printed sheet.
I have sent Digital sheets (toner based) to be UV coated, which is an alternative to lamination. However the cost wil probably be prohibitive and the appearence isn't THAT different from lamination (which you already said you're not interested in).
If your'e concerned about wear and tear on the cards you might ask the printer for a paper recommendation.
The correct stock can do a lot for your reproductions (gloss stock looks great and wears well as the paper itself is coated) and the correct thickness can go a long way to ensure survivability.
Sat, 02/13/2010 - 22:14
#3
Precisely what I was trying to say...
The correct stock can do a lot for your reproductions (gloss stock looks great and wears well as the paper itself is coated) and the correct thickness can go a long way to ensure survivability.
Thanks for pointing this out to the original poster. This is what made the big difference for the mini-projects I did at Kinko's. They used glossy stock of a decent weight and it came out great (for my purposes, at least).
Tue, 11/01/2011 - 14:17
#4
Printing on digital sheets
Wow I finally found your post. I saw this a couple of weeks ago and tried to become a member but then I couln;t find your post to answer. I work for a printing company in Kansas City kansas. We print variable image gameboards for a gaming company here in Kansas City, we always aqueous coat the pieces and we have no problems. It's when we try to put on any kind of varnish that we run into issues. The Varnish is the one that will dissolve the toner and cause it to come off but aqueous coating is a non issue. I just wanted to let you know that, thanks for your time.
