304: Thou shall learn the difference between embossing and debossing

Commentary This is always a fun question to ask any designer There’s a good chance the answer will be something along the lines of, “Yeah, embossing is when the surface is pushed up and—no, hang on a minute—it’s when the design is pushed into the surface and—um—err—bear with me while I look that up.” I usually forget which is which because debossing is also occasionally referred to as embossing, not to mention blind stamping, so I always have to check before specifying one finish or the other. The correct definition is that embossing is where an area of paper or board is raised above the surface so it stands out from the background, and debossing is where an area is pressed into the surface to create an indentation. Both techniques require the use of a precast die, effectively an ink-free printing block, which is applied to the surface under pressure to create the shape. So there you have it . . . At least I think that’s it. I’d better check. TS