Embossing involves the creation of male and female dies or moulds. Often hand crafted, dies are then mechanically pressed together with the target material placed between them to give a raised (embossed), or lowered (debossed) impression.

Embossing produces a very striking tactile effect and can be applied to various materials including leather, paper or card and some metals.

One important limitation to remember is that the finer the detail and the thicker the material, the less evident the embossed effect; this can be offset to an extent by using brass dies that produce a much cleaner and sharper image than standard magnesium single level dies, however they are much more expensive.

Single-Level Emboss: Raising the image area to one single flat level. Blind or register with a beveled or rounded edge.

Register Emboss: Raising an area which has been printed or foil stamped.

Multi-level Emboss: The embossed impression may consist of two, three, or more levels of depth. Can be blind or register embossed. Creates a three dimensional look.

Deboss: Areas recess, or go down, rather than raising up.

Stamp & Bump: Process of foil stamping the image in one pass on the press, then embossing the foiled image with a second pass.