Embossed Business Cards

Embossed business cards are one of the most popular varieties of specialty business card available. They provide a touch of class and texture that's guaranteed to get noticed.

How it works: To emboss a business card, a custom die is used to push the paper up from the back (in whatever shape you choose) therefore raising the text or image upwards.

Embossed cards are a bit harder to come by online compared to some other specialty cards, but here are a few great sites.

Top Choice!

Print Shaq

Great site for embossed business cards, as well as embossing with foil or gloss add-ons. Print-Shaq has a very simple to use site and the cards are nice quality too. It doesn't hurt that they's also the most affordable option I've come across!

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Runner-Up!

Cutting Edge Designs

Cutting Edge definitely creates cutting edge embossed cards (plus a lot more specialty add-ons). The good news is you can see some of their work on their site. The better news is printing comes with free graphic design so if you like what you see, it's easy to get.

Free Graphic Design

Also Great!

Taste of Ink

Taste of Ink is definitely pricey, but they produce some stunning business cards. Their embossed / debossed cards are printed on a unique cotton stock that will help your card stand out even more. They also offer a selection of other add-ons like foil and rounded corners.

The Embossing Process

embossed printing Embossing (or debossing) is the process of pressing certain elements of your design upward (or downward). A die or plate is created to indicate where this takes place. With "blind embossing" no ink is used on the raised elements. Alternatively you can also color your embossed elements known as "color register embossing" or even employ metallic foil known as "foil embossing."

When creating your design, you will need multiple files to produce such effects. The first file is your typical design file which displays the graphical, textual, and color layout of your business card. The second file indicates which parts of that design will be raised. Typically, any element to be embossed will be inlcuded within the file, in varying color levels to account for depth, and non-embossed elements are simply left out. The process is very much the same for spot uv and foil business cards.