Another trend, according to Richard Zeller, product manager at Foilmark, Newburyport, MA, is overprinting done with four-color transparent inks on top of foil. Zeller also observes an increase in use of the rotary hot stamping process and diffraction and edge-guilding foils.
Monaghan adds to the list the implementation of digital technologies in manufacturing holograms for the book industry. Where a typical hologram or foil stamping process would involve one to seven days to produce a 6 x 6' hologram master, he says, with digital technologies, it is possible to produce a 30 x 40' one in a matter of hours. The whole process is faster, he notes, and renders perfect registration. Typically, in the past, he says, to make a hologram, one had to make a small prototype conventionally and then copy and repeat it to create a pattern. With digital technologies, all that can be done electronically, saving both time and money.