A secondary benefit of dealing with a printing specialist, Harkins said, is one-stop shopping. From choosing the style, the paper and the ink to working out the exact wording and placing the order, it can all be handled in one place with someone to hold your hand all along the way. All formal invitations used to be engraved. True engraving involves making a plate that presses out or extrudes the letters, inking the raised wording at the same time. Today what appears to be an engraved invitation is most likely the product of a process called thermography.
Thermography creates an engraved look through the use of textured inks.
The ink is raised and has dimension, not the paper. It takes an educated printer's eye to tell the difference, however, Harkins said. That's a hangover from the days of true engraving, according to Harkins, an archaic tradition that is still part of what is expected with a wedding invitation. It was a necessity in a time when inks didn't dry quickly. They served as a kind of blotter that kept the ink on the raised letters from smudging all over the card and its envelope.