mikepurvis
5 months ago
It would be interesting to try to have actual registration so that the embossed design can interact with the printed copy rather that just being an arbitrary background decoration.
ugh123
5 months ago
The way I understand your comment is you could have a scene or objects printed on a card, then line up an embossed design over the print to create depth or imprint specific areas of the print creating various effects. That would be interesting
em-bee
5 months ago
also a tool that generates the emboss pattern based on the design of the card. so that for example a logo on the card gets embossed.
ginko
5 months ago
I think it should be relatively straightforward to set up something like that with build123d[1]. You can load the emboss pattern from an SVG and project it on the surface of a cylinder with `project_faces()`[2]. Some positive/negative extrusion and some added keyholes and you're done.
[1] https://build123d.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html
[2] https://build123d.readthedocs.io/en/latest/direct_api_refere...
cm2187
5 months ago
or the text in 3d, like credit cards used to be
em-bee
5 months ago
i thought about that, but i think doing that to cardboard is more likely to cut the letters. you can't really make the patterns to narrow to think. although you could emboss an outline of the text
spwa4
5 months ago
I think that was not done by embossing but by "3d printing" on the business card directly.
krisoft
5 months ago
I don’t know what you mean. The technique of stamping the numbers on credit cards was literally called embossing.
Here is a video of a desktop scale embosser used for just that purpose: https://youtu.be/5ZQHSsFnACs?si=DWwgTScwl5HXkwGP
The part where the embossing daisy wheel is shown is at 18:10.
Here are machines used at an industrial scale: https://www.maticagroup.com/technologies/embossers/
They are nevertheless called “embossers”.
gerdesj
5 months ago
The embossed numbers were used to transfer the details quickly and reliably. A roller would apply pressure to press special paper onto upraised letters and numbers. The seller would hand write the amount and the buyer would sign. Two copies were made simultaneously (carbon impregnated paper) and separated and a copy kept by each party.
Its a far cry from paying by bonk and your phone beeping a few seconds later to indicate your bank has already registered the transaction!
cm2187
5 months ago
You mean business or credit card? Credit Cards I believe was embossing, you had the negative of the numbers on the back. They did that because before you had electronic card readers, merchant were taking credit card payments by making a carbon copy of the credit card number on the invoice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_imprinter
richrichardsson
5 months ago
I don't think I'm misremembering, but the back side of the card had recesses of the characters, so it was in fact embossed (in the UK at least).
xx_ns
5 months ago
I'm in Estonia, and my bank issues debit and credit cards that are definitely embossed.
em-bee
5 months ago
unrelated, but that's almost surprising. austrian banks stopped issuing embossed cards years ago. is anyone in estonia still using that feature?
xx_ns
5 months ago
Not that I know of. We're a pretty tech-forward country, so it's hard to imagine anyone making physical carbon copies these days.
em-bee
5 months ago
exactly, that's what i thought. must be one of those: it was always done that way, or maybe just, the banks bought machines to print the cards from the US or where they still do that (do they actually?) or simply those machines were cheaper, or who cares, its not like there is a downside to embossing the numbers. it could also be estonians who fled to the US in the previous century returning and bringing back their idea of how it should be done.
i was visiting the baltics in the early 90s and i head that people were desperate to get anything from the west after being cut of for so long.
mikestaas
5 months ago
You could have a detent on the edge of the platen for a consistent starting position.
ashoeafoot
5 months ago
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