It's sorta the chocolate or vanilla thing - tomAto or tomatO - mustard or ketchup. When looking for a cushy, 100% cotton sheet to print on, folks - especially letterpress and designer folk, have a definite favorite. It's either Neenah, Crane's LETTRA or Reich's SAVOY. Whichever one you are, never fear, Olmsted-Kirk now stocks both! So if it's the soft linters of LETTRA or the subtle but crisp folding properties of SAVOY that you love - you're covered.
Both SAVOY and LETTRA can be used for a wide range of projects from greeting cards and invitations to hang tags and luxury packaging. Each of the sheets are offered in weights well over 200 Cover for great heft. LETTRA goes up to a 220 and SAVOY hits the roof with a 236. Though they both were originally designed for letterpress printing, they can also be offset and digitally printed beautifully.
Haven't made up your mind which one is right for you and your project? Let's break down each sheet for you. I personally love both equally for each of its unique attributes.
- Its strong formulation, yet soft flexibility allow for strikingly clean and crisp folding, blind embossing, foil stamping and engraving. And it gorgeous with standard four color / CMYK.
- SAVOY 80# Text and 92# Cover are certified for use on Kodak NexPress digital presses. SAVOY Brilliant White 118# Cover has been used successfully on many HP Indigo presses though not certified because it is too thick for certification.
- SAVOY is tree free and made from 100% recovered cotton from the textile industry. It is archival, acid free, recyclable, biodegradable, and elemental chlorine free.
- Users who love SAVOY say its surface allows for crisper ink jet printing or handwritten, ink calligraphy and it doesn't show the cotton linters when folding.
- Tough yet fluffy. LETTRA is unsized and uncalendared which leaves the fibers relatively uncompacted, giving the sheet an extra bulky feel.
- LETTRA has the feel of fabric and the look of hand made art paper. And while it is engineered to stand up to the great pressures of letterpress printing, it performs equally well with offset lithography; engraving; stamping; and inkless processes such as embossing, debossing, or die-cutting.
- LETTRA is made from cotton linters—a byproduct of the cotton industry that is recognized by the EPA as recovered fiber. Not only are these fibers environmentally responsible, they can be recycled with traditional paper.
- Users who love LETTRA say it feels like fabric and the envelopes are bulkier.
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