Kraft or black card stock?

Our press lays down no white ink. Ink is transparent, so what you print is tinted by the paper underneath rather than sitting on top of it. On kraft, dark ink over warm brown reads beautifully. But anything white or very light in your artwork is simply not printed at all — the bare card shows through instead.

On black stock that same rule leaves nothing to work with. Almost every ink we could lay down disappears into the paper, so black is a blank-only stock — no custom printing. That is not a limitation we chose; it is what the ink physically does.

So the decision falls out like this:

• You want your logo on the card → kraft. Black, navy, deep green and burgundy all print rich and read clearly against brown.
• You want a dark, minimal backdrop → black, blank. Brand it with a stamp, a sticker or a hang tag instead (more on that below).
• Your logo is white or reversed-out → send a dark version. A white wordmark prints as nothing on either stock. Ask your designer for a one-colour dark variant; most brands already have one.
• Pale or pastel brand colours → kraft mutes them. Soft pink or pale grey over brown reads muddy rather than delicate. Go darker, or go blank.

You do not have to guess which side of that line you are on. The designer samples your uploaded artwork and warns you when less than 8% of it carries enough ink to register on kraft — before you pay for anything.

This is the part people are most often surprised by, and it is worth setting expectations before you order rather than after. Kraft is brown, and printing ink is transparent. Ink does not sit on top of the card the way paint sits on a wall — light passes through it, bounces off the brown fibre underneath, and comes back tinted. So every colour you print lands darker, warmer and a little softer than the same colour on a white screen.

How much depends on the colour:

• Deep, saturated colours hold up best. Black, navy, forest green, burgundy and charcoal all stay recognisably themselves.
• Mid-tones warm up. A cool grey drifts towards taupe; a bright red reads a shade closer to brick. Still perfectly good, just not screen-identical.
• Pale and pastel shades lose the most. Blush, mint, pale grey and cream have little ink to work with, so the brown dominates and they read muddy.
• White and near-white do not print at all — see the no-white-ink rule above.

None of this is a fault, and it is not something we can calibrate away — it is what transparent ink on brown paper physically does. Every printer working on kraft has the same constraint. The designer preview gets you close, but treat it as an approximation of the colour rather than a match: if a colour has to be exact, kraft is the wrong surface for it.

Blank does not mean unbranded. Makers who use black cards get their name on them another way, and these all sit on top of the card rather than soaking into it:

• A metallic or white stamp. Pigment ink and a rubber stamp put a light mark on dark card, exactly where our press cannot.
• A printed sticker. A small circular label on the back carries a logo, a care note or a QR code to your shop.
• A hang tag or belly band. Keeps the card itself clean and moves the branding onto something that prints normally.

If none of that appeals and you want the logo on the card itself, kraft is the answer — it is the stock the printing is built around.

• Open your logo and ask: is it dark? If yes, kraft prints it well. If it is white or lives on a dark background, get a dark variant before you order.
• Look at your other packaging. Cards should match your mailers and tags. Mixed stock across a brand reads as accidental.
• Consider where it is sold.Kraft suits markets, makers’ fairs and eco-positioned brands; black suits boutiques and darker, jewellery-forward displays.
• Try it in the designer. Upload your logo and look at it on the real card shape before you spend anything.