What sets tactile paper red packets apart
The point of tactile (soft-touch) paper is touch: the feel and texture of the surface, which you only fully sense in the hand. In the joyfold catalog, 20 red packets are recorded as tactile paper, and two of them as velvet tactile paper. Looking through them, you will see that the designs often limit color on purpose and leave the attention to the paper itself.
1. Tone-on-tone patterns: texture from afar, brand up close
Several tactile paper packets cover the whole face with a brand’s letters or logo in a color close to the ground. The LA-BEAUT brand packet fills the face with diagonal rows of slightly lighter “LA” letters, and only the single line with the brand name in the center is gold. The Happy New Year packet fills the ground with “TAIWAN TEA HOUSE” in the same color, with gold calligraphy reading “新年快乐” (“Happy New Year”) in the center. The JOYWELL brand packet repeats an atom-shaped logo across the ground and places the same logo, enlarged in gold, in the middle.
2. Embossing and raised effects: patterns with relief
Tactile paper often appears together with embossing and raised effects. The KALLOS geometric pattern packet is recorded as full-plate custom foil stamping with embossing, with interlocking circles covering most of the face. The 麦寻 brand packet is full-plate custom foil stamping with a raised effect, with two ears of wheat reaching diagonally from the bottom to the top. The dragon and phoenix packet and the HONGSHENG horizontal envelope are recorded with embossing only; on the latter, both the pattern and the text are in a red close to the ground, and the layers show through relief and sheen.
For the specific effects of embossing and raised effects, see the embossing guide and the raised effects guide.
3. White space: one seal, one line
The seal packet is almost entirely blank, with only a gold square seal in the upper middle. The 福 brand packet has a round seal-script “福” (“good fortune”) seal and one line of brush calligraphy reading “破茧重生” (“break out of the cocoon and be reborn”). The JNFR horizontal envelope puts only four letters in the middle of a ground sprinkled with gold flecks. The more white space a design has, the more the paper’s feel stands out.
4. It can be lively too
Tactile paper is not only for plain designs. The zodiac packet covers the whole face with small papercut-style zodiac animals, gold ingots, fireworks and wave patterns. The SRFAMILY crab packet fills the red ground with smiling cartoon crabs in six columns.
What to confirm when choosing tactile paper
- Feel a paper sample: touch is almost invisible in photos and on screens, so confirm with a paper sample or a finished sample.
- Paper name: papers called tactile paper may have different surfaces, so record the paper name or sample number both sides agree on.
- Finish pairing: embossing, raised effects and foil look different on different paper surfaces. Confirm the combination first, and see the paper selection guide.
