Pad printing follows the same printing principle as an office inking pad. This technique is quite old and consists of etching a pad matching the file to be printed, then filling it with ink to mark the intended object. The current procedure involves transferring colour with a silicon pad, which is made from either wood or stone, covered with ink and transferred on to the substrate.
There are limitations to this technique, as it is very slow and the pad needs to be changed for every new file. That demands time for adjustments and preparation that is not necessary with digital printing, for example. In addition, multi-colour pad printing is very complicated and can only be done by a specialist. All of this adds extra costs to your printing.
Pad printing also has drawbacks compared to hot stamping, for example, such as unwanted shine or the thickness of the ink layer printed on substrates. The print only offers average durability, especially on metal, glass or ceramics.