SEAL QUALITY:   Standard vs Self inking, Pre-Inked and Embossing Seals

Professionals normally require quality seal image as a personal expression of their finished work and these recommendations may give some incite into that choice.

Seal Print Quality Scale  Know what type of Seal you order

Electronic Computer Seal Images like rastor JPG, (gif not recommended) and vectorized AutoCAD DXF files produce the best quality of Seal Image that still needs to be signed and dated. State boards are now allowing electronic images on professional work in many states. Check with the state and board in question.  It appears the electronic image will be the standard in the future...Yes, we create them in a choice of many formats and are inexpensive. See formats Click Here

Standard Seal Polymer: is a flat semi hard surface with reasonably sharp letter and design edge and proper inking produce the second best reproduction image and is used in the printing industry as another method other than lithograph printing. Our polymer dies are mounted on wood base and wood handle and may appear old fashion but very functional. The intermediate foam rubber between the die plate and wood base levels the pressure for an even impression.  It gives the professional the control of placing the seal in a more precise position on his work and applying the right touch and pressure to insure a better image reproduction.  It is also less expensive and our recommended seal that we produce at the discounted price of $19.95

Standard Seal Rubber: if the mold is reproduced from an engraving, the finished product should have a good design plane without highs and lows.  Unfortunately, engravings are expensive and to be competitive many Rubber Stamp manufacturers use foundry type that has wear and tear from many uses and with the lock up method may create highs and lows in the finished product requiring "smashing" to ink and  print the entire image.  We discontinued our vulcanizing process over a decade ago.

Self Inking Seal:  with commercial machine is our third choice for quality but expensive. Precision placing is reduced because of the large base the stamp machine has, convenient but a little bulky in my opinion but would be an answer for volume stamping and they last for years.  Recommend polymer die plate to ensure correct design plane.  Commercial machines Click here

Self Inking Seal: with economy plastic machine.  We can not recommend as our experience is limited.  The economy machines for the large sizes have recently been introduced and I am a little skeptical of their performance of producing a good quality image.  If quality is placed second to convenience, than the economy plastic machine may be an answer for convenient volume use. The smaller rectangular seals that fit on the Ideal 200 does well, inexpensive and is popular at an additional $5.95. We do not have self inking plastic machines for the larger 1.625 inch diameter and larger.

Pre-Inked Seals from Mold: Pre-ink dies are a porous stamp  that holds the ink within the design and are not as crisp as a polymer stamp.  The original has thousands of impressions. They are represented as being re-inkable but you do not have a vacuum chamber the original had so you wind up with just surface re-inking that require repeated inking. Normal processing will have design printing "mottled" or "bleeding" especially with the small close lettering.  The exception to this rule may be the Process of the "X-Stamper" but they are very expensive and what I have seen of their work, I am impressed. We currently  have pre-ink sources but not of a quality that professionals would find satisfactory for their seals so therefore do not offer nor recommend.

Pre-Inked Seals from Laser Cut: Stamps that are laser cut from a foam base that the ink is forced into the die plate with a vacuum chamber. I have found that large stamps have a shallow cutting and will often print the back ground when printing the image or providing additional pressure. Again the porous nature of the die material will leave a more "mottled" or "bleeding" image especially with the small and close lettering.

Seal Embossers and Crimpers: No question in my mind that an embossed seal has charm but many disadvantages. However, State boards are requiring that the seal be photo-copy ready and legible requiring an additional inking device to be added to the embosser. The embossers are also fitted in a fixed position which results in the image being right side up, 90 degree angle or up side down depending on which side of the paper the embossed image is applied. Plus, the throat of the embossing machine limits how far the seal can reach into the document.  Design is limited to a brass female die that is mass produced and distributed for each state and the cutting tools applied to the brass die.  The end result is that the embosser is more expensive to make and their weight increases shipping costs as well.  I noticed that boards are designing seals that discourage the creation of seal embossers.  We have discontinued our embosser production.