a to be clear or transparent enough to enable the printing 50 u2032 to be read however if there is any contrasting color printing 50 u2033 that contrasting color printing 50 u2033 still needs to be seen so the adhesive a needs to be sufficiently transparent it should be noted that the printing of fixed and variable information can be performed by various printing techniques although the printing techniques of screen printing for printing the fixed information and hot stamp printing for printing the variable information are preferred other usable techniques include thermal transfer printing having a print head with a line of closely spaced heating elements used with a thermal transfer ribbon ink jet printing flexographic printing laser printing and so on the ink i 1 can have the same characteristics following printing as the ink in the printed information in zones 21 t through 29 t applied by the equipment 31 and likewise the adhesive a applied from ribbons 60 60 u2033 hsb and hsw can have the same characteristics as the adhesive a applied by the equipment 31 when a hot stamp process is used the ink is embossed or is driven into the adhesive a to provide hot stamped embossments in accordance with the raised indicia 50 on the printing plate 48 so even if the essentially transparent adhesive a would present a very slight diminution of visibility or readability of the printing the hot stamp process makes the printing even more vibrant and visible than in the event certain other techniques for printing on the adhesive a are used in the event it is desired to produce a transfer medium web w w u2032 or.