What on earth are these types of gloss finish printing? Why all the different names? What is the difference? Which should I choose?
Printing Brisbane’s Guide to Gloss Special Effects
Spot gloss, or UV varnish has for many years now been a fabulous and popular special effect on business cards. You usually see it on just one side of a business card, adding a gloss highlight to just the logo as a nice contrast to the background which is usually a matt or satin laminate (celloglaze). It is almost always on the top of a matt laminate for maximum contrast. Never on top of a gloss laminate, as there would be no point! And, rarely on uncoated card as the varnish tends to soak into the card a little and lose impact.
It basically comes down to two key variations….
Spot UV
This technique uses UV light to “cure” a varnish that is applied to paper or card. It is usually only applied to a part, or a ‘spot’ of a printed item as a way to highlight a feature. It can be perfectly lined up to go on top of a logo, for example. Or, it can go onto a plain background for a subtle, yet effective design feature. Generally, the minimum recommended line thickness for optimum results is 1mm. There are specialists who can do very fine work (down to 0.1mm) with spot gloss, just ask!
Raised Spot Gloss
You likely won’t have seen as much raised spot gloss around. This varnish has an effect similar to that of embossing, but is actually a thicker, raised version of the spot UV. It is also known as Scodix, which is the brand name of one of the processes that produces this finish. Raised spot gloss is just great. It adds instant texture and dimension and creates a genuine interest in your printed product, before people have even read a word! It is particularly effective when paired with a special soft touch laminate – the contrast is great, and the cost a lot more reasonable than you might expect!
Spot gloss is most commonly used on business cards (single or double sided) but it is also a great effect on booklet covers, postcards, presentation folders etc. We can post you some samples if you would like to see for yourself how great it looks!
