Finishes, explained.
The press puts the ink on the paper. Everything that happens to the sheet after that is a finish: a coating, a film, a foil, a shape pressed in, a cut, a crease, a beam, a painted edge. Here is what each one is, what it asks of the paper and the file, and when it earns its place.
UV coating: our usual protective finish.
A clear liquid rolled over the printed sheet and cured hard, in seconds, under ultraviolet light. It protects the ink, brings up the gloss and adds no film. When a piece needs protecting, this is the finish it usually gets.
What a UV coating is
A thin, clear coating applied to the printed sheet by a roller and passed under ultraviolet lamps, which cure it from a liquid to a hard, glossy skin before the sheet reaches the other end of the coater. There is no film and no glue: the coating bonds to the ink and the paper themselves, so it adds nothing you can measure to the thickness, the cut edge is clean, and there is no film to lift at a corner. It can go on one side or both. A card, a postcard or a cover that is coated usually gets both; a piece that will be written on gets the front only, with the back left bare for a pen.
No film
Why it is the usual answer
It does the job a laminate is asked to do on most pieces, without the film. The ink is sealed, so the print does not scuff, smudge or take fingerprints. The surface wipes clean with a damp cloth. It is cured the moment it is applied, so a coated job goes straight to the cutter and nothing waits to dry. And the sheet stays the sheet: the same thickness, the same paper at the edge, the same fold. The one thing it cannot do is feel like velvet; that is the next section.
What it does to color
Gloss makes color look richer and blacks deeper, because a smooth clear surface reflects light back cleanly instead of scattering it. The hue barely moves; what changes is how saturated a color reads, and a photograph or a solid comes up with more depth than it has bare. The coating is thin and clear, so the shift is smaller than under a film. If a color must be exact, ask for a printed proof and say it will be coated, so we proof it coated.
Where it is not the answer
On paper that will take a pen, the front can be coated and the back should not be. On anything that goes through an office printer, neither side: toner will not fuse to the coating and inkjet will not dry on it, so a letterhead or a form stays bare. On cotton, kraft and other textured sheets: the coating soaks in, comes up duller and a little uneven, and covers the texture you chose the paper for. It sits best on a coated sheet, gloss, velvet or silk, and well on a smooth uncoated cover. Across a fold it can show a fine crack, worst under a dark solid: a good score helps, keeping heavy color off the fold helps more, and where a fold must carry a dark solid a matte or soft touch film folds cleaner.
When a laminate is still better
Three jobs. The first is soft touch, where the velvet feel is the finish and no coating has it. The second is anything that will get properly wet, a bar menu or a card that lives by a sink: a film sealed to both faces takes spills and a wet cloth longer than a coating does, while a menu that is only wiped down does well with the coating, as the paper guide says. The third is a plain cover that has to survive a bag, if a scuff would show on it. For everything else, the coating.
UV coating is a line on the quote: say one side or both, and we will say which the piece wants. Ours is gloss. It is our usual protective finish, not an upgrade to the work.
Laminates: a film over the whole sheet.
Soft touch, gloss and matte are the same idea in three moods: a clear film bonded to the printed sheet with heat and pressure. It protects the ink, changes how the piece feels, and adds about a point of thickness a side. We reach for one when the feel is the point, or when a piece will get properly wet for a living.
What a laminate is
A clear film about a thousandth of an inch thick, laid over the printed sheet and bonded to it with heat and pressure. It seals the ink underneath, so the print does not scuff, smudge or take on fingerprints the way bare ink does, and it changes how the piece feels before anyone reads a word. A card is laminated on both sides: a film on one side only pulls a card into a curl. A bound cover or a folder can take the film on the outside only; we say which a piece needs.
+1 pt
What the film adds
One point is a thousandth of an inch, and that is about what each laminated side adds; the +1 pt on the paper guide is per side. A 16 pt business card laminated both sides comes out close to 18 pt, and it feels stiffer than that number says, because a film bonded to both faces resists bending far more than its own thickness would. That extra stiffness is a good part of why a laminated card feels so substantial.
Soft touch
A matte film with a velvet feel: warm, slightly grippy, and people keep reaching for it. It turns a solid black velvety instead of shiny, quiets colors a little and hides fingerprints well. It is the one finish a coating cannot stand in for, and the one to choose when the feel of a card or a cover is the point. Not writable, and it scuffs; the next section says why and what to do about it.
Gloss
A high-shine film. Colors look saturated, photographs pop, and the surface wipes clean with a damp cloth, which is why a menu that will get properly wet gets it; a menu that is only wiped down is UV coated instead. It shows fingerprints and glare under lights, and a pen will not take on it. On a flat card a UV coating gives much the same look without the film.
Matte
Gloss without the shine: the same protection, a smooth, low-glare surface, and colors a shade softer than under gloss, much as with soft touch. It has none of the velvet, and it marks less: a hard rub shows as a faint shine rather than a scratch. The sensible choice for a cover that has to survive a bag, or a card that should look plain and last.
Soft touch and gloss laminate are the finish choices on the business card page, and the booklet page offers a gloss laminated cover. Matte laminate is a line on the quote, and so is a laminate on a postcard or a folded piece. Each adds about 1 pt a side.
What a film changes, and when to skip it.
A laminate is not invisible. It shifts the color a little, it can be scuffed, and there are jobs where it is the wrong answer.
Color under a film
Gloss makes colors look richer and blacks shinier, because the film reflects light back cleanly, like a wet stone. Soft touch and matte scatter that light, so colors sit a little quieter and a solid black goes velvety rather than shiny; measured, it is a shade lighter than the same black bare, which is why a large rich black under soft touch can look faintly hazy in some light. The hue barely moves; what changes is how light or how saturated a color reads. If a color must be exact, ask for a printed proof and say which laminate it will get, so we proof it under the film.
Why soft touch scuffs
The velvet feel comes from a surface of microscopic peaks that scatter light. Rub it against keys, a fingernail or the edge of another card and two things happen: the peaks polish flat, which shows as a shiny patch, and the surface abrades, which shows as a pale scratch. On a solid black design both are plain to see; a light or busy design hides them almost entirely. Keep the cards in a case rather than loose in a pocket, and do not try to polish a mark out; rubbing makes a bigger one.
When not to laminate
Anything that will be written on: appointment cards, reply cards, notecards, place cards. Anything that goes through an office printer. Cotton and kraft, most of the time: the film covers the texture you chose the paper for, so the card stops feeling like cotton or kraft. The card page lets you pair them, and soft touch over cotton works in its own right, but it is worth seeing in the hand first. Soft touch on kraft and gloss on black are pairings we advise against. And it is for covers, not pages: a laminate goes on a sheet at a time, so the inside of a booklet stays bare.
A film sealed to both faces is what lets a menu shrug off spills and a wet cloth for a year; a UV coating wipes clean too, and is the answer on a card, a flat piece or a menu that is handled and wiped rather than washed. Even a laminate leaves the cut edges as bare paper, so it is water resistant, not waterproof. A folded piece can have one: the sheet is laminated flat, scored through film and paper together, then folded. A gloss film on the outside of a fold is the one that can show a pale line at the crease; soft touch and matte fold cleaner.
Foil: a metal layer in the shape of your art.
A foil is a metallic or pigment layer transferred onto the sheet where the art says. It is opaque, so it is bright on black and kraft, where ink is not, and it catches light the way no ink can. There are two ways to put it there; foil is set up for each job, and the art, the paper and the count decide which.
Hot foil, with a die
The traditional way. A metal die of your art is heated and pressed through a ribbon of foil onto the paper; where the die touches, the foil bonds, and the rest of the ribbon lifts away. It leaves a crisp edge and a faint impression you can feel, and it works on almost any paper, including cotton, kraft and black. A die is made per design, so it suits art that will run again and again.
Digital foil, with no die
The foil bonds to toner, the dry ink a digital press fuses onto the sheet, so there is no die. The foil areas print first as a solid black, the sheet passes under a heated roller with the foil, and the foil sticks only where the toner is. Quick for short runs, one-offs and names that change. It wants a smooth, coated or laminated sheet and does not take well on cotton or kraft. The edge is a shade softer than a die's, so keep lines to 1 pt and up, and there is no impression.
Gold, silver, copper and the rest
Gold, silver and copper are the three we usually run. Rose gold, matte and brushed metallics, black, white, clear and holographic foils exist and can be ordered in for a job. Holographic shifts through a rainbow as the card tilts; it is the loudest thing on this page and wants a plain design around it. Tell us the mood and we will suggest one.
0.5 pt
Art that foils well
Vector shapes and type in one flat color: foil is either there or not, so no gradients, tints or photographs. Lines from 0.5 pt with hot foil on a smooth sheet, 1 pt with digital foil or on cotton or kraft, type from 6 pt in a sturdy face rather than a hairline serif, and gaps inside the foil of at least 1 pt so they do not fill in. Foil lands within about 1/32 in of the printed art, so do not draw a printed outline around a foil shape or butt foil to a printed edge; let it stand on its own. Keep it 0.125 in from the trim, and put it on its own layer as a spot color named Foil; the artwork guide shows how.
On black, kraft and cotton
Hot foil is opaque, so gold on black is as bright as gold on white; it is the main reason to order in a black sheet for a job. On kraft the fiber shows a little through the edges, which suits it. On cotton the die presses the foil into the soft fibers and you get foil with a slight deboss, the classic wedding look. All three want hot foil; digital foil wants a smooth, coated face. A large solid of foil on a textured sheet can show pinholes; keep solids under about an inch across, or choose a smooth sheet.
Foil is a line on the quote, because the method and the coverage decide how it is done. Send the art and the paper you have in mind, and we tell you what it needs before you commit.
Embossing, debossing and letterpress.
Two ways to shape the sheet, and a third that people ask for as a finish because what they want is the impression. All three depend on the paper more than on the die: a thick, soft, uncoated stock takes a deep impression, and a thin coated one does not.
Raised or pressed in
An emboss squeezes the sheet between two matched dies so the shape stands up from the front, and it always shows as a dent behind. A deboss presses the shape down into the front: made with two dies it leaves a bump behind; pressed with a single die against a flat plate on thick, soft stock, the way it is usually done on cotton, it leaves the back nearly flat. Design the back around what shows, keep that area clear, or duplex the card so a second sheet hides it.
Blind or registered
A blind emboss is the shape alone, no ink, no foil: it reads by light and shadow and suits a logo or a monogram on plain stock. A registered emboss lines up with something printed or foiled, so the raised logo is also the gold logo. The two land within about 1/32 in of each other, so the printed art and the emboss should be the same solid shape, not a thin outline around a raised fill. Foil and emboss can also happen in one hit, from a combination die.
17 pt
Depth needs stock
The deeper the impression, the more paper it needs. Cotton 110 lb cover (17 pt) takes a deep, sculpted emboss; black 130 lb cover (16 pt) a good one, though a deep, sharp-edged shape on a dyed sheet can lighten the fibers where they stretch, so keep the edges soft; both are ordered in for the job. Our smooth uncoated 130 lb cover, the thickest sheet on the shelf, takes a moderate one. Text weight takes the shallow, crisp kind, which is the embossed logo on most letterhead, and nothing deeper. Coated stock can crack at the edges of the shape. Simple, bold shapes read best: lines from about 1 pt, type from about 10 pt.
Letterpress: the impression as a finish
Letterpress is printing, but people ask for it as a finish, because what they want is the feel: a raised plate of the art is inked and pressed into the sheet, and the type sits in a shallow well. The ink is thin and a little translucent, so it suits type and line art in one or two flat colors on a soft, light paper, and cotton was made for it. When a job is better letterpress, we say so and see it through, from the file to the box. Where the well matters more than the ink, a deboss on cotton with the art printed in register gives the impression under a digital print, and we say which suits the piece.
What to send
Vector art, one flat color per level, on its own layer named Emboss or Deboss, with the printed art on the layers beneath. No tints, no gradients, no photographs. The die is made from the file exactly as you send it, so a shape that is fussy on screen will be fussy in metal. Simplify; the paper will thank you.
Embossing and debossing are quoted through Start a project. Send the art and the paper you have in mind, and we will say how deep it can go.
Spot gloss, aqueous coating and varnish.
The other liquids. One is a design tool in its own right. The other two belong to an offset run, so here is what they are and when a job gets them.
Spot gloss on a matte card
Spot gloss, which the trade calls spot UV: a thick, clear, high-gloss coating cured hard under ultraviolet light, applied only where your art says, on a card that is otherwise matte or soft touch. The contrast is the effect: the logo shines, the rest does not, and a fingertip can feel the edge. It reads best over a laminate or a coated sheet; on bare uncoated paper it soaks in and goes dull. It lands within about 1/32 in of the print, so a gloss shape that must sit exactly on a printed one will be a hair off; let it stand on its own where you can. Send the gloss areas on their own layer as a spot color named Spot gloss, the way the artwork guide shows for foil: lines from 1 pt, type from 8 pt, and 0.125 in from the trim, where a coating can chip at the cut.
Aqueous coating and varnish: the offset finishes
Aqueous is a thin, water-based clear coat put down by a unit on an offset press as the sheet leaves it, in gloss, satin or matte; it stops fingerprints and scuffing on long runs of brochures and covers, and adds nothing you can feel. A varnish is a clear printed like an ink, so it can go on a spot or over the whole sheet, with less protection than aqueous. Both belong to an offset run, so they come with an offset job, and the quote says which the piece wants. A digital job gets UV coating here: tougher than either, and the usual finish on our work rather than an extra.
Coating or laminate?
A UV coating is the usual answer when a piece needs protecting: it protects, it shines, it wipes clean and it adds nothing to the thickness. A laminate is the answer when the feel is the point, which is soft touch, or when the piece will get properly wet, which is a bar menu. Spot gloss is a design choice rather than protection: it sits on top of a matte or soft touch film, or a velvet coated sheet, where the contrast shows, and not over our gloss coating, where it would not. We say which on the quote.
Spot gloss is a line on the quote. The artwork for it is a layer in your file, and we check it with you on the proof.
Scoring, shaped cuts, stickers, rounded corners, perforation.
Everything done to the sheet with a blade or a scoring rule, the blunt steel strip that presses a crease. Scoring is the one people skip and regret.
Scoring: why cover stock cracks without it
A score is a rounded channel pressed into cover stock along the fold line before folding, by a blunt, rounded steel strip called a rule. It gathers the fibers so the sheet bends there and nowhere else, and the ridge it leaves sits inside the fold, where paper compresses instead of stretching. Fold cover stock without one and the fibers on the outside snap: the ink and any coating crack and show white, worst on coated stock, across the grain and under solid dark color. Text weight folds clean on its own; cover stock is scored, always.
1/16 in
Folds, planned
The finished size is the folded size, and the panel that tucks inside a tri-fold is cut narrower than the others so it does not buckle: about 1/16 in on text weight, 1/8 in on cover. Keep thin lines and small type off the fold, expect a solid color across a fold to lighten a hair along the crease, and run the fold along the grain where the sheet allows. Mark fold lines on their own layer, outside the art, and we set the scores to them.
Shaped cuts, without a die
A shape that is not a rectangle: a tag, a pocket folder, a card with a notch, a sticker. The traditional way is a steel-rule die, blades bent to your shape and set in a board, made once per design. Most shapes here are cut on a plotter, a blade that follows the path, or on a laser, so there is no die to make: any shape, one or a thousand, and the shape can change between orders. Stickers and labels are cut the same way, through the printed face and not the backing, so each one peels from the sheet. Send the cut line as a vector path on its own layer, named Cut, with art bleeding 0.25 in past it and type 0.125 in inside it. On the plotter, avoid slivers under 1/8 in wide and inside corners tighter than 1/16 in; they tear. The laser goes finer, and the next section says how far.
1/8 in
Rounded corners
A corner is the first part of a card to bend and fray in a wallet; rounding it takes that away and softens the whole piece. Two radii cover nearly everything: 1/8 in, the corner of a credit card, subtle enough to miss at a glance; and 1/4 in, an obviously soft corner for a friendly brand. The usual 0.125 in safe area already clears both, so nothing in the design has to move, with one exception: a square border gets clipped at every corner, so draw a border with the same radius or leave it out. On a laminated card it also keeps the film from lifting at the point.
Perforation
A line of tiny cuts with gaps between, so a stub tears off cleanly by hand: tickets, coupons, reply cards, a tear-off at the foot of a letter. Coarse teeth tear easily and leave a visible fringe; a micro-perforation leaves an edge almost as clean as a cut and holds up better in the mail. The sheet is weaker along the line, so keep a perf 0.5 in from a fold or an edge and type 0.125 in from it on both sides. Mark it as a dashed line on its own layer, named Perf.
Scoring, rounded corners and shaped cuts are the quiet lines on a quote. Because the shape is a file rather than a die, a reorder can keep it or change it.
Laser cutting and engraving.
A focused beam that cuts or marks by taking away a hair of material at a time, following a path from your file. It cuts paper and card in shapes no blade could, and it engraves things that are not paper at all.
Cut without a die
Lace patterns, monograms, cut-out invitations, place cards with a name cut through, tags in any shape, a window in a cover: the beam follows the vector path and cuts it, on the sheet, with nothing to make first. It holds detail a blade cannot, down to a hairline, and it does not care whether the shape is one piece or a thousand. It cuts paper, card and thin board; a duplexed card takes longer and cuts clean. The beam takes a whisker of material with it, about a hundredth of an inch, which we allow for in the path.
1/16 in
What a file needs
Vector paths, closed and clean, on their own layer named Cut, with the printed art beneath; anything to be engraved rather than cut on a layer named Engrave. Every piece that must stay in the sheet needs a way to stay: the counter of an O or a B falls out unless a bridge of at least 1/16 in holds it, and a stencil face solves that for type. No sliver thinner than 1/32 in, which tears in the hand even if it survives the beam. Keep cut detail 0.125 in in from the trim and 0.25 in from a fold, and let art bleed 0.25 in past every cut edge, as the artwork guide asks.
The edge
A laser cuts by burning, so the edge of white paper comes out a faint shade darker, a whisper of brown you see on the edge and, beside a very fine cut, as a breath of tone on the face. On kraft, black and colored sheets it is invisible; on white it reads as part of the look, the way a lace edge does. There is no burr and no crush, so a cut-out stays crisp where a blade would drag. We choose the sheet with the edge in mind and say how it will look before the run.
Engraving on wood, acrylic, leather and coated metal
The beam removes the surface where the art says, so a logo sits recessed in a wooden box lid, a name is marked into a leather tag, lettering comes up frosted on acrylic, and a coated or anodized metal shows a sharp mark where the coating is taken off. It is the same file as a cut, a vector path, with fills where the art is engraved rather than outlined. Wood engraves darker than the wood; leather darker still; acrylic frosts white; coated metal shows the metal beneath. A photograph can be engraved as a fine dot pattern on wood or acrylic, and we say what it needs.
Fine marking on glass and plastics
A second beam, at a shorter wavelength, marks without spreading heat, so it puts a fine frosted mark on glass and clear acrylic, sharp small type and serial numbers on plastics, and a crisp mark on things that would melt or crack under the first. It marks the surface rather than cutting in, so it suits lettering, logos and numbering on bottles, cases, tags and parts. Vector art, one flat color; type from about 4 pt, lines from about 0.25 pt.
Laser cutting, engraving and marking are quoted through Start a project. Send the art as vector paths and say what it goes on; if the object is yours, say what it is made of, and we will tell you whether it can be marked and how it will look.
Duplexing and painted edges.
The two finishes that make a card into an object. One doubles the sheet; the other colors the part of it nobody expected to see.
Duplexing: two sheets, one card
Two printed sheets glued back to back into one thick card: two 16 pt sheets make a 32 pt card, nearly twice as thick as any single sheet we run. Three sheets is a triplex, and a colored sheet in the middle shows as a stripe at the edge. Duplexing is also how a card gets cotton on one face and black on the other, and how a deep deboss on the front can leave the back perfectly flat: whatever the impression does to the back of the first sheet, the second sheet hides.
32 pt
What it asks in return
The faces are printed separately, mounted, then trimmed, so allow extra days; it is a line on the quote. Front and back line up with each other to within about 1/32 in, so a back design should not need to meet the front exactly. Both sheets are cut with the same grain direction, or the card curls. A 32 pt card is a small, heavy thing: a box of 250 is close to two pounds, and it will not fit every card holder.
Painted edges
The cut edges of the stack are painted, so the card shows a line of color from the side: your brand color, black or a metallic. It only works on thick cards, because the edge is the canvas: on 16 pt it is a fine line; on a 32 pt duplex it is a stripe you notice across a table. Any color we can mix, or a close match to a Pantone number. It is hand work, and it is a line on the quote.
Design for the edge
The color shows most against a light face and a plain design, and least on a card that is already busy. A laminate or a UV coating on both faces helps the paint stop at the edge instead of soaking into the paper. Rounded corners and painted edges can go together. Where the edge color matters, it is worth seeing in the hand; a color on a screen is not the same thing.
Duplexing and painted edges are quoted through Start a project. Both are worth seeing in the hand before a run, and we will show you the difference when we talk.
Which finish for what.
The whole page on one table: what each finish suits, what it needs, and where it is ordered.
| Finish | Good for | Needs | Where to order it |
|---|---|---|---|
| UV coating | Business cards, postcards, covers, flyers, menus that are wiped down: the usual protective finish | A coated or smooth sheet; one side or both; a good score at any fold | A line on the quote |
| Soft touch laminate | Business cards, covers, anything where the velvet feel is the point | Any smooth cover stock, both sides; a light or busy design if scuffs would bother you | Business card page |
| Gloss laminate | Menus that get properly wet, photo cards, anything washed rather than wiped | Any smooth cover stock; both sides | Business card page; booklet cover |
| Matte laminate | Covers and cards that want a film without shine or velvet | Any smooth cover stock; both sides | A line on the quote |
| Foil | Names, logos and borders on invitations, cards, certificates and covers; black and kraft stock | Vector art in one flat color; lines from 0.5 pt with hot foil on smooth stock, 1 pt with digital foil or on cotton or kraft; type from 6 pt; set up for each job, so plan it early | A line on the quote |
| Embossing and debossing | Logos and monograms on cotton and thick uncoated card; a crisp shallow logo on letterhead | A die per design; any uncoated stock for a shallow emboss, our smooth uncoated 130 lb cover or a cotton ordered in for depth; coated stock can crack; simple bold shapes | A line on the quote |
| Letterpress | Type-led invitations and cards on cotton | A plate per design; one or two flat colors; a soft, thick uncoated sheet, cotton above all | Quoted with the job |
| Spot gloss | A logo that shines on a matte or soft touch card | A laminated or coated surface; the gloss on its own layer; type from 8 pt | A line on the quote |
| Aqueous coating or varnish | Scuff protection on long offset runs | An offset run; a digital job gets UV coating instead | With an offset job |
| Shaped cuts and stickers | Tags, pocket folders, shaped cards, contour-cut stickers and labels | The cut line on its own layer; no die to make; slivers from 1/8 in on the plotter | A line on the quote |
| Laser cutting | Lace, monograms, cut-out invitations, place cards, windows, any fine shape | Vector paths; bridges from 1/16 in; a faintly darkened edge on white paper | A line on the quote |
| Laser engraving and marking | Logos and names on wood, acrylic, leather and coated metal; fine marks on glass, clear acrylic and plastics | Vector art; the object or the material, and what it is made of | A line on the quote |
| Rounded corners | Cards that live in wallets; a softer look | Any card; a 1/8 in or 1/4 in radius | A line on the quote |
| Scoring | Every folded piece on cover stock | Cover stock; fold lines marked; grain along the fold | A line on the quote |
| Perforation | Tickets, coupons, reply cards, tear-off stubs | The perf line marked on its own layer, 0.5 in from folds and edges | A line on the quote |
| Painted edges | Thick cards that surprise from the side | 16 pt at least, better 32 pt duplexed; a color to match | A line on the quote |
| Duplexing | 32 pt cards, a different paper on each face, a color at the edge, a deep deboss with a flat back | Two sheets of the same grain; extra days for mounting and trim | A line on the quote |
Soft touch and gloss laminate are on the business card page, and a gloss laminated cover is on the booklet page. Everything else here is a line on a quote through Start a project: tell us the finish, and we will tell you what it needs. Most of these add days: the questions page says about a week for anything with finishing, and the quote gives the date.
Not sure which? Talk it through.
Tell us what you are making and where it will live, and we will say which finish suits it and what the file needs. A screen can show you the color of a finish; it cannot show you the feel, and that is worth seeing in the hand before a run.