Looking to enhance your business card designs with a distinctive look? Choose from a broad range of specialty printing techniques such as Spot UV. Due to its versatility, impact, and affordability, Full-Color Spot UV business cards are one of the more popular cards available!
What is Spot UV?
You may be surprised to learn that Spot UV (also referred to as Spot Gloss or Spot Varnish) printing isn’t actually a printing technique at all, but rather a method for coating printed products. While it may sound compicated, it is a relatively simple process. The “UV” portion involves using UV light for curing a varnish placed on the printed material.
Although printers can utilize this method on white paper or card stock, it is most effective on color-printed products to enhance product shine, protect its color, and keep moisture and damage out in order to preserve the product.
Due to its lack of volatility, it’s known for being environmentally friendly. This means that little or no varnish becomes a gas that can escape into the open air.
Benefits of Spot UV Printing:
- Ultimate Shine
- Environmentally Friendly
- Resist Smudging
- High Clarity
With different techniques, printers can create different results. If interested in applying in this feature, it works best with heavier card stock, so it is most commonly utilized for thick business cards (16PT, 19PT), premium stock (Silk laminated and Velvet laminated) or printed flyers.
The “spot” part refers to the ability to apply this technique to only parts of a page if desired; it is mainly used for its decorative effect. Because it can deepen the color of areas it’s applied to, this property should be weighed during the design of a product.
At Primoprint, we have created a tutorial that will walk you through the process of setting up your mask files. You can always contact one of our customer service representatives with questions.
Resource: FAQ section: Spot UV.
There are a variety of products available that allows you to include this beautiful clear finish. You can easily highlight specific area of your design such as images, logo patterns, text, and more.
Spot UV is available for the following products:
- Business Cards
- Postcards
- Presentation Folders
- Greeting Cards
- Hang Tags
- Trading Cards
How to Add Spot UV
Because varnished spots immediately dry upon UV light treatment, incredible precision is possible with this technique. This opens a variety of possibilities for the incorporation of this type of printing. In the marketing world, printed materials can be enhanced in this way to improve mass appeal. Once highlights are added, a business card easily surpasses other cards in quality and precision.
If you are looking for another type of Spot UV, we now offer Raised Spot UV. Regular Spot UV is printed offset, and raised Spot UV is printed digitally. Both are available on our velvet laminated card stock.
Resource: New Raised Spot UV Business Cards
For more information about how to setup your mark files and how to include it, read our article. The educational article discussed the following:
- What is a Mask?
- Creating a Mask for Your Coated Project
- Best Practices for Mask Files
Need help with a custom design? We offer custom design services for your business cards, brochures, EDDM® postcards, and additional print materials. With the right touch of this feature, business cards are more likely to impress recipients and generate positive responses.
