Do Your Finishing Options Take the Cake?

December 9, 2015

You wouldn’t bake a cake without finishing it off with icing, would you? Neither should you create a printed piece without considering how to finish it off with one of the many decorative and protective finishing options available.

At the most basic level are varnishes or coatings.

• Traditional varnishes and coatings can be solvent or aqueous and are available in a variety of gloss levels.
• Spot coating is available if you want to highlight a certain element, such as a particular image or bit of text.
• UV coatings add greater levels of sheen and protection than traditional coatings.
• Try using a spot matte coating over a high gloss piece for that unexpected effect.

More elaborate finishing techniques can make your printed piece even more eye-catching.

• Embossing uses dies to create raised (or “relief”) areas that make images or text literally pop.
• Foils and specialty inks can be added to embossed regions for an even greater special effect.
• Debossing creates eye-catching effects by depressing portions of a printed piece.
• Foil stamping applies metallic foils like gold or silver to the substrate, also going a long way toward highlighting text and images.

Regardless of the finishing technique used, it should be appropriate to—and work in concert with—the content or message of the piece itself. The style and substance should never work at cross-purposes.

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