Frankly Speaking: 9 Ideas for Making Print Pop
Finishing adds cost, but it also adds value. As print fights for its place in a digital world, we must find ways to make print more interesting and attractive. Print has a tactile advantage over books on screens: Print moves you without moving.
Some finishing techniques include:
Coating
Spot and flood UV (ultraviolet) and other coatings are now commonplace. Coatings provide a feeling of richness. Most offset presses have a coating unit inline. An optional fifth print station on the Xerox 800/1000 for clear dry ink expands the creative capabilities and impact of prints with the addition of clear effects (spot and addressable). Digital printers/presses from Kodak have coating built-in, and others have near-line coating. MGI has a stand-alone digital coating system. Matte or gloss coatings instantly add value to a printed sheet. Lamination is also a form of coating. The application of UV coatings to both enhance and protect a press sheet has become very popular in recent years. The dazzling sheen of a coated printed piece justifies the relative low cost of this operation. UV gloss coating is the most used additional feature of today's book covers.
Frank Romano is Professor Emeritus at RIT School of Media Sciences.