Print Finishing: Varnishing - Coating - Folding - Cutting - Bookbinding. Finishing is a general term in printing Industry. It is used for anything you do to “finish” after the printing itself. That's varnishing, foil-laminating, perforating, Die-Cutting, cutting, folding, binding, glueing, and so on. The simple finishing processes is done in-house at the print shop. Other, complex finishes like hologram are mainly outsourced to specialized print finishing companies (Bookbindery). Today, nearly unlimited types of finishes are available, so the creative possibilities are big. Varnishing is the most used finishing with relatively modest prices. Designer or customers that want to improve the impact of their printed materials, have a good number of interesting and cost-effective options with varnishes. Also varnishing with different print technologies gives interesting effects (Example: Offset print + ink duct varnishing + silkscreen varnishing). Some technologies like “SPOT-VARNISH” compare to “Flood-Varnish” can lift an image or form “out” of the page and grabs attention. Special “smelling varnish” release coffee or chocolate or tobacco odor. Coating Varnishing is often also named Coating. It can done inside the standard printing machine as Ink-Duct Varnish, or as In-Line-Coating with a Coating-Unit, or Off-Line in a special Coater. The varnish can be applied with Varnish-Blankets (strip-able), Varnish-Plates, Anilox-Roller or plain rollers. Value Varnishes are often used to improve the impact of coverings, like for cosmetics packaging. This adds value to the Brand. Brand protection varnishes with invisible properties are available. This properties can sometimes seen with special lamps or only with special miracle-glasses. Mechanical / Chemical Protection Varnishes can add special properties to a packaging, like “Anti-Rust-Protection” improving durability of the packed steel goods. Touch & Feel The look and feel of the varnishes is most important property of the skin of packaging boxes. For this, often the varnish has to get a structure itself, or have to have special smooth haptical properties (Touch & Feel). Gloss varnish gives a shiny coating which tends to heighten the impact of photographs or particular design elements on the sheet. It's measured in “Gloss- Points”, more points - more shiny. Also the paper plays an important role in getting high gloss results. Silk varnish sits between gloss and matt varnishes. Matt varnish gives a smooth look that not reflect the light much, as opposite of gloss. This can be used in lit areas to mitigate reflections that might obscure the printed messages on the sheet. Machine Sealing / Anti-Rubb-Varnish This coating / covering is produced for sealing the ink onto the paper. It’s mainly used when printing on matt / silk paper to stop the rub-off of the ink and the marking (matt & silk papers are less absorbent so easy to rub and mark). It is pretty basic technique and doesn’t really add much to the impact of the product, but it makes it last longer. Flood-Varnish covers the full sheet and adds protection plus optical proteries like gloss - silk - matt view, or haptical like “soft-touch”. Spot-Varnishes are used to reduce or accentuate particular parts on the printed sheet, as well as to give special properties to this part. UV Varnish UV Varnishes are cured (dried / hardened) with UV-Light. The paper page is normally coated with a transparent (Gloss or Matt) coating that feels smooth and thick. Often used instead of foil- laminating, because it's cheaper for average runs. 'UV' part stands for ultra violet light. It's a chemical process that dries the coating, not heat nor extraction of water. UV varnishes usually covering the full page in a smooth and glossy [Matt] coating, that brings colors to life. They are also available in various types. Spot UV Worth mentioning separately as this is a technique where you can choose a particular item on the page to cover in UV varnish. It’s done to add vibrancy to the coated item and can really add impact. The contrast of the spot- element to the rest of the sheet can be particularly eye-catching. This contrast is heightened by adding spot UV on top of matt coated print. For this, the 1st layer can be water- based varnish, but has to be dried seriously (48h is said in general), before the UV-Spot can be added. Glow in the Dark Ink It is a screen printing effect. This Ink absorbs light and glows then in the dark. It is done by UV-Spot Varnishing. Pearl Varnish-Blankets combines small Pieces of a shimmering pearlised compount with a gloss coating. Different colors, shapes are available. It delivers a nice pearly finish. It is done by UV-Spot Varnishing. Silkscreen varnish is a coating to be applied via the Silkscreen- Printing-Process. Because of this, it can be much higher than applied with Offset-Process. Soft-Touch varnish If touched with the hands, it submits a feeling to touch something soft. Some Cigarette boxes use this effects. Scent-Varnish or Smell-Varnish or Odour-Varnish or Aroma Varnish a system that enables fragrances to be applied directly to printing materials such as labels, packaging, brochures and mailings, etc. This varnishes include micro capsules with a fragrance oil. If the dried varnish is rubbed, the capsules break off and set the fragrance free, so that one can smell their odour. Aroma Varnish offers marketing opportunities. It is hard to define sensuality in a product, but stimulating multiple senses will increase its impact on the consumer. Textured Varnish Textured varnish is a glossy varnish that overlays a slightly rippled, tactile finish to the page. It can be used as a spot varnish to enhance the impact of particular page elements and is an interesting and eye-catching alternative to standard gloss varnishes. Micro Relief it is a Spot Varnishing technology that uses film with very fine textures. If touched, the texture can be felt, light is reflected. Mainly used for security products like Banknotes, stocks, bonds, etc. See also 'Cast and Cure'. Cast and Cure Varnishing is an application method, for pressing a texture in a fresh (wet) varnish inside a printing line. For this special units In-Line the Press are needed. The texture comes from a special foil, but the foil is not laminated to the sheet. Only the texture stays with the varnish. Sand Varnish, this finishing feels like grains of sand when touched. Rough surface catches attention. Very good for high lightening illustrations. Produced by UV-Spot Varnishing. Thermal Varnish is a coating to control temperature. It contains a special pigment, which is changing its color if a specific temperature is reached. Mainly used on labels to indicate if it is too hot or too cold. It can also be used for promotional Items, where a certain info is only visible after the customer forces a temperature change i.e. by hand- warming. Scratch-off latex varnish / Ink on phone cards – scratch to reveal the numbers under the coating. This is a good promotional effect or also good for security products that require opaque coverage. Scratch-off is done i.e. for lotteries. It is done by UV-Spot Varnishing. The scratch-off Varnish or Ink can be easy removed by Fingernail or coin. We have seen Gold, Silver and Black Scratch-Off. Other Varnishes There are more creative varnishes on the market today. Sparkly varnishes include metallic flakes to catch the eye and can be applied as a spot varnish. Tinted varnishes add gloss and colour to elements. Double-Sided Coating is not always possible. One must select carefully the right varnish, if the coating should be on both sides of the sheet. Wet-in-Wet Coating is only possible with materials that fit together. So waterbased ink and waterbased varnish can do and dry together. Waterbased ink and UV-Varnish can clearly not. The result will be wasted production. Anilox Coater (Roller with small holes) With an Anilox Coater one can very exact define the thickness of the coating layer on the sheet. Measured in Gram per square-meter. Aqueous Varnish is same as Water-based Varnish or Water-Lack. Waterbased Varnish is mainly based on Acrylic Components. Functional Varnish / Coating The last development are so called 'functional coatings' and functional inks. These Materials have highly specialized properties to fit certain applications. This can be Temperature indication, indication of maximum Temperature exposure for example for senstive packed Food and Beverages. Or it can be electric conductivity or non- conductivity for electronic devices that can be printed on paper or foil. For example, Printing very cheap Photo-Voltaic Solar Cells on Paper was already done successful.