Put on a UV Coat

As it gets cooler outside, you will eventually want to take a coat with you when you head out. Your body isn’t the only that will benefit from an extra layer of protection, though. Your business cards and postcards need a little love, too! You can add a UV coat to your printed material to make them last longer and improve their look. What’s UV, you ask? Well, let’s find out…

UV, or Ultra Violet, coating is a thin, very glossy coating that is applied to a sheet of paper or cardstock and then cured (or dryed) with an ultraviolet light. It provides a protective layer on paper, protecting not only the stock itself, but the ink as well. UV coating can be applied in two ways:

Full Coverage (or Flood Coating) covers the entirety of the card so that the entire surface has a high shine. If you prefer to just highlight certain elements of a printed piece, you can have the UV coating placed specifically over those areas. This is known as “Spot Coating”, or “Spot Gloss”.

You can see how the letters in the above example stand out now that they have the super shiny coating. They really pop!

A couple things to keep in mind when you’re considering a UV coat are: it is difficult to write on top of a card that is coated. The high gloss finish inhibits the use of ink in most pens. Permanent markers even have a hard time adhering to the coating. So if you need a card that you can take notes on, it’s best to leave it uncoated, at least on one side.

Also, UV gloss can be a little more expensive and time consuming to create, but it can be worth the extra expense when you see the outcome. Colors seem brighter and blacks look blacker under the ultraviolet layer. It’s an easy way to class up your collateral before you head out to that networking event.

Give us a call and we can get you a quote and show you the myriad of options available when you UV coat.