For the study task we were asked to go find eight practical examples different print finished on physical books we could get our hands on, we were then asked to write this blog post in which we will discuss different important aspects that relate to print finishes and their place in the production stage of graphic design, we were asked to discuss each of the print finishes on each of these following considerations;
Process involved in applying - How is the finish actually applied?
Financial consideration - Is the finish appropriate for use on a project due to financial problems?
Suppliers - Find different companies of which will perform the print finishes?
Audience/Communication - who is the project aimed at? is the use appropriate?
- What does the print finish communicate to the viewer?
Potentials - could the finish penitentially be used in an ongoing project of mine?
Design and preparation consideration - do any certain aspects or considerations need to be taken in to context if one of these is used?
Foiling
On an industrial size bases foiling finish is created by adding a very thin layer of foil to a printed material to add a reflective metallic gold leaf effect, originally foiling will have been done with a thin layer of real gold leaf but due to problems with cost and reproducibility on a large scale foiling now includes a colour layer to give the effect of gold, copper etc. On a large scale foiling will be done with industrial sized machines, the first step is to etch the design in to a piece of metal of which is called the foiling die. The die is placed in to a hot stamping press of which heats the die up, with the chosen graphic on it. A thin layer of the foiling material of any colour is then placed between the heated die and the material of which is being foiled. Large amounts of pressure are then applied, when the pressure is released the heat foil and pressure have come together to leave the foiled design on the printed material. On a much smaller and more appropriate method to myself foiling can be recreated on a smaller stage by using the printed material, foil and a laminator to recreate the effect on a non-professional basis. The use of an industrial foiling company for anyone in professional industry isn't ridiculous on a basis of price as it isn't that expensive but for me to use a industrial foiler would be fast to out of my price range, but when it comes to foiling on a smaller stage like earlier mentioned it is a relatively low price method of finishing. I found two companies of which could be used to have work foiled as they both are based in Leeds making them highly accessible to me the first of these is MagpiePress and the second is Pressision LTD. Foiling adds almost a sense of expensiveness and value while actually being quite cheap to recreate on a small basis, meaning for a small amount of money it is possible to still give a sense of professionalism. To me foiling lends itself to more of an older more mature audience or anyone in the creative industries.
Due to the fact that I can actually recreate foiling on a small scale process using the laminator method foiling would be a more than appropriate print finish that I could use to complete a design. The main considerations that must be thought of before starting the foiling process is that when creating the graphic to be foiled the area to be foiled must be created in CMYK mode and have a 100% black level or the foiling won't work effectively and the graphic to be foiled must be a vector graphic or the foiling will have a pixelated edge.
On an industrial size bases foiling finish is created by adding a very thin layer of foil to a printed material to add a reflective metallic gold leaf effect, originally foiling will have been done with a thin layer of real gold leaf but due to problems with cost and reproducibility on a large scale foiling now includes a colour layer to give the effect of gold, copper etc. On a large scale foiling will be done with industrial sized machines, the first step is to etch the design in to a piece of metal of which is called the foiling die. The die is placed in to a hot stamping press of which heats the die up, with the chosen graphic on it. A thin layer of the foiling material of any colour is then placed between the heated die and the material of which is being foiled. Large amounts of pressure are then applied, when the pressure is released the heat foil and pressure have come together to leave the foiled design on the printed material. On a much smaller and more appropriate method to myself foiling can be recreated on a smaller stage by using the printed material, foil and a laminator to recreate the effect on a non-professional basis. The use of an industrial foiling company for anyone in professional industry isn't ridiculous on a basis of price as it isn't that expensive but for me to use a industrial foiler would be fast to out of my price range, but when it comes to foiling on a smaller stage like earlier mentioned it is a relatively low price method of finishing. I found two companies of which could be used to have work foiled as they both are based in Leeds making them highly accessible to me the first of these is MagpiePress and the second is Pressision LTD. Foiling adds almost a sense of expensiveness and value while actually being quite cheap to recreate on a small basis, meaning for a small amount of money it is possible to still give a sense of professionalism. To me foiling lends itself to more of an older more mature audience or anyone in the creative industries.
Due to the fact that I can actually recreate foiling on a small scale process using the laminator method foiling would be a more than appropriate print finish that I could use to complete a design. The main considerations that must be thought of before starting the foiling process is that when creating the graphic to be foiled the area to be foiled must be created in CMYK mode and have a 100% black level or the foiling won't work effectively and the graphic to be foiled must be a vector graphic or the foiling will have a pixelated edge.
Spot Varnish
Spot Varnishing is a certain print finish use for highlighting certain areas and adding texture to the page itself by applying the parish to certain areas of a printed piece. The process is completed adding a varnish to the areas of the design that you wish to have highlighted, the application of the varnish is done similarly to some printing process' where the varnish is applied to a printing plate and then applied from the painting plate to the end product. The varnish is then dried and when dry helps to give a page a certain sense of depth. There are many different online places offering a spot varnishing process but due to the nature of the process can add quite a lot of expenses on to a products ad the service itself is expensive but also the time taken to complete the exercise can really set you back in a project.
Spot varnish effect layers can be created in adobe software that when sent to a professional printer would be tell that printer through the file that there is a spot varnish to be applied and exactly where that it goes. Due to the fact that the process itself is so expensive I means that the project/product that you apply it to will have to be pricier than normal due to the added production costs it creates.
UV Vanishing
Similarly to spot varnishing UV varnishing follows a very similar process but divers in some major places. Instead of applying the varnish to the spot area and letting it dry one time special type of varnish are applied to a page but instead dried instantly what the use of UV lights. This still ensure to create the iconic varnishing effect of highlighting to add depth to the page but also while doing so dissimilarly to the normal varnish adds a raised texture due to the rapid drying. There isn't much in-between the price difference between the two different type of varnishing and really that time save drying the varnish instantly it still lost in the extra costs incurred by the more expensive process and really both of these process work out to be not very cost effective in the long run as they are very expensive process'. UV Varnishing is a print finish usually only sound in higher quality and more expensive books do to its tedious nature.
Similarly to spot varnishing UV varnishing follows a very similar process but divers in some major places. Instead of applying the varnish to the spot area and letting it dry one time special type of varnish are applied to a page but instead dried instantly what the use of UV lights. This still ensure to create the iconic varnishing effect of highlighting to add depth to the page but also while doing so dissimilarly to the normal varnish adds a raised texture due to the rapid drying. There isn't much in-between the price difference between the two different type of varnishing and really that time save drying the varnish instantly it still lost in the extra costs incurred by the more expensive process and really both of these process work out to be not very cost effective in the long run as they are very expensive process'. UV Varnishing is a print finish usually only sound in higher quality and more expensive books do to its tedious nature.
Scratch And Sniff
Scratch and sniff coating is a print finish that can be applied to any printed material in which it allows the user of said printed media to scratch the surface of the print which will in cover the screen put there by the scratch and sniff finish. Although this is a favourite of young boys magazines providing horrid and disgusting smells when used intelligently it can provide a factor of amazement for the viewer as it is still a revolutionary technology. Chemicals are combined to create certain desirable smells (the zesty lemon smell found in my example below) and then applied to the surface of the desired printed media using special printers and then finally a final scratch off print finish coating is applied to hold in the smell until it is scratched off.
This is a very expensive process as it takes machinery of which is very costly to run to recreate the process so as a designer it would only be economically valid in a situation where you know you will sell hundreds of thousands of copies of the product it is being applied to.
Scratch and sniff coating is a print finish that can be applied to any printed material in which it allows the user of said printed media to scratch the surface of the print which will in cover the screen put there by the scratch and sniff finish. Although this is a favourite of young boys magazines providing horrid and disgusting smells when used intelligently it can provide a factor of amazement for the viewer as it is still a revolutionary technology. Chemicals are combined to create certain desirable smells (the zesty lemon smell found in my example below) and then applied to the surface of the desired printed media using special printers and then finally a final scratch off print finish coating is applied to hold in the smell until it is scratched off.
This is a very expensive process as it takes machinery of which is very costly to run to recreate the process so as a designer it would only be economically valid in a situation where you know you will sell hundreds of thousands of copies of the product it is being applied to.
Holographic Foiling
Similarly to the normal metallic foiling process holographic foiling
On an industrial size bases foiling finish is created by adding a very thin layer of foil to a printed material to add a reflective metallic gold leaf effect, originally foiling will have been done with a thin layer of real gold leaf but due to problems with cost and reproducibility on a large scale foiling now includes a colour layer to give the effect of gold, copper etc. On a large scale foiling will be done with industrial sized machines, the first step is to etch the design in to a piece of metal of which is called the foiling die. The die is placed in to a hot stamping press of which heats the die up, with the chosen graphic on it. A thin layer of the foiling material of any colour is then placed between the heated die and the material of which is being foiled. Large amounts of pressure are then applied, when the pressure is released the heat foil and pressure have come together to leave the foiled design on the printed material. On a much smaller and more appropriate method to myself foiling can be recreated on a smaller stage by using the printed material, foil and a laminator to recreate the effect on a non-professional basis. The use of an industrial foiling company for anyone in professional industry isn't ridiculous on a basis of price as it isn't that expensive but for me to use a industrial foiler would be fast to out of my price range, but when it comes to foiling on a smaller stage like earlier mentioned it is a relatively low price method of finishing. I found two companies of which could be used to have work foiled as they both are based in Leeds making them highly accessible to me the first of these is MagpiePress and the second is Pressision LTD. Foiling adds almost a sense of expensiveness and value while actually being quite cheap to recreate on a small basis, meaning for a small amount of money it is possible to still give a sense of professionalism. To me foiling lends itself to more of an older more mature audience or anyone in the creative industries.
Due to the fact that I can actually recreate foiling on a small scale process using the laminator method foiling would be a more than appropriate print finish that I could use to complete a design. The main considerations that must be thought of before starting the foiling process is that when creating the graphic to be foiled the area to be foiled must be created in CMYK mode and have a 100% black level or the foiling won't work effectively and the graphic to be foiled must be a vector graphic or the foiling will have a pixelated edge.
Due to the fact that I can actually recreate foiling on a small scale process using the laminator method foiling would be a more than appropriate print finish that I could use to complete a design. The main considerations that must be thought of before starting the foiling process is that when creating the graphic to be foiled the area to be foiled must be created in CMYK mode and have a 100% black level or the foiling won't work effectively and the graphic to be foiled must be a vector graphic or the foiling will have a pixelated edge.
Photochromic Ink
Photochromic ink is yet again another different type of specialist ink print finish process in which the ink is printed on your desired media but this specialist ink changes colour when it is effected by light, and more specifically the UV light changing ink from now colour to another. The Ink is applied like any normal ink is where it is displayed to a special plate with raised areas and when it is pressed against the final product it applies the photochromic ink to the product. In the dark the inks are absolutely clear but when it comes in to UV light it turns to a very bright vivid colour.
The only added price in this process is the extra cost of the special ink but act does amount to too much more than normal inks prices making it a financially viable print finish that could be added to my products to add a very special effect for minimal extra expenses.
Em-Bossing & De-Bossing
Embossing & Debasing are both two very similar print finishes but with one crucial difference. Both of the processes include creating a metal plate similar to some method of printing in which features our design a counter point to create force against and the actual media in which you are wanting to em-boss or de-boss. The plate with the impression of your design is mounted in to a press and the metal plate applies force through your print material and on to a counter to push pressure back against the plate. The force applied created the impression on the desired material. The difference between the two different method are that;
Embossing - produces a raised impression on your paper stock.
Debossing - creates a depressed impression on your chosen stock.
As this can be done with only a laser cutting machine needed to cut out the wooden block that the impression will be made from and a vice in which the actual process can be performed and it can be created. We even have the facilities to produce this in college for a very low price and so embossing and debossing can be used as a very cheap print finish to perform that can make your work much more professional.
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