Custom Varnishing & Spot UV
At Packaging Empire, you can choose either glossy varnishing, matte varnishing, or spot UV varnishing for your custom paper boxes, custom paper bags, corrugated printed boxes, printed paper boxes, cosmetic paper boxes, rigid paper boxes, and cardboard gift boxes.
Custom Paper Box With Spot UV
Paper Printed Box With Spot UV
The printed paper box above is a custom paper box with the spot UV varnishing for the line patterns, giving this custom packaging a high end look and feel.
What is Varnishing
Varnishing means applying a liquid coating to your custom printed packaging box surface after the coated paperboard is litho printed.
The image below is a luxurious matte red cardboard gift box with the high impact spot UV varnishing for the logo.
Luxury Red Color Rigid Box With Spot UV for the Logo Image
Special Advantages of Varnishing
Printing ink dries faster.
Rub resistant by preserve the ink under a protective coating to withstand rough handling.
Provides a smooth and consistent texture and a pleasant tactile experience for your custom packaging box.
Varnishing Types
Varnishing is divided into 4 main types, which are glossy varnishing, matte varnishing and satin varnishing.
Glossy Varnishing
With the glossy varnish, the printed box surface is smooth, shiny and glossy. A glossy varnished custom printed box usually has a lustrous color.
Matt Varnishing
A matte varnish gives the printed box a smooth, even, and non-glossy surface to add a luxury feel. It is the most popular finish used for cosmetic and jewelry luxury packaging.
Paper Box With Matt Finish
Paper Box With Matt Varnishing
Silk or Satin Varnishing
A satin varnish gives your custom printed box a middle-ground look and feel, which is neither glossy nor matte.
UV Varnishing
Also called UV coating, UV varnishing is a process for achieving a richer and more vibrant type of coating on the printed box surface. The printed colors go through the fast drying process under the UV light.
The UV varnishing divided into 2 types, all-over UV varnishing and spot UV varnishing.
All-Over UV Varnishing
With the all-over UV varnishing, the UV inks are applied all over the printing surface. The high gloss level of UV varnishing can replace the glossy laminating. In the meantime, it provides the excellent protective qualities and a pleasant tactile experience for the consumer.
Spot UV Varnishing
With the spot UV varnishing, the UV inks are only applied to specific areas of the printing surface to highlight specific texts or images, particularly the logo, and it is widely used for luxury paper bags, cosmetic packaging boxes, jewelry boxes, gift boxes, and retail packaging boxes.
Difference Between Varnishing, AQ Coating and UV Coating
Coating Options
There are 3 common types of protective coating for the printed packaging boxes, and they are varnishing, aqueous coating, and UV coating.
UV Coating (which comes in a wide range of sheens) is by far the most popular coating option for the packaging boxes, because it has the highest gloss and rub resistance. It starts as a clear liquid that is dried instantly with an ultraviolet light radiation. The most common usage is the Spot UV varnishing, which is applied partially to highlight the company logo.
Varnishes were first introduced to the printed packaging industry as they are essentially transparent inks without pigmentation. They are applied as the common CMYK inks during the printing process with either glossy, matte or satin finish. Varnishing is the least expensive of all the coating options available, but it takes a long time to dry, and most varnishing are VOC based, thus not eco-friendly.
Aqueous Coating were developed in the late 1970s, which is also referred to as AQ coating. Aqueous is water-based with 30-40% water content, and it takes longer to dry. It is an environmental friendly coating, because it doesn’t emit VOC emissions like varnishing. The AQ coating is dried via infrared radiation. Compared to spot UV coating, aqueous coating is usually applied to the entire sheet
Coating | Varnishing Purposes
There are 3 purposes of the coating or varnishing finishes for the printed paper box.
Firstly, it is for better protection of the inks from dirt, smudges, fingerprints, scratches, etc.
Secondly, the coating or varnishing can make the printing surface of the box more scuff-resistant.
Thirdly, coating/varnishing makes the box look more appealing with a glossy or matte finish.
Spot UV Pattern on Collapsible Rigid Paper Box
This is a spot UV varnished collapsible rigid box. The box has the matt black laminating. On the surface of the laminating is the spot UV varnish triangle pattern, very pretty.
Collapsible Rigid Paper Box