What is the difference between Varnish, UV Coating and Aqueous Coating?

Coating a printed piece with either Varnish, UV Coating or Aqueous Coating can protect it from scuffing the printing inks, especially if you have areas of heavy solid ink coverage.  It also has become increasingly popular in the last several years to use coatings to enhance the gloss effect of gloss coated papers for aesthetic reasons.

VARNISH
Varnish is essentially a clear coat of ink without pigment.  The varnish is applied on the printing press either in line or as a separate pass. Running it as a separate pass after the underlying inks have set or dried enhances the glossy effect. Varnishes are available in gloss, dull and satin coatings.  Our standard is gloss varnish.  Varnish can be applied over the entire printed sheet known as flood varnish or applied to certain areas thus called spot varnish.  Overprint varnish is well suite for all coated papers and is used on many printed items including business cards, postcards, brochures, door hangers, labels and many other printed products.

UV COATING
UV Coating is applied to the printed sheet using special UV Coating equipment, either in-line on the press or off-line, which is then cured by high intensity ultraviolet light which causes it to dry instantly to a high gloss.  Typically UV coating is applied as a flood coat.  UV coating gives the highest protection from scuffing and also offers the highest gloss appearance.  UV coating is a thick coating and in some cases may cause printed sheets to crack when folded.  We offer UV coating on select products such as business cards, postcards, brochures, door hangers etc.

AQUEOUS COATING
Aqueous coating is a water based coating thus making it more environmentally friendly than UV.  It does not absorb into printed sheets as does varnish, doesn't crack or scuff easily but is twice as expensive as varnish.  Aqueous coating comes is gloss, dull and satin finishes, but can only be applied as a flood coating.  Aqueous coating is available for select products printed on #100 gloss book.

AVAILABILITY
Varnish is available on most all coated papers and some uncoated papers, please email us or call us if you require overprint varnish.  UV coating is a more specialized coating which is offered on any of our printed products that specify UV Coated in the product name or description (14pt. cover stocks).  UV coating is not available for our digital printing as the coating adhesion is proven to be unreliable with digital printing inks .  Aqueous Coating is offered on our  printed products that specify #100 gloss book in the product name or description.