Print Finishes & Binding Options

When it comes to printing, there's a huge choice you can make about how you want your end product to look and feel. We've put together a quick, easy guide to the most popular print finishes and binding options, just in case you weren't too sure.

Print Finishes

Matt Celloglaze

Celloglaze is a thin film applied to one or both sides of a printed surface, giving increased protection and durability. Matt celloglaze has a silky smooth, unreflective surface and is suitable for writing on.

Velvet Soft Touch Laminate

Laminate is a film applied to one or both sides of a printed surface, giving increased protection and durability. Velvet soft touch laminate is a premium finish which has a matt look and a velvety feel.

Gloss Celloglaze

Celloglaze is a thin film applied to one or both sides of a printed surface, giving protection and increased durability. Gloss celloglaze is a clear shiny finish which can enhance or emphasize colours. It is not suitable to write on with biro or pencil.

Spot UV

This is a high gloss screen printed coating, applied as a liquid and exposed to UV light which bonds and dries it instantly. It is used as a design feature in selected ‘spots’, for example on a logo or business name. The contrasting texture of spot UV works especially well when applied to a matt celloglaze surface.

Foiling

Foiling uses a custom die to stamp paper with a metallic foil at heat so it bonds. Gold and silver are the most commonly used foils, but other colours are available for quotation.

Metallic Ink

A cheaper option than foiling, metallic ink is lustrous and reflective. Choose silver (PMS 877), gold (PMS 872) or specify another Pantone metallic ink. 

Round Corners

A die cut is used to give flat A6 and DL cards rounded corners with 10mm diameter. Business cards have even more choice – one, two, three or four rounded corners, with diameters from 1mm to 10mm!

Scoring

When folded brochures or booklet covers are printed on card, it’s important to score, or professionally crease, the folds. This makes folding easy and accurate, and reduces cracking on the folds.

Perforating

Perforations are rows of tiny holes precisely punched into paper which make it easy to tear. Stamps, coupons and tear-off forms all need perforations. A drill hole is a single, slightly larger perforation, for example through the top of the pages in a saddle stitched calendar and used to hang it.

Die Cutting

Die cutting uses a metal knife in a specific shape to cut things like rounded corners on cards or presentation folders which have tabs or pockets. We have a stock of dies that we use regularly, or can provide a quote if you need a custom die for a specific job.

Binding

Saddle Stitching

For booklets up to 64 pages, saddle stitching is neat, secure and cost-effective. It uses two wires, or staples, at the spine, allowing the booklet to open reasonably flat.

Wiro Binding

Stronger and more secure than standard spiral wire binding, wiro binding is the perfect option for documents (booklets, calendars, notepads) that need to lay perfectly flat or have the cover flipped around.

PUR Binding

PUR binding, a form of perfect binding, is suitable for softcover booklets with more than 64 pages. The pages are printed in sections and attached to the spine of the cover using a special glue. The other three sides of the booklet are then trimmed to give it ‘perfect’ edges.