Vector Artwork

Spot UV and 3D-UV gloss is best created as vector artwork, in an application such as Adobe Illustrator. If you only have an image such as a JPG or PNG, send it to us for a quote to get it converted to vector artwork.

Custom Spot Colour

Create a custom spot colour named “Spot UV” or “3DUV”, and fill objects that are to be printed as the UV Gloss with the custom spot colour.  The colour used on screen can be any colour, however the final print will appear as a transparent gloss.

Overprint

To print UV Gloss on top of your CMYK artwork, you will need a top layer of artwork using the custom spot colour you just created (see previous step).

Ensure that the top-layer objects filled with the spot colour are set to “OVERPRINT”.  In Adobe Illustrator, tick the box in the “Attributes” palette to set an object to overprint, which will ensure the CMYK artwork underneath will also print. Failing to select overprint for the top UV Gloss layer will result in plain white underneath.

Trimming & Folding UV Gloss

Spot UV (Flat UV) can be trimmed and folded, and therefore can extend to the edge of the document, and into the bleed area.

3D-UV does not trim or fold well, and therefore should be kept away from the trim line, or printed only in thin lines or dots on the trim line.  Block areas of 3D-UV are fine, however when trimmed it can become detached from the stock.

Transparency

Keep Spot UV and 3D-UV objects at 100% opacity and 100% strength. Do not make UV  objects transparent or diluted in the colour palette.

If you want to “thin” out the appearance of UV Gloss, consider using dots or lines of solid UV.  Variations of CMYK printing underneath the UV Gloss will also create different effects of how visible the UV Gloss is.

Fineprint

Spot UV and especially 3D-UV will not print as detailed as regular colour ink.  Keep this in mind when adding UV to small fine-print and fine detailed graphics.