Spot UV is a printing method which a tough clear liquid coating is applied on a certain spot of your print, and then being dried using UV lights. As you might want to know what are the steps to prepare and submit a file for Spot UV Printing job, you might be interested to the article in this link.

Read More: What Sticker Material Types Should You Use?

In this article, we will illustrate on the possible issues that might occur in your final printing outcome if these elements are being ignored in your artwork. Lets say if you are planning to print Spot UV on the yellowed wordings.

And here is what it might be the outcome of Spot UV on the Logo, Name, and Phone Number.

Avoid Font or Line Thickness of 0.5pts and Below

For any Font or Line thickness of 0.5pts and below, the Spot UV effects may not come out as desired because thin lines are not able to be easily printed with Spot UV. It has a high risk of mis-registration, and highly not printable. Hence, please apply at least 0.6pts and above for all your lines or fonts in your artwork.

Avoid Using Fonts at 4pts or Smaller

Other than thin line fonts, any font size that is smaller than 4pts might be not printable, or it may even being printed as a block as per the above illustration. Therefore, please use a font size larger than 4pts.

In the same case, any logo that is small, and has complicated details in it, is merely not printable using Spot UV. It will either be printed in a block, or it might be not being coated in the print outcome.

Avoid Using Spot UV as an Outline

It is highly not advised to apply Spot UV as outlines for fonts, images, and etc. This will add risks to image mis-registration and leads to high wastage on prints as a portion of the prints may be consider damaged.

Avoid Putting Spot UV on the Trim Edge

Also, we have experience on some situation where the Spot UV is being expanded up to the Full Bleed Zone, and then being trimmed down to the exact Trim Zone. The issue that came to our experience is that the Spot UV Coating might come off peeled. Hence, we highly advice that your Spot UV artwork should not put it near the trim line.

Avoid Hole Punching on Spot UV Printed Areas

In the same way as trim edge issue, it applies the same to Hole Punching. A hole being punched on the Spot UV areas may cause the UV Layer coming peeled off.

Conclusion

By using a Book Cover Illustration as a conclusion example, here is what we advice on your Spot UV job arrangements. Avoid Spot UV Printing on Creasing Lines. Avoid Hole Punching on Spot UV Printed areas. Avoid Spot UV on the Gluing Zones. Use Spot UV on the center of the print which you think is the main contrast of your entire content.

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