Spot UV Varnish For Flyers & Leaflets

What is Spot UV?

Spot UV is known by many names including:

• Spot varnish
• Spot gloss
• UV printing … and more!

The printing technique involves applying clear varnish onto your flyer or leaflet design, to highlight text, images or logos. The high shine provides a clear contrast with your background design (especially if your paper / lamination is matt or soft-touch).

You can add Spot UV to any colour – when added to colours the effect is lifted and offers a visual 3D effect.

Blind Spot UV On Flyers

Spot UV is added to specific elements of your design – like your logo or company name. Blind UV provides a sort of integrated background (see the effect opposite) which can be viewed when your client tilts your printed flyers. 

A popular choice is to have your business name repeated over the entire surface of your printed flyer. adding branding reinforcement at every viewing. 

As with Spot UV, we’d recommend that Blind UV is applied on top of a matt laminate. You can choose from matt or soft-touch lamination (sometimes called ‘velvet laminate’) to really make your gloss UV ‘pop!’. Soft-touch lamination will also add a luxurious look and feel to your custom printed flyer. 

Please note – do not apply gloss UV to unlaminated paper – the varnish can be absorbed into the paper without lamination and the high shine gloss will be severely reduced. 

Where should you apply Spot UV?

Spot UV works best when it is used judiciously. This is because the striking and eye catching effect comes from the high shine – if there’s a lot of high shine, the effect will be reduced. Some common places to apply UV on your printed flyers and leaflets are:

• Logo
• Business name
• Highlighting a special offer
• Graphic elements that need to ‘shine’ e.g. stars

Blind UV can be added to the entirety of your background design. 

Please note – it’s best to avoid adding the spot UV near to folds or trimmed areas, to prevent flaking or cracks. 3mm is the minimum recommended distance.