Spot Coating Low-Volume Runs

As marketing runs get shorter, the issue of printing and coating in color can be handled by today’s robust, high-quality digital presses. But what if you want to have something digitally printed and spot varnished? Especially if you are producing very short runs, this can be somewhat more challenging.

There are not a lot of digital spot coating options out there. Most of the coating options compatible with digital press output are flood coating only, but there is spot coating available. Let’s look at four possible approaches.

1. You can apply the varnish manually. Yes, if the run is short enough, you can actually spot varnish the pieces by hand. Varnish (non-UV) can be purchased from an art supply store and either brushed on sprayed through a mask (or stencil) you cut yourself. I’m not recommending this approach, however it has been mentioned as an option for extremely small quantities.

2. Find a printer with a digital press that offers spot coating capabilities. Although still the exception, there are a few digital presses that offer spot coating capabilities. To my knowledge, this is available only on the Kodak NexPress, Hewlett-Packard, and Canon C1+, which offer spot coating as one of the ink stations on the press. This “coating” is basically a clear toner, so its benefit is primarily cosmetic since it does not offer the same durability as traditional coating.

For ultra short runs, your best bet is to keep a few NexPress, HP, and Canon C1+ printers in your contact database. For “longer” short runs, you might start requesting samples from printers with inline and offline spot coaters.

What’s great about the capability, however, is that you can spot coat variably on the fly. This means that if your images change, the spot coating can change with it. If you’re swapping out images or promotional offers, for example, you can highlight each item by spot coating it and change the spot coating to match any changes in the images or text.

HP presses do not offer gloss spot coating (although like other presses, they do offer an inline flood coating capability), but they do promote the ability to simulate this effect. This is accomplished by printing gloss paper, then printing a matte coating in all of the areas except the one you want to stand out. Think of it as reverse spot coating.

In the wide-format inkjet marketplace, the Roland VersaUV LEC-330 UV inkjet printer debuted at the recent Print 09 show. This press is also reported to offer a nice spot coating capability. Roland promotes the press as the industry’s only production tool to print CMYK + white + clear coat and contour cut designs all in one device through one seamless workflow.

3. Find a printer with inline or offline coating equipment. If you are looking for a more protective coating, or if you want to spot coat materials printed on a brand of digital press other than those mentioned above, there are a number of inline and near-line coaters that can help do the job.

These coaters are true coating machines and have both benefits and drawbacks. The benefits are that they offer true UV or water-based spot coating. Typically, they also allow you to apply different coatings (like matte and satin) and do specialty coatings like textured surfaces and security coats. The drawbacks are that they require the production of plates and therefore do not offer variable coating capabilities. They also have more up-front cost and will not be as cost effective for ultra-short runs.

The Epic CTi-635, for example, runs inline with any of the Xerox iGen presses. It is purpose-built for short-run digital applications and can do spot coating, as well as embossed UV.

Epic also offers an offline version, the Epic CT-660. Other options include the Dryprint and Kompac KwiK Finish, which are also standalone, offline machines designed to handle short-run digital, as well as offset work.

4. Consider silk screening. As one screen printer has said, “T-shirts aren’t the only things we screen printers can do.”