KainosPrint

Coating (celloglazing, varnishing)

Kainos Print offers a range of coating options which can add impact and robustness to your job

Machine varnishing

Machine varnishing is a process whereby a clear matt (dull and non-reflective) or gloss (shiny and reflective) ‘ink’ is ‘printed’ onto your job by a conventional offset press.

Machine varnishing tends to add slight depth to the colour of the printed piece. One of the main reasons customers use machine varnishing is to protect the printed piece, and printing which is going to have a hard life, such as the cover of a book or a booklet, will benefit from machine varnishing.

You can have machine varnishing on one side only, or on both sides.

Allow an extra two days for delivery if your job is to include varnshing. We need to be certain the job has dried thoroughly before dispatch.

We do not machine varnish digitally printed products. Long experience has shown that the results are rarely satisfactory. Machine varnishing is therefore only available for offset quantities — usually over 1000 copies of an A3 sheet. 

Celloglazing

Celloglazing is a process whereby a thin sheet of film is adhered to the printed piece by a special machine that uses both heat and pressure to apply the coating.

Celloglazing can be matt or gloss and can be single sided or double sided. It is a relatively slow process, and is more expensive than machine varnishing. The process adds depth to colours. Celloglazing adds a significant degree of robustness to any printed piece, and produces a rather luxurious, classy, ‘expensive’ look to the product.

Celloglazing of digitally printed products (short runs up to about 1000) is an extremely effective way of increasing the ‘classiness’ of a product, and of protecting it. Book covers should always be celloglazed. We are now able to celloglaze both sides of perfect bound book covers, although it is normally only necessary to celloglaze the outside cover.

Should I choose celloglazing or will gloss stock suffice?

Celloglazing greatly enhances the appearance of printing from a sales point of view. However in the case of calendars, for instance, once a calendar is in use, the celloglazed cover is unlikely to be seen for the rest of the year. Celloglazing is highly recommended for all book covers, especially cook books in order to prevent dried flour, egg whites, sugar and so on from spoiling the cover of the book. Cook books should be gloss celloglazed as it is easier to wipe a gloss celloglazed cover than a matt celloglazed cover.

Gloss celloglazing gives a high gloss, shiny, reflective finish. A matt celloglaze gives the a very elegant, satin, dull finish. A printed product that will compete with others on a stand in a newsagent or bookshop would benefit from a gloss celloglaze. A book or calendar produced by a professional photographer (for example) to be handed out to clients, or sold as a premium product over the internet would benefit from a matt celloglaze.