What is Spot UV?

Spot UV (Ultra Violet) refers to the placement of a glossy coating on specific areas of the card. Whereas glossy business cards are shiny all over, spot UV business cards are typically printed on non-shiny card stock like silk (and in this case with a Matt Laminate coating too). The spot UV gloss is then coated over the silk business card stock on specific parts of the card.

We print Spot UV on single and double sided business cards.

How to Design Your Spot UV Business Card

1.

The first step is very simple, you just need to put together the artwork or the colour printed part of your artwork as you would do for a double sided business card.

Export as a press ready PDF in CMYK, with 3mm bleed

2.

Now you need to create a new PDF containing only the areas on the card the Spot UV will be applied to.

Any areas you would like to have the Spot UV applied to needs to be set as 100% black, replace any colour images with black areas, and set any text to 100% black.

The easiest way to do this is and to ensure all your artwork will line up at the end is to start from your original artwork. Save a copy of your colour design work (Illustrator or InDesign files, not the final PDF) and name it Myfilename_SpotUV

REMOVE ALL AREAS OF ARTWORK which are not designed to have the Spot UV applied and remove any effects or shadows.

Export your artwork as a Press ready PDF with the exact same settings as your colour imagery, ensure you highlight in the file name of your Spot UV PDF that it is the Spot UV imagery, and to which side of the print it is to be applied - please make sure this is clear as we offer double sided spot uv business cards.

You can also add additional objects to the spot UV file, which are not in the original colour imagery to add texture to your card. For example, Spot UV applied to a solid black Matt Laminated background is an easy way of creating a very effective and stunning visual effect.

Once your satisfied with your artwork files, upload them both to your order, add any artwork notes which you feel are relevant, and we will get your print out to you promptly.