What’s after-printing process

The after-printing process, known as surface finishing, is the process of processing printed matter after printing.To meet the use requirements and improve the appearance quality.
Usually, after printing the products, we will do some processes on the surface to make the book more special and attractive. And improve the grade of the book, make your book more high-end. Below are the common surface processes we often use in book and other product printing.

1. Hot stamping finishing

Hot stamping is one of the most popular surface finishing in the book printing field, especially in hardcover book printing. We often use hot stamping on book cover, spine and edge, card and package surface.

Hot stamping is based on the principle of heat transfer. Transfer the aluminum layer in anodized aluminum to the surface of printed matter to produce a special metallic effect. Because the main material used in hot stamping is anodized aluminum foil. Hot stamping is also called anodized aluminum hot stamping. Hot stamping is not limited to gold foil. It also can do silver foil, black stamping, blue stamping, red stamping, etc. The color hot stamping is depends on your book style.

The printed product with hot stamping on the surface or edge, make it looks more beautiful and high-end. Read more about foil stamping.

2. Lamination finishing

Lamination is to cover the surface of printed matter with plastic film. Lamination is a technology to use adhesives to bond them together after heating and pressure. After drying, it forms a printed matter combining paper and plastic

We can divide lamination into matte lamination and glossy lamination and soft touch lamination. Glossy lamination makes the surface more bright and attractive, often use for children’s book types printing, art book printing, cookbook printing, card printing, etc. Matte lamination on the surface is not bright and elegant, often used for image printing. Besides, the books with lamination also make it with waterproof and dustproof function. Read more about lamination.

3. Varnish finishing

Varnish is the process of coating varnish oil on the book surface. After drying to from the special protection layer on the book surface.

We often divided over vanish into glossy oil varnish and matte oil varnish. The glossy oil varnish process can improve the surface gloss of the printed product. Which making the book brighter and richer. Contrary to glossy oil varnish, the matte oil varnish process reduces the gloss on the surface of printed product. Which can avoid irritation in human eyes because of its excessive gloss.

Varnish can not only enhance the bright luster of the surface, but also play a waterproof and oil-proof role on the surface of the packaging, protect the printed graphics, and does not affect the recycling of paper. Different from lamination, after varnishing, the tear resistance of the paper is not good as lamination. Read more about varnish.

4. Spot UV finishing

Spot UV coating is a type of surface finishing technology for printed matter. It is so named because it uses UV coating with high brightness, transparency and wear resistance to selectively varnish printed graphics and text. While highlighting the layout theme, it also improves the surface decoration effect of the printed matter. Spot UV is mainly used in post-printing finishing of book covers and packaging products to achieve the purpose of making printed products more beautiful.
Spot UV can be implemented after lamination, or it can be coated directly on the printed matter. But in order to highlight the effect of spot uv, generally, it is done after the printed matter is laminated, and most of them are covered with matte laminating, accounting for about 80% of spot UV coating products.
Spot UV can present a variety of artistic special effects on the surface of the printed product, making the printed product more exquisite and special. Read more about spot uv.

5. Embossing and deboss finishing

To make your prints with a distinctive feel and a sense of high-end, it is necessary to add other processing to the paper. There are two commonly used processing methods that can enhance the visual effect and feel, that is emboss and deboss. This kind of craftsmanship can not only add a sense of hierarchy, but also can enhance brand image. In terms of sales, these two techniques definitely help increase the desire to buy.
Embossing or debossing is a special process technology for surface finishing of printed matter. It uses female (concave) and male (convex) molds to mechanically exert pressure that exceeds the elastic limit of the printed matter base material. The surface of the printed matter is perform artistic processing on. Both printing effects are accomplished using stencils or metal plate impressions. Through embossing processing, the back of the printed matter is impacted, causing the design pattern on the front to bulge. The debossing process presses the pattern into the paper to create a concave and convex effect. These processes are very suitable for highlighting logos, text, graphics or creating shading for the surface of paper. Embossing (debossing) is mainly to enhance the three-dimensional sense and artistic appeal of printed images and texts.
Both embossing and debossing can be divided into colorless and colored, and different methods are used to match different designs. Colored embossing and debossing can be processed not only on printing colors, but also on hot stamping.

6. Die cutting finishing

Die-cutting is a cutting process for post-processing of printed matter, to make the printed mater with a 3D effect. The die-cutting process can make printed matter or other paper products into die-cutting blades for cutting according to pre-designed graphics, so that the shape of the printed matter is no longer limited to straight lines and sidesright angles.

Traditional die-cutting production uses die-cutting knives to form die-cut plates according to the patterns required by product design. Under the action of pressure, the printed matter or other plate-shaped blanks are rolled into the required shape or cut marks.  The creasing process uses a creasing knife or creasing die to press out line marks on the sheet through the action of pressure, or uses a rolling wheel to roll out line marks on the sheet. So that the sheet can be bent and formed according to the predetermined position. Usually the die-cutting and creasing process is a process in which the die-cutting knife and the creasing knife are combined in the same template, and die-cutting and creasing are performed simultaneously on the die-cutting machine, which is referred to as die-pressing. Read more about die cutting.

7. Laser foil stamping

Laser hot stamping is the process of transferring the laser pattern on the anodized aluminum to the substrate by using the effect of temperature and pressure.

Laser foil stamping make the printed product have a dazzling visual effect, can effectively improve the grade of product. And has the characteristics of degradable, recyclable, easy to handle, green and environmental protection.

8. Brush edge finishing

The brush edge finishing is to use manual or digital technology to print different colors or pictures on the edge of the book on the side of the paper. We can divide brush edge process into hot stamping, spray color and silk screen.