Top Questions about Spot UV

• What is Spot UV?

  Spot UV adds a gloss coating on certain spots of your design, such as a company logo, while leaving other areas uncoated in a matte finish. To apply spot UV, a separate 1 bit (B&W) tiff file must be created. The black pixels should correspond with the areas where gloss will be applied. Spot UV files must fit our file specs.

  Select "Add Spot UV," located below the uploader, to add your spot UV file.

  If you need assistance creating a Spot UV file, you will need to do the following:
  1. Design the card or upload a finished design.
  2. Complete the order process.
  3. Immediately log into My Orders and place the order on hold before our print cutoff time of 5PM (PST). This is the most important step - failing to put the order on hold before the cutoff time will make your order ineligible for any resolution should there be any printing issues.
  4. Contact us via Online Chat with the spot UV file (please follow instructions below on how to create a SPOT UV FILE) and provide us with your invoice number.
  5. Once the file has been uploaded, our File Support Staff will remove the hold from your order and send to print.

  NOTE: Please be advised that once your email has been received the process may take up to 48 hours to upload your gloss file, and send your order to print.

• Do all products qualify for spot UV?

  Unfortunately, not all products qualify for Spot UV. Spot UV can be added on most products that will be printed on 15pt card stock, such as Premium Business Cards, Mini Business Cards, most Postcard sizes, Bookmarks and Rack Cards for quantities of 100 or more.

• How do I create a spot UV file?

  Spot UV files should have 1 bit color depth. This is shown on Photoshop as Bitmap image mode. Spot UV files should have 300 dpi (300 dpi vertical and horizontal). Tiff files should be uncompressed. This is specified in when saving something as tiff in Photoshop. With respects to using Illustrator, ensure an unpainted, unfilled box of the full bleed dimensions of the product for the spot to overlay perfectly.

  Converting other formats to 1 bit tiff files:

  1. Open the file in Photoshop.
  2. Convert to Bitmap image mode. (1 bit, B&W).
  3. If file is not in grayscale image mode, you will need to change it before converting to bitmap.
  4. When converting to bitmap image mode, select a resolution of 300 dpi and "50% Threshold" for method. 
  5. Save as a tiff file. Select no compression.