UV printing uses inks that are instantly cured with ultraviolet light as they’re printed. Instead of soaking into the material and drying over time, the ink hardens on contact and bonds directly to the surface, resulting in sharper detail, richer color, and better durability.

Compared to traditional solvent or eco-solvent printing, UV printing produces cleaner edges, more consistent color, and prints that are more resistant to scratching, moisture, and fading. It’s a go-to option for premium stickers, labels, and packaging.

UV printing also allows us to add clear varnish on top of the print for spot gloss, texture, and raised effects, including varnish embossing. This is how we create highlights, shine, and extra pop that you can see and feel.

UV embossing is done by stacking layers of clear varnish with a UV printer to create raised areas on your design. The varnish cures instantly, so you end up with texture you can actually see and feel. When you have a sticker or label that is "raised" - this is embossing.

A lot of people use these terms interchangeably, so let's clear it up.

UV refers to the printing method. UV printers use ultraviolet light to instantly cure ink and varnish on the surface of the material.

Spot gloss is a finish. It uses clear UV varnish applied only to specific areas of the design to add shine and contrast.

Embossing describes the effect. With UV printing, embossing is created by stacking layers of clear varnish to build raised texture you can see and feel.

Spot Gloss and Embossing are basically the same thing, embossing just uses more varnish to make the finish raise off of the surface.

We add white layers to all of our specialty vinyl's like holographic to make sure that everything pops.

White layers are added to specialty films, usually like holographic or chrome to give a base for the color to lay on.

Traditional printers do not print white ink, they only print Cyan/Magenta/Yellow/Black, and sometimes the colors are not rich enough to block out the light refraction from the material.

If you are using a holographic vinyl and have white in your design, it will show up as raw holographic unless a white layer is used.