Finishing

Finishing refers to the manufacturing process that follows the printing of the substrate.

We provide a broad range of finishing options to transform a flat printed graphic into a functional, complete product.

Laminating & Embellishment

  • Laminating

    Also known as celloglazing, provides the printed surface with a plastic coating to protect the finished product and change the aesthetic look and feel.

    • Gloss Laminate – provides a shiny finish that enhances the colour
    • Matt Laminate – provides a flat premium finish that slightly dulls the colour
    • New Velvet (NV) Laminate – provides a deluxe soft-touch matt finish that enhances the colour
  • Wide Format Laminating

    Unlike offset and digital laminating, wide format laminating is generally applied to increase the durability and longevity of a printed product for outdoor use.

    • Monomeric Laminate – Available in Gloss or Matt. 2 year UV protection.
    • Polymeric Laminate – Available in Gloss or Matt. 5 year UV protection.
    • Whiteboard Laminate – As the name suggests it allows the printed surface to be written on with a whiteboard marker.
  • Embelishment

    Enhance your design by adding an embellishment to the print surface. This is a great way to highlight brands and images on the page by adding a post-print finish.

    • Spot UV – a flat gloss finish that creates a nice contrast against matt or NV laminate.
    • Scodix – a raised gloss finish that adds a 3D appearance of the highlighted area.
    • Metal – a raised metallic finish that provides a 3D bling appearance in your selected colour. Available in Gold, Silver, Rose and Holographic.

    All of the above finishes can only be applied to 250gsm coated board or heavier. For best results use NV laminate.

     

Folding

  • Folding

    Compact your communication or marketing piece into a smaller format by utilising one of our many folding options. By folding to smaller sizes it can reduce postage and delivery rates.

Trimming & Creasing

  • Die-Cutting
    Cut and crease to custom shapes using our die-cutting service. This process involves making a die from wood, steel and foam, then using a cylinder or platin to force the printed sheet onto the die to cut and crease the shape. Use one of our standing dies to create your artwork or supply a custom dieline so we can quote to produce a new die.
  • Perforating
    Partially cut through the paper stock using a perforated line. This will allow for the end-user to tear off part of the sheet. Commonly used for invoices, forms or vouchers.
  • Guillotining
    We guillotine all our offset and digital products from a larger sheet size. There is no need for you to select trimming if you have already selected the finish size of the order, as the trimming is already included.
  • Scoring
    Creasing paper or board stocks to allow for folding. This is recommended on heavier weight stocks to avoid the fibres of the paper from cracking. This is automatically done on stocks that require it if folding is selected on an order.
  • Drilling
    Drill a hole in your product to allow for binder insertion or hanging from a string or hook.
  • Round Cornering
    We offer 2 round corner options for 90x55mm business cards; 3mm radius and 7mm radius each of these are all 4 corners. For custom round corner options, we can die-cut them.
  • Router Cutting

    This is how all wide format media is cut. The stock is placed on a flatbed table and follows a digital cut path (dieline) to cut, kiss-cut, drill or crease to any shape. This provides a similar result to the die-cutting process but allows for finishing a wider range of substrates.

    Router cutting options:

    • Basic (Circle) - this is any shape where the knife doesn't have to lift and can cut in 1 smooth path. If you add drill holes to the dieline, the router has to lift from the cutting table and re-position to cut the holes
    • Standard (Star) - Basic shapes with holes or as suggested an oblong shape like a star
    • Detailed (Outline) - Outlines of people (standees), text (stickers)
    • Complex (Box) - Cartons or display stands that require cutting and creasing. This requires the use of 2 different cutting tools which takes time to changeover

Bindery

  • Binding

    Combine your pages into a booklet using our binding options.

    • Saddle Staple – two staples through the middle spread of the folded in half sheet. Saddle staple books must contain page multiples of four eg. 8 pages, 12 page, 16 pages. Commonly used for catalogues and magazines.
    • Perfect Binding – A wrap around cover and spine with glued pages in the centre. Our standard process is EVA glue with a text page spine grind to hold the glue. For additional cost we can also provide burst or PUR binding for a stronger more durable finish. The minimum thickness is 3mm to allow for enough glue to hold the pages together. Typically used for soft cover books.
    • Wire Binding – Punching holes in the binding edge, then inserting a thin wire coil. This provides a finish for loose leaf sheets of any page number and allows for it to open back on itself. Ideal for manuals, reports and recipe books.
  • Padding
    Gluing the edge of a stack of paper with a box board interleaved to produce a pad. To quote pads in Hublink, select the number of leaves at your quantity and then tick Padding in Additional Options for the amount of pads required eg. 20 pads of 50 leaves = 1000 quantity.

Display & Assembly

  • Mounting
    200-300gsm stock can be mounted to 1.5mm Screen Board to produce products like counter display cards or STAX Business Cards.
  • Strutting
    Attach a strut to the reverse side of your printed product to make it free-standing. These are commonly used for point of sale counter cards or wide format printed standees.
  • Patch Magnets
    Adhere a small magnet to the reverse side of invitations, takeaway menus or calendars so they can be stuck to a fridge.
  • Gluing/Double-Sided Taping
    Some products like presentation folders, wallets or packaging require gluing for the design to function. We can also offer strips of double-sided tape to be applied with the backing paper still attached, so that products like wobblers or wide format signs can be adhered to a surface at a later date.
  • Banding/Shrink Wrapping/Kraft Wrapping
    We will always package your order in logical bundles and secure packaging for delivery, however if you require it packaged in a specific way, then we have these options to do so.

Wide Format

  • Hemming
    The recommended process for finishing an outdoor banner or mesh. Folding the edges over and heat sealing them provides a more durable product that can withstand the wind and reduce the risk of tearing. Alternatively a kedar edge can be attached to the edge of a banner to be inserted into a sailtrack at install stage.
  • Eyelets
    Stainless steel circular rings that are punched into wide format media to assit with the hanging of the finished product. These rings are 20mm in diameter with a 12mm hole. See our artwork guidelines for space allowance required for eyelets.