specialist print

As a business we specialise in the production of high quality commercial print and specialist print of many types not achievable by a normal print company, additionally we print on many and varied materials.

We provide a vast range of specialist services to our magazine and catalogue publishing clients. These include special colour printing techniques, such as MetalFX, die-cutting, foil blocking, em/de-bossing and glitter varnishes. We also use specialist on-line print deviser software to simulate special print finishes for magazine covers in particular.

In large format digital print we have the capability to print onto fabric, furniture, hot air balloons, wood, metals and glass plus marquees and even print to go onto tarmac or brick walls.

substrate & stock

large format

Across our production sites we have the ability to print directly on almost any type of flat or rolled material up to 40mm thick. Some examples are metal, wood, glass, canvass, fabrics, plastics and many more too numerous to list. The applications for these products are similarly varied in almost any display situation you can think of such as signage, window displays, theatres, exhibition, stadiums and so forth.

bond paper

Basic office paper stock of more than 50gsm without a texture, generally also available in pastel colours is not particularly exciting to look at, but cheap.

laid paper

Thicker plain paper with a linear pattern - often used for letterheads and prestige business printing.

textured paper

Available in many finishes and also as canvas ‘paper’; therefore ideal for ‘art-look’ projects.

wove paper

This is similar to laid paper and of the same quality, but a little cheaper. It is better than office paper, but with no visible texturing since a finer mesh is used in its manufacture.

vinyl

This is the perfect outdoor stock. Colour choices in stock substrate are limited however, and translucent and single-colour print-on vinyls offer more choice.

inks

metallic inks

Offer an understated, opaque metallic glisten. Foil can be utilised for a more dramatic look. These inks work best on a low-holdout coated sheet.

ultraviolet inks

Are basically a very thin layer of coloured plastic after curing. UV inks usually create richer colours than solvent inks and will print on acrylic, glass and metal.

fluorescent inks

Not just used for day-glo, fluorescents add punch to a standard CMYK process. Colour matching can be tricky and they require more ink.

spot varnish

To soften text and artwork it is preferable to use matt or silk varnish. For specific gloss effects, spot UV is preferable (see below).

spot uv

High-gloss finish printed on, then cured with UV, is a real eye-catcher and can be spot-printed or non-localised, as well as texturised.

fragrant varnishes

Sometimes referred to as ‘scratch and sniff’, these add a scented effect to selected areas of the page. Still considered somewhat exotic in the UK market it is therefore classed as a specialised product.

foil and laminate

Lamination – clear is used mainly for adding a shiny plastic coating, as an overall effect or with a spot varnish.

lamination – foil and iridescent

Specialised foils add an iridescent finish over a translucent colour layer. This is not particularly subtle, but effective for increasing shininess.

hot foil stamping

Gives a spot foil effect, commonly used in medical/health packaging, greetings cards and for security foils. The effect works well on stiffer card.

foil blocking

Is a mechanical version of hot foil stamping, used on gift cards and certificates, but rather old-fashioned and often awkward to set up.

foils

Print on coloured or holographic foil rather than paper for eye-catching bags. Results in a very shiny product, but not quite robust as paper.

metalFX^®

St Ives' use of a MetalFX system under licence, enables it to greatly simplify the production process for print jobs which require one or more metallic colours. Having recently been granted a Silver MetalFX accreditation, we are hoping shortly to add to our success by gaining Gold MFX status.

cost savings

MetalFX works on the basis that CMYK inks are transparent, so when printed on top of the modified MFX base ink, it allows the silver or to show through the CMYK and thus create an almost limitless number of metallic colours. The MFX inks have additional trapping qualities on press which allow the CMYK inks to adhere to it. MetalFX colours are applied at the design stage where the designer or pre-press house adds MetalFX pallets and actions to create a 5-colour job using base silver or gold plus 4-colour process.

embossing and debossing

Embossing stamps the stock to push it out, whereas debossing pushes it in. Creatively they work best with colours and foils.

die-cutting

A custom-made metal blade is pressed through the stock, leaving either a clean hole or a shaped perforation.

laser cutting

Effectively a high resolution version of die-cutting. Going up to 800dpi, creative applications are almost limitless.

eye-catching designs

So, if you ever wanted to have three different metallic colours but your print budget wouldn’t stretch that far now, with the MetalFX process, you can. Since CMYK inks are conventional inks already used in the litho printing process, we can now print a standard CMYK job and at the same time achieve up to 615 metallic colours. This means we can now create eye-catching designs by integrating metallic colours into photographs and by creating an unlimited range of colours on a job using only one additional colour.

MetalFX will not transform your project simply by applying the process. First, both the design and image must be suitable. Then some skilful tweaking is required at the design/pre-press stage to produce the best result. From the jobs we’ve printed so far, we would strongly recommend the use of metal MetalFX non-leafing silver and a gloss UV varnish on the MetalFX subject area. This enhances the lustre of the subject to give maximum impact to the finished product.