To Laminate or Not to Laminate
Why should You Laminate Your Print?
What is Lamination?
Here at Rush Graphics, we do quite a bit of lamination on products like boxes, postcards and business cards, among others. In the world of print and design, lamination, put simply, is a layer of plastic that adheres to your print in order to provide protection, as well as a finish. Let's dive a little deeper.
What does it do?
When mentioning the benefits of laminating your print, the first and most important is protection. Lamination works to protect your print from blemishes such as scratches, dirt, fingerprints, oil and moisture. Perhaps the most important type of protection it offers is UV protection for prints that will have direct contact with sunlight and would have their ink fade over time otherwise.
Protection isn't its only benefit, far from it. Another huge advantage you gain by laminating your product is the effect it has on the print's color. Depending on the type of lamination used, you can give your print a serious boost in saturation and vibrancy by laminating it, which results in a much more attractive finished product.
Another great effect you can gain from lamination is the texture/feel you can add to your products surface. Many laminates will enhance the smoothness and provide a much more satisfying feeling when touching your product. A great example is soft touch lamination, a matte finish that greatly enhances the smoothness and softness of your print's surface. This is a great option for things such as business cards, as anyone would be instantly impressed by the velvety softness of the card as they accept it.
Here are a few examples of how matte lamination diffuses light, as opposed to how gloss lamination reflects light:
Lamination at Rush Graphics
As mentioned before, we do offer lamination as part of the process for the projects and products we produce. Name tags, badges, stickers, labels, business cards, boxes, the list goes on and on. We offer gloss and matte lamination, either adding a shiny, color boosting finish or a more soft finish that combats light reflection.
Rush has actually just added a new laminator to the production floor. The GFP 865DH-4RS thermal roll laminator allows us to do both roll to roll and sheet lamination, meaning we are not limited to one or the other.
If you have any inquiries regarding lamination and how it can benefit your product at Rush Graphics, please contact us!
