Coatings are used for helping make your presentation folders appear shinier, softer and brighter. How is that achieved you ask? Well generally when you coat an A4 or an A5 folder, you do so with a film and then seal it all in which instantly enhances the look and feel of your presentation folders and gives them a premium finish. One of the best things about coating your folders is that it will help in protecting the printing ink and also prevent it from fading too soon. Now let us take a locket the various types of coatings for presentation folders that are available in the market today, which can help in giving them a distinct touch:
- The first kind of coating that we are going to consider is aqueous coating, which is basically as the name suggests water-based and can help in protecting your presentation folders from all kinds of smearing, smudges, scuffs and finder prints. This kind of finish is quite long-lasting and also fast drying, having said that however it is not a waterproof finish, hence it cannot provide your presentation folders with any kind of resistance from liquids. The aqueous coating comes in 4 distinct types, the first of which is gloss which is self-explanatory and gives a shiny effect to your A4 folder. The second one is matte which will minimise the reflective ability of your presentation folders, yet retain all the other benefits that coating can provide to your presentation folders. The next finish is satin, which as the name suggests gives your a5 folder a smooth and velvety finish and texture — the last would be soft-touch which a lot like matte finish, but the only difference is that your folder gets an almost suede-like finish to the presentation folders.
- The second type of coating that you can look into is laminates. In which you can encase your presentation folders in durable plastic sheets that will help in increasing the longevity of your folders. Though this technique might come off to emerge a little expensive than traditional coatings, what you need to understand is that the durability factor becomes so much higher with laminates that they would end up outlasting all the other folder in the vicinity, by eliminating regular wear and tear that happens. Laminates too, come in a glossy and matte finish and as per your choice, you can go ahead and decide what is most preferred by you for your presentation folders.
- If you want to add a dramatic shine to your folders then you need to go for UV coating, wherein our a5 folder will be dipped in chemicals and then treated with UV light which creates an ultra-shiny effect which doesn’t even take too long to dry. Though it will help in preventing your design from smudging, it can’t do much for the longevity of your presentation folders. Hence, if you want to create a dramatic impact folder for a particular time frame promotion only, the coating your presentation in UV coating would make sense.
- Another variation of coating that you can look into is spot coating and what it does is allow only certain parts of your presentation folders to be quotes, to create a unique eye-grabbing effect that can make your design element or your typography or things like brand logo stand out. One of the most populate technique for doing spot coating is to first create a matte A4 folder as your base designing then cover certain elements in glossy UV coating — this will indeed give a dramatic eye-catching effect to your presentation folder, and give it a look of multi-layered patterns.
Deciding upon the right kind of folder coating can be tricky, however, it should predominantly depend on your folder design and the design elements that are being utilised by you. A part of the solution also comes in the form the kind of audience you are targeting and what are they looking for, from you as a brand. Once you have nailed the thought process behind the creatives that you are going to get printed on your presentation folders, you will easily be able to come to a decision, once that happens and when combined with the right kind of coating you can achieve a true work of art, that is bound to grab everyone’s attention.
