What Is Spot UV?

Spot UV (ultraviolet) coating applies a clear, glossy varnish to specific areas of a printed card, which is then cured instantly by UV light. The 'spot' refers to selective placement — rather than coating the entire card, the gloss is applied only to chosen design elements.

Here's what actually happens. Your card is printed first, as normal. Then a second pass lays down a clear liquid coating, but only where a separate file, the mask, tells it to. The mask is just your design's gloss areas in solid black on white. The sheet passes under ultraviolet lamps and the liquid hardens in a second. No drying time, no soaking in.

The effect depends entirely on contrast. Gloss reflects light in one direction; a matte surface scatters it. Put the two side by side and, straight on, you see almost nothing. Tilt the card ten degrees and the logo lights up. That's why I always say spot UV is a finish you design for movement, not for a flat photo.

A thin, smooth layer, flush with the card. You see the gloss difference but barely feel it. It holds lines at 0.3 mm, with type at 8 pt, and handles patterns and larger shapes well, which makes it the better choice for a pattern that spreads across the card. On a business card, it's the cheaper of the two at volume. You can see tone-on-tone patterns like this on our modern business cards.

The coating is built up thick enough to feel, a fraction of a millimetre, with a smooth, glassy shoulder. Run your thumb over it on a soft-touch card and you hit a cool ridge in the velvet. Lines and gaps use 0.3 mm target / 0.17 mm floor. This keeps the bead defined without imposing a heavier version of the artwork. And keep it to about a third of the card, or the cards stick together in the box.

People use these three interchangeably, and printers don't help. They're different.

Spot varnish is the old way. A varnish is printed from a plate on the press like an extra ink, only where you want it, and dries the way ink does. It gives a softer sheen than UV, and it can be gloss, satin or matte. It's economical on long offset runs.

Spot UV is a heavier clear coating cured instantly under UV light. It's glossier and harder, and it can be built up into raised spot UV.

UV coating (or UV varnish) usually means a flood: the whole sheet coated in gloss, which is what gives a glossy business card its shine. Spot UV is that same chemistry, applied selectively. So UV varnish vs spot UV comes down to coverage: the whole sheet, or only the parts you choose.

Spot gloss? That's a sales name for spot UV.

People ask me where spot UV looks best. The short answer: anywhere matte. Gloss only shows against a surface that doesn't shine, so soft touch is the strongest ground, silk and matte coated cards are very good, and cotton takes it too. The one place it's wasted is a card that's already glossy.

On cotton there are two more ways to get a light moment, if spot UV isn't quite the look: clear foil, the same shape pressed into the paper with heat, with a satin shine and a slight bite you can feel; or a blind deboss, which plays the same light-and-shadow game with no shine at all.

Most spot UV problems are file problems. Three rules cover nearly all of them: keep it bold, keep it off the edges, and don't ask it to trace your print exactly. The coating can land about half a millimetre off the printed shape, so a tight gloss outline around a printed logo will look misregistered.

Foil is metal (or an opaque pigment) pressed onto the card with a heated die. It covers what's underneath and catches light like jewellery. Spot UV is transparent: the print shows through, and only the shine changes. Use foil when you want color or metal; use spot UV when you want the design itself to react to light.

They can live on the same card, side by side. Foil won't bond on top of a UV coating, so I'll put the foil on the logo and the gloss on a pattern around it, with a gap between them. One finish usually carries a card better than three.

On a matte soft-touch card, yes. It's the cheapest way I know to make a card do something when it's handed over. On a glossy card, no; you're paying for a coat nobody will see. On cotton, yes: the paper is matte, so it still has something to shine against.

Where I'd skip it: if the design relies on detail below the raised UV floor, check the actual mask before choosing the effect. And if the card is mostly gloss, it stops being a highlight. Pick one element, usually the mark, and let it be the thing that catches light.

Prices for our business cards, checked 1 October 2026. Full color on both sides is included.

What moves the price: raised vs flat, one side or two, quantity, and whether you add foil or a painted edge on a thicker Custom card.

Compare every option on our spot UV business cards page.

A few from our own case studies.