Spot varnish printing - set-up for this option

Spot varnish printing.

Spot varnish printing can print over each image in a book. The photos and images appear to “pop” off the pages of the book.

It is also interesting to print spot matte varnish over images printing on gloss paper. The technique is different from a flood varnish. Flood varnish covers the entire page.

You need to add an additional InDesign file to print spot varnish. The spot varnish may print on just images, or any large headlines or other graphics images as well. Do not apply varnish to headlines with small thin type. It requires the use of a different varnish.

Make sure the cost for varnish is in the quote. It is an additional cost as it adds a fifth tray on a typical 6-color press. Photos print from four trays: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and blacK.

Spot varnish InDesign file set-up

It is easy to make a spot varnish file and apply a spot varnish object style.

If you want varnish on images, provide a file that is separate from the native InDesign text file. Although you can create another file layer for the varnish, Star Print Brokers prefers to receive the varnish file as a separate file.
First, make a duplicate file of the book and delete anything that should not have varnish.
Put the selection tool (the first arrow in the Tools palette) on an image to have varnish.
Go to (Window > Style > Object styles). Click on three horizontal lies in top right. Select “New Object Style.” When the Object Styles panel is open, you will see “Based On,” select “[None].”
With the New Object Style window open as in the image on the opposite page, under Basic Attributes, check “Fill.” Click on “Fill.” Make sure the color selection is “Black,” and the border is “none.”
Under Effects in (select Object), check Transparency. It should be the only thing checked.
In Style Name, type “Spot Varnish.” Effects for “object” will be 100 percent black fill with no border.

About Applying the Spot Varnish Object Style

Note: The “Selection tool” is the first arrow in the Tools palette in InDesign. The second arrow beneath that is the “Direct Selection tool.” Be careful to select the right tool as noted in the instructions.

Using the Selection tool, select “Spot Varnish” that you created under Object Styles.
Then select the image.
With the image still selected, use the second arrow, the “Direct Select tool.” You will see the box around the image change, so that there is a dot in each of the four corners. Click the image once and you will still see the four dots, plus four more on the top, bottom, and sides of the image.
Do a right-click (or Control-X) and delete the image. A solid black image will remain in the same size and position as the now deleted image.
Do not forget to delete the page numbers on this file, which is easy to do if you have set the page numbers set up on master pages.