Aqueous Coating: Soft Touch™

We're printing with this special effect coating and it's a must see! Check it out...

By: Mark Rubin

Introducing an aqueous coating that's sure to be a hit with discriminating clients called "Soft Touch™." This coating imparts a leather-like, almost "rubbery" feel with a rich matte appearance to printed materials. Soft Touch™ is applied in-line on the printing press, and doesn't require any off-line treatment or processing.

In the past, designers would have to spec a more expensive matte film lamination or a UV matte coating, in order to achieve a similar effect. Although Soft Touch™ is a more expensive material than traditional aqueous coating, it does offer cost savings (and turnaround savings) versus off-line laminating or matte UV.

Soft Touch™ coating is a water base or aqueous coating. Like other aqueous coatings, it's non-yellowing, it dries quickly and allows faster press speeds and turnaround times. In addition, aqueous coatings are environmentally friendly - they have very low VOC content, and water base coated papers can be recycled very easily.

It should be noted that "Soft Touch™" is a registered trademark of one of the many manufacturers of this product. Other manufacturers are now adopting their own terms for this coating - such as "Soft Feel" or "Liquid Velvet."

At CRW Graphics, we have done many jobs utilizing the "Soft Touch™" coating on various substrates. Similarly to many other Matte coatings, the "soft touch™" does flatten the image quality somewhat. We have found the best results printing on a high quality gloss stock as the base substrate. This gives the best ink holdout allowing for superior contrast. The smoothness of the quality gloss paper also adds to the luxurious feel of the "soft touch™."