Special print effects and press coatings are all the rage these days, as printers are aggressively marketing their abilities in this category, and as marketers have drawn attention to the science behind why humans respond to tangible media.

The good news is, designers are really starting to listen. However, awareness is a double-edged sword. It’s great to see that designers and print buyers are starting to realize the benefits and capabilities of press coatings, and also great that these amazing ink and coating technologies have hit the mainstream—but now printers are charged with meeting the demands of highly creative designs that require multiple press coatings and special effects, while trying to get the jobs through the shop faster, and at the highest level of quality. For many printers who live at the cutting edge, multiple press passes, and off- and near-line coatings are no longer working for their workflows.

A few weeks back, I traveled to two printer-client events scheduled two weeks apart. One was on the east coast, one was on the west coast. Both events were for very successful commercial printers with different clients and different specialties—however, they both had something in common. They both had custom-configured offset presses (different brands) that were designed with special press coatings in mind. In fact, just this week, Japs Olson announced increased productivity with a new, specialized 12-color perfecting press configuration that is driven by the need for high-speed printing and coating on both sides of the sheet in one pass.