What is UV printing and UV coating?

"UV printing" is used loosely to mean two different things, which causes confusion. On sheet-fed commercial work it usually means UV coating: conventional printing finished with a UV-cured varnish. On large format it usually means UV-cured inks printed directly onto rigid substrates like acrylic, foam board and aluminium composite. Both rely on the same curing principle; they are different processes.

As a finish, UV coating sits between plain varnish and lamination. It is glossier and tougher than an aqueous or oil-based varnish, and cheaper and thinner than laminating film — but it does not add the physical strength that a laminate does, and it does not protect a fold from cracking.

It has two practical limitations worth knowing before specifying it. Glue does not adhere reliably to a UV-coated surface, so glue areas on a carton have to be masked out of the coating — which means the finishing has to be planned alongside the dieline, not after it. And on very heavy coverage the coating can slightly yellow over a long period.

For a carton that needs shelf gloss at a sensible price it is a good answer. For a pack that will be handled hard or has to survive a courier network, lamination is the more durable choice.