Soft Touch Laminate Specifications
Surface: Ultra-matte soft-touch film laminate with very low surface reflectance and a smooth, velvety tactile response.
Stock Construction: Available in 18pt and 36pt finished thicknesses. The 18pt configuration provides a conventional premium card profile, while the 36pt construction offers substantially increased rigidity and edge depth.
Print Characteristics: Soft-touch lamination suppresses surface glare and reduces apparent highlight contrast, producing a dense, subdued visual character. It performs particularly well with typography, dark fields, restrained palettes and graphics where surface reflectance needs to be minimized.
Surface Behaviour: The laminate provides additional protection over the printed sheet against routine handling and minor abrasion. Because of its ultra-matte surface, fingerprints, oils and handling marks may become visible under certain lighting conditions, particularly on dark solid areas.
Finishing: 0.25" diameter round corners are available on the 18pt configuration. The 36pt construction is supplied with square corners unless otherwise specified.
Colour Behaviour: Soft-touch lamination can increase perceived density and reduce apparent brightness compared with the unlaminated press sheet. Dark colours may reproduce visually deeper, while subtle shadow detail and neutral tones can shift in appearance depending on lighting. Colour-critical work should be evaluated using an appropriate physical proof where necessary.
Prepress & Production Standards
Printing: Full-colour, double-sided production from supplied press-ready artwork, followed by soft-touch lamination and final converting.
Artwork: Files should be prepared at final trim size with appropriate bleed, safe margins, embedded or outlined fonts and production-quality image resolution. Extremely fine rules, small reverses and critical edge-aligned elements should be prepared with normal commercial print tolerances in mind.
Colour: Artwork should be supplied using an appropriate CMYK workflow. RGB content, spot colours and brand-critical colours may require conversion or production review before output.
Proofing: Digital PDF proofing is available for checking content, layout, trim position and general prepress accuracy. A PDF proof is not an exact representation of final colour, density, laminate appearance or tactile characteristics.
Trim & Finishing: Lamination, trimming and corner finishing are subject to normal commercial production tolerances. Designs incorporating narrow borders or elements positioned close to the trim edge should allow sufficient safety margin for converting variation.
Production Time: Typically 4–5 business days after artwork and proof approval. Additional finishing, colour review or production requirements may extend turnaround.
