This is a continuation of a series of posts that I started what seems like a long time ago about getting a book designed and published. The series starts here.
We’ve agreed that we’re taking the page stock from 100 pound text to 65 pound cover, which will, we hope, pull the book flatter, and also give the pages more heft. So now we have to think about varnish. There are four choices.
- For high contrast—image to background, and image ‘pop’, without much feel of the underlying paper, we should print with the strikethrough technique, which first applies a spot dull varnish only to the non-image areas, which will have a dull finish. Then an overall high gloss aqueous coating is applied to the entire page, which gives the ultimate contrast. If we did this, we’d print on 65 pound Sterling Gloss Cover.
- For strength/weight and gloss, image ‘pop’, and still not concerned about the feel of the paper, then we should print on 65 pound Sterling Gloss Cover, and dull varnish the background.
- For the image to have some gloss, but retaining the feel of the paper, then we should print on 65 pound Sterling Dull Cover, and gloss varnish the images.
- For a matte feel to the background, a bit of image gloss, and good feel of the paper, then we should print on 65 pound Sterling Matte Cover, and gloss varnish the images. This will have the least depth to the images, but some gloss from the varnish.
After a long conversation, Jerry and I agreed on alternative 3. I do want some gloss to the images, and a fairly high Dmax for offset lithography, but Jerry said that the first two choices tend to make a book feel like a slick brochure, which is not what I want.
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