Should you consider laminated covers for your print project? Printed materials are subject to damage from normal wear and tear, and book covers especially are very likely to look worse for wear with exposure to certain types of environments. Projects like cookbooks that are regularly exposed to oils, water, or other liquids can quickly lose their crisp, fresh appearance, while things like menus and photographs are heavily handled, increasing the odds they will become bent, torn, or dirty.
Other printed items, like planners or marketing materials, might be used in a variety of locations where hazards like bright light, damp surfaces, or less-than-careful handling can result in irreparable damage to the cover of the project or even the inside pages. But when laminated covers used, materials are given extra layers of protection from the inevitable damages that come from everyday use, extending the life of just about every type of printing project.
What Are Laminated Covers?
The process of printing with laminate is covering printed project with an outer layer of protective film. Lamination film is typically made of resin or plastic, both highly durable materials that add strength and protection to the underlying project. The protective barrier created by laminated covers provides a host of benefits for a printing project, making laminated covers one of the most popular lamination applications. Let’s look at all of the ways your next project could benefit from the laminated printing process.
Are Laminated Covers Right For Your Project?
Add-ons like lamination and matte or glossy finishes not only change the way your project looks but these types of changes to the surface area of a project can also increase the longevity and appearance of it, too. If you are considering laminated covers, consider these seven benefits to see if this process is right for your next project.
Laminated Covers Repel Water
The films that are used in lamination are waterproof as well as moisture resistant. This means that any printing project that will regularly be in a damp or wet area will last longer and look better longer, too. Menus are commonly laminated because they come into contact with damp surfaces regularly.
Non-laminated paper can fall apart, tear, or become unreadable when exposed to wet hands, tables, or food contaminants. Still, the protective film lamination provides helps menus and other projects that are likely to be exposed to moisture with a high level of protection. Posters, marketing materials, book covers, and signs are all commonly laminated because of their constant water exposure.
Laminated Covers Can Be Cleaned
Because the film used in lamination for covers and other products is moisture-resistant, the projects can also be cleaned. High-use products like cookbooks, children’s books, and menus can all be cleaned off without damaging the underlying printed materials.
Restaurants, cafes, and other food service locations often spend heavily on printed food or drink menus, and adding a protective laminated layer to those can help cut costs by reducing reprinting costs while also ensuring that their patrons always touch a clean, sanitized menu since laminated ones can be wiped down with a sanitizing solution.
And products marked with fingerprints or dust like photographs or posters can also be wiped down easily without damaging them. Projects that are used heavily will have an extended life because they can be cleaned and reused rather than thrown away due to dirt, grime or dust.
Laminated Covers Increase Durability
One of the key reasons for using laminated covers is to increase durability. By adding a protective layer of resin or plastic around a printed project, it will last through heavy handling and use. Lamination extends the life of printed projects by making them stronger and able to withstand heavy use because the plastic or resin coatings themselves are very strong and resist scratches, cuts and breakage.
And layering plastic or resin on top of a project, binding it to the project and creating a permanent seal around the edges of the project allows the lighter-weight material of the project to benefit from the strength of the clear lamination. Many self-publishing authors choose laminated covers of books that need to last through many uses like children’s books, workbooks or cookbooks.
Laminated Covers Stay More Intact
Adding laminated covers to projects helps them to stay intact longer. Many products that businesses or individuals print can be delicate, and the paper or other materials used to create the project can tear easily. The strength of lamination helps keep projects that are transported frequently or handled a lot from ripping or tearing. Lamination also keeps print projects from creasing. When a project is used repeatedly, creases from accidental folding can result.
But laminated projects are thicker than non-laminated ones, and the rigidity of the laminate makes even thin projects difficult to accidentally fold or crease. As a result, projects look crisp and new longer, retaining their intact appearance longer. Water damage can also be avoided when a project is laminated as well. Some projects may be able to withstand becoming damp, but the resulting damage can leave rings, marks or other damage. But those projects encased in a protective laminate will keep their like-new appearance much longer since incidental water exposure will not cause damage.
Laminated Covers Provides UV Protection
Many businesses utilize inexpensive printed signage to communicate with their patrons and community members. But in addition to becoming exposed to rain or other wet weather, sun exposure is a highly damaging element that can damage signage or other projects that receive direct sunlight. But lamination can help keep signs, advertisements, posters and other projects from fading or discoloring from the sunlight because it offers UV protection.
The shiny or matte clear laminate coating reflects the sun as well as provides a barrier between the project and damaging UV rays. Over time, outside signage can become faded even to the point of disappearing, creating a dangerous situation for some businesses or their customers, but lamination can help extend the life of printed projects by keeping those destructive UV rays at bay for a longer time.
Laminated Covers Look Professional
Creating a printed project like marketing materials, a poster or flyer for an event or even writing and self-publishing a book takes time and effort. But creators of all kinds of printed materials have one thing in common: they want their finished project to look professionally crafted. Whether you have deep pockets for all of your printing project needs or you operate on a shoestring budget, your final project can look crisp, clean and professional when it is coated with lamination.
If you choose to use lightweight paper on a project, a coating of lamination can add heft, making it feel and look more expensive than it is. And photographs and color graphics really pop underneath a layer of lamination, helping your photography book, marketing materials or signage look fantastic because the simple addition of laminate can elevate how others see you, your business or your brand.
Laminated Covers Are Versatile
Lamination is available in many different forms, making it the ideal addition to just about every project that needs protection. Authors have the option of thick or thin cover lamination as well as lamination with a glossy or matte appearance. And other projects, like ID cards, posters, banners, flyers or educational materials all can be laminated with varying degrees and coatings of resin or plastic to fit a creator’s specific needs and budget.
And since lamination extends the life and uses of a project, printing budget savings can help boost a business’s ability to create more essential printed projects to increase their business’s reach and connection with potential customers.
Start Your Lamination Project
Your next step in creating a durable, long-lasting and beautiful printing project is to connect with a trusted printer like Dazzle Printing that can add a laminate coating to your upcoming printing project.
Dazzle Printing has helped creators, authors and businesses seeking a solution to making their print projects last with laminated surfaces. Turn your presentation materials, marketing flyer, poster or book cover into a beautifully protected surface by partnering with an experienced printer who can add the right type and thickness of lamination to your project.
