Your complete guide to Special Finishes

When you want your designs to stand out (and then some), nothing does the job quite like a Special Finish. 

The thing is, Special Finishes can be a bit of a mystery land – exotic and alluring, but a little unfamiliar at first glance.

So, if you’ve ever wanted your designs to go the extra mile but didn’t know where to start, read on…

First, what are Special Finishes?

A Special Finish is applied as a second layer to parts of your design. It makes your print land harder and resonate longer, by adding shine, texture or dimension.

Want to highlight details like your logo, name or patterns so they catch the eye and delight the fingertips? Great, a Special Finish is where it’s at. 

Meet our Special Finishes 

With MOO, you can choose from six Special Finishes for your Business Cards, plus Gold and Silver Foil for Postcards.

Each of them creates a different effect, so let’s get to know the full set.

Gold Foil

Gold Foil brings the Midas touch by adding a metallic gold layer to specific areas of your design. It reflects light and gives a bold, eye-catching finish.

It’s great for making details pop, like logos, names, or simple icons or patterns.

Silver Foil

Silver Foil adds a sleek, metallic silver shine to elements in your design. Try combining it with a dark background for a strong, refined contrast. 

Copper Foil

Copper Foil has a slightly warmer, more understated feel than Gold or Silver Foil. But the luxury signals come through just as clear. (This one’s available with a MOO business plan.) 

Spot Gloss

Spot Gloss enhances details in your design, introducing shine without changing their color. Be warned, it can make your print hard to put down – great news for your brand, of course.

Raised Spot Gloss

Raised Spot Gloss adds a clear, glossy layer that sits slightly above the surface of the paper. Perfect for bold text, patterns, or graphic shapes, it gives your designs another dimension (literally) that you can see and feel.

Letterpress

Letterpress doesn’t apply extra material to your design. Instead, it creates texture the time-honored way, by debossing – literally pressing – one of 12 patterns into ultra-thick Luxe paper. The result is a tactile Business Card that people are going to want to run their fingers over.

Which Special Finish is right for your brand?

It all depends on your brand’s personality and the tone of what you’re promoting. 

Hosting a fancy festive party? Gold Foil may be for you.

Want the shine without the swagger? Silver Foil does cool and modern effortlessly.

For a warmer metallic vibe, try Copper Foil, which trades glamour for an earthier kind of luxury.

Not a metallic kind of brand? Spot Gloss brings shine to the colors that are already yours.

Want to introduce another dimension? Raised Spot Gloss adds height as well as shine – a feast for the thumbs as much as the eyes.

And for texture without the shine, try Letterpress, which makes its mark in the paper itself.

How to use a Special Finish in your design 

Whichever Special Finish you choose, you can go big or go subtle. Foil half your design and your message lands with trumpets blaring. Foil just three words and it’s more like a whispered secret. 

Either way, restraint and contrast are your design tools, as much as the Special Finish itself. Avoid solid blocks of Special Finish – keep it to accents or specific highlights, covering no more than 50% of the total layout. This will help your design print clearly and look its best. 

Choose the right paper

We all remember a fine finish. But the impact is bigger – and longer lasting – if it’s carried on the right paper. 

From size to weight to texture, here’s our guide to choosing your paper. In fact, it might just be the only paper guide you’ll ever need…

How to prepare your design 

Prepare two files: one for the artwork, one for the Special Finish. The artwork file contains the main design image. The second file shows where the Special Finish is applied on top of your design.

Or just use our Special Finish design templates.

A finish? Or the start of something?

A Special Finish is really the beginning – of a lasting impression.

So experiment. Silver Foil the dot on an i. Spot Gloss one element in a photo. Leave the front bare and save the party for the back. You’ll never know what it does for your brand until you make it real.

And if you want to get a true feel for our Special Finishes – as well as our range of premium paper stocks – start by ordering your free MOO Sample Pack today.