Spot varnish file guide for coffee table books

How to create a spot varnish file in InDesign.

Spot varnish can print over each image if you want photos and graphic images to “pop” off the pages of your book. This technique is different from a flood varnish. Flood varnish covers the entire page. To print a spot varnish on just the images — and large type sizes, if desired — we need another InDesign file. It is easy to make with the following instructions.

Make sure that varnish is included in the quote. It is an additional cost. Please request it, as varnish is not included in quotes unless it is specified.

Step-by-step instructions to make a Spot InDesign Varnish file.

• If you are varnishing images, provide a file that is separate from the native InDesign text file. Although you can create another file layer for the varnish, Star Print Brokers prefers to receive the varnish file as a separate file.
• First, make a duplicate file of the book and delete anything that should not have varnish.
• Put selection tool (the first arrow in the Tools palette) on an image to have varnish.
• Go to (Window > Style > Object styles). Click on three horizontal lies in top right. Select ‘New Object Style’. When the Object Styles panel is open, you will see ‘Based On’, select ‘[None]’.
• With the New Object Style window open as in the image above, under Basic Attributes, check ‘Fill’. Click on ‘Fill’ and make sure the color that you select is ‘Black’, and the border is ‘none’.
• Under Effects in (select Object), check Transparency should be the only thing with a check mark.
• In Style Name, type ‘Spot Varnish’. Effects for ‘object’ will be 100 percent black fill with no border.

Ready … let’s make spot varnish for the images …

Note: The ‘Selection tool’ is the first arrow in the tools palette in InDesign. The second arrow beneath that is the ‘Direct Selection tool’, which is also an arrow. Be careful to select the right tool as noted in the rest of the instructions.

• Using the Selection tool, select ‘Spot Varnish’ that you created under Object Styles.
• Then select the image. You will not see anything change yet. But…
• With the image still selected, use the second arrow, the ‘Direct Select tool’. You will see the box around the image change, so that there is a dot in each of the four corners. Click the image once and you will still see the four dots, plus four more on the top, bottom and sides of the image.
• Do a right-click (or Control-X) and delete the image. A solid black image will remain in exactly the same size and position as the now deleted image
• Don’t forget to delete the page numbers on this file, which is easy to do if you have set the page numbers up on a master style sheet.

It’s one of many of our custom options.

Spot varnish is just one of the many custom options that makes Star Print Brokers your go to source for high-quality book printing for self-publishers. We provide many hard-to-find options, or options that are not found elsewhere.

Call (844) 603-1777 toll-free, or (425) 603-1777 in the Seattle area.