Custom Spot UV Table Tents
Custom spot UV table tents from 100 — tent cards laminated matte or soft-touch, then coated with clear gloss UV only on the parts you choose: a logo, a dish photo, a price or a headline, so they shine against a dark, flat background on a restaurant or bar table.
Gloss only where you want someone to look
- Stock
- Coated cardstock, 14-16 pt, laminated matte or soft-touch on both faces
- Finish
- Clear gloss spot UV on selected areas, kept clear of the folds
- Sizes
- 4 x 6, 5 x 7, 4 x 9 in faces and custom
Order online
Order spot uv table tents
Starting from $0.75 per unit
Printed to your artwork or plain, sold in runs of 100 up to 5,000 units per product online. Freight to the US, UK, Canada and Australia is inside the price.
How an online order runs
- Add the units you needThen check out with your delivery address. Add other products to the same order on the way.
- A digital proof comes backLaid on the dieline, before anything prints. Change it as often as you need.
- Pay once you approve itPay by PayPal invoice or bank transfer after you approve your digital proof, or cash on delivery in the US and Canada.
- We make it and ship it deliveredYour delivery date is confirmed with the proof, against the spec and your fill date. Freight and customs are handled on the way to you.
Another size, board or finish, or more than 5,000 units? Send the spec for a price instead. Freight by market and our terms cover delivery and remakes.
Get a price for Spot UV Table Tents
Send the size and quantity — we reply the same working day with a price, a dieline and a date. Artwork optional at this stage.
- Free dielineThe flat drawing comes with the quote, before you commit.
- Proof before pressNothing is printed until you have seen it laid on the dieline.
- Die kept for reordersTooling is paid once. Every reorder skips straight to press.
- Quoted in four marketsUS, UK, Canada and Australia, in the delivery currency.
How spot UV is applied to a tent card
- The card is printed in full color, usually with a dark or deep background.
- Both faces are laminated matte or soft-touch, which gives the flat base.
- A separate layer in your artwork marks the areas to be coated, in solid black.
- Clear UV coat is screened onto exactly those areas and cured hard under UV light.
- The sheet is then die-cut, scored and supplied flat.
The spot UV layer must line up with the printed image. We check it against the artwork on the proof before printing.
What to put the gloss on
Less is better. Coating half the card loses the contrast that makes spot UV worth paying for.
| Logo or restaurant name | The most common choice; it reads as a mark, not as print |
|---|---|
| Food or drink photos | Gloss makes a photo look richer than the matte around it |
| Headline or price | Pulls the eye to the one thing you want ordered |
| Pattern or texture | A subtle gloss pattern on a black background, seen only in the light |
Dark backgrounds, and why they suit it
Spot UV shows most on dark, flat colors: black, navy, deep green, burgundy. On a white or pale card the gloss is visible only at an angle. That is why most spot UV tents are built on a black matte or soft-touch base with white type and gloss on the image or logo. Our guide to choosing a packaging finish compares spot UV with foil and embossing.
Wiping a soft-touch card
Restaurant tents get wiped many times a day. Matte laminate takes that well. Soft-touch laminate feels better in the hand but marks more easily with greasy fingers, so it suits bars, lounges and hotel rooms better than a busy dining room. The spot UV itself is hard and wipes clean on both.
Tent styles that take spot UV
Spot UV works on any tent card we make: a simple folded tent, a tent with a slot-locked base, or a tall multi-panel display for a counter. The card has to be at least 14 pt so the coating does not crack at the scores, which is why we keep the gloss away from the folds. Every construction is in our range of custom table tents.
Spot UV Table Tents — specification
The rows that are specific to this build first, then what applies to every job we run. Anything not listed is a question, not a limit — send the brief.
This build
- Stock
- Coated cardstock, 14-16 pt, laminated matte or soft-touch on both faces
- Finish
- Clear gloss spot UV on selected areas, kept clear of the folds
- Sizes
- 4 x 6, 5 x 7, 4 x 9 in faces and custom
- Full color both faces, dark backgrounds recommended
- Artwork
- Spot UV supplied as a separate solid-black layer, matched on the proof
- Minimum
- 100 tents per design
On every job
- Print process
- Digital below about a thousand, offset above it. Both sides as standard on cards, tags and leaflets.
- Color
- CMYK with spot colors for a brand match. Uncoated and cotton stocks print noticeably lighter than coated ones.
- Tolerance
- Trim plus or minus 1 mm guillotined, plus or minus 0.5 mm die-cut. Anything over about 170gsm is creased before folding.
- Tooling
- A die only where the piece is shaped, perforated or drilled, made once and kept. A plain rectangle needs none.
- Food contact
- Food-safe inks on menus and counter print that will be handled where food is served.
- Sustainability
- Uncoated and unlaminated stocks recycle without separation, and FSC papers are available across the range.
- Artwork
- Vector PDF or AI, 3 mm bleed, 4 mm safe area, fonts outlined. We check every file and send a proof before press.
- Dieline
- Supplied free with the quote, before you commit. Yours whether or not you order.
- Sample
- A plain unprinted sample at the finished size on request, for fit and construction.
- Reorders
- Skip the tooling and go straight to press at a lower unit price.
- Lead time
- Quoted with the price against your fill date rather than promised before we have seen the spec.
- Markets
- United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia — priced in the delivery currency, freight included.
Boards and films we build spot uv table tents on
Sheet print is judged in the hand more than a box is: the weight, the surface and whether a pen works on it. These are the stocks we run for cards, folders, leaflets and stationery.
Coated card 300–400gsm
The workhorse. Sharp full-color print, matte or gloss, laminated where it is handled. Does not take a pen unless the finish is matte.
300–400gsmUncoated card
No clay coat. Colors read softer and warmer, a deboss goes deeper, and it writes on with anything. Photographs lose punch.
300–400gsmCotton and textured card
Soft, thick and fibrous. Takes a deep blind deboss and reads as an invitation. Foil sits beautifully; four-color does not.
400–700gsmDuplexed card
Two sheets bonded, often with a colored core, for a very thick card with a visible colored edge. The heaviest thing we print.
600–900gsmText paper 100–170gsm
Leaflets, folder inners and booklet pages. Folds without cracking and takes a full-color print on both faces.
100–170gsmManila and kraft paper
Unbleached, tan, and cheap. One or two colors read well; white ink gives a light mark. Envelopes, folders and tags.
90–300gsmSynthetic stock
Polypropylene sheet for tags and cards that get wet, torn or handled outdoors. Prints like paper and does not soften.
200–400 micronBoard-backed
A printed face laminated to grayboard, for a rigid card, a folder back or a display that has to stand up on its own.
1–2 mm boardNot sure which? Say what goes in it and where it is sold — the material follows from that. Our notes on recycled, recyclable and compostable cover which claims each stock can honestly carry.
- 01
Send what you have
A dimension, a photograph beside a ruler, or the product itself. No technical drawing needed — that part is ours.
- 02
We quote and draw
A price, a dieline and a date come back together. If a different build would suit the product better, that is in the reply too.
- 03
Approve the dieline
The flat drawing is yours to check: which panel is the front, where the folds fall, how deep the cavity really is.
- 04
Artwork on the dieline
You place your design on the flat we sent, or we place it for you, and you see a proof before anything goes to press.
- 05
A sample if you want one
A plain unprinted sample at the finished size shows fit and construction — the things a drawing cannot.
- 06
Cut, printed, shipped
The die is cut once and kept, so every reorder skips the tooling and goes straight to press at a lower unit price.
Format
Vector PDF or AI where possible. Raster artwork at 300dpi at final size, in CMYK.
Bleed
3 mm past every trim line, so a fraction of drift on the cutter never leaves a white edge.
Safe area
Keep type and anything important 4 mm inside the cut and away from every fold.
Color
Convert to CMYK before sending. Uncoated stock prints lighter; a spot color is the only exact match.
Fonts
Outline them or supply the files. A missing font substitutes silently and the proof will not match.
Barcodes
On a light, matte, unvarnished patch with the quiet zone clear — a code on gloss fails the scanner.
Not set up that way? Send it anyway — fixing a file is a short conversation, and we check every one before press. Our guide to preparing print files covers each point.
Sheet print takes the widest range of finishes of anything we make.
Matte lamination
Soft, fingerprint-resistant, and it still takes a pen. The default on anything handled.
Gloss lamination
Maximum color depth. Shows every fingerprint and refuses a ballpoint.
Hot foil
Gold, rose gold, silver, holographic or a color. The block is small so the die is cheap.
Emboss and deboss
Deepest on uncoated and cotton stocks; shallow and prone to cracking on gloss coated.
Spot UV
A gloss shape on a matte laminate. Best on a dark ground where the contrast reads.
Edge paint and colored core
Color on the cut edge of a thick or duplexed card. Only seen when the card is picked up, which is the point.
Soft-touch
A velvet laminate on a cover or a folder. Marks on white; excellent on dark.
Uncoated and textured
No film at all. Writes on, debosses deeply, and reads as considered rather than cheap.
Not sure which suits the shelf it sells from? Say where the product is sold and we suggest one — our notes on specialty finishes show them on real boxes.
Sizing printed sheets, folds and the grain: spot uv table tents
A printed piece is specified flat and finished folded, and the difference between the two is where mistakes live. Send the finished size you want and we work back to the flat.
- Finished size
- The size after folding and trimming. A6, A5, A4, DL, US letter and legal are standard; anything else is cut on its own die.
- Bleed and safe area
- 3 mm of artwork past every trim edge, and nothing important within 4 mm inside it. The guillotine drifts by a fraction on every stack.
- Grain direction
- Paper folds cleanly along the grain and cracks across it. We set the grain to the fold, which is why a sheet is not simply cut from the biggest sheet available.
- Fold allowance
- On a roll fold or a gate fold, the inner panels are cut a millimeter or two shorter so the piece closes flat.
- Creasing
- Anything over about 170gsm is creased before folding. Without it the fold cracks and the coating flakes along the line.
- Trim tolerance
- Plus or minus 1 mm guillotined, plus or minus 0.5 mm die-cut.
Not sure your numbers are right? Send the product dimensions rather than the box dimensions and we work the box out — the full method is in our guide to measuring for a box.
Interactive · five steps · no sign-up
Spec your Spot UV Table Tents
Pick a shape, type a size, choose a stock and a finish. The preview on the left redraws as you go, and the spec lands with us exactly as you set it.
Frequently asked questions
Got a question about spot uv table tents? The answers below cover what we get asked most. If yours is not here, send it with a brief, message us on WhatsApp, or call +1 503-461-4788 — we reply the same working day.
What is a spot UV table tent?
It is a tent card with a matte or soft-touch finish and a clear gloss coating printed only on chosen areas, such as the logo or a photo.
Why use spot UV on table tents?
The gloss stands out against the matte around it, so the eye goes to the coated part of the table tent first.
What colors work best for spot UV table tents?
Dark, flat colors like black, navy and deep green. On a pale card the gloss is only visible at an angle.
How do I set up artwork for spot UV table tents?
Add a separate layer that marks the coated areas in solid black, aligned with the printed image. We check it on the proof.
Can spot UV table tents be wiped clean?
Yes. The UV coat is hard. Matte laminate wipes well; soft-touch marks more easily, so it suits bars and lounges.
Is spot UV on table tents raised?
Slightly. It sits on top of the laminate as a thin glossy layer that you can feel with a fingertip.
Can spot UV go on both sides of a table tent?
Yes. Both faces of a spot UV table tent can carry their own coated areas.
Why is spot UV kept away from the folds of a table tent?
The coating is hard and can crack when the card is scored and folded, so the gloss stays clear of the scores.
What cardstock do spot UV table tents use?
Coated cardstock from 14 to 16 pt, laminated before the spot UV is added.
Can spot UV be combined with foil on a table tent?
Yes, but each adds a step. Many restaurants pick one, usually spot UV on a black matte card.
Can I order spot UV table tents in different designs?
Yes. Each design needs its own spot UV layer; the minimum is 100 tents per design.
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