What is a substrate in printing?
A substrate is the material a design is printed on, such as paper, card, vinyl, film, fabric, corrugated board, metal or acrylic.
What it means for your file
It decides which printing processes and inks can be used, how colors look and how much ink the surface can take. Absorbent substrates like uncoated paper and fabric soften colors, and clear, metallic and dark ones need white ink under the colors to show them solid. The color profile and ink limit should be the ones for the substrate chosen.
Paper is the most common substrate: see coated vs uncoated paper and GSM. On clear and dark materials, see white ink.
An example
The same logo printed on bright white coated card, brown kraft label stock and clear vinyl looks like three different logos. On the card it prints as designed; on kraft the colors darken and warm, because the brown shows through the inks; on clear vinyl it all but disappears unless a white ink layer is printed under it.
A common mistake
Finishing the artwork before the substrate is chosen. Colors, white areas and fine detail all depend on it, so pick the material first, ask the printer for their profile and ink limit for that stock, and for an unusual material, ask for a printed sample.
How to fix it
If your printer sent the file back saying “There’s no white ink layer,” the fix page has the step-by-step way to do it yourself, and a fixed price if you’d rather have it done.
All print terms in the glossary, or run your file through the free print-ready checker.
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