Printing on the brownish fiberboard stock results in a somewhat muted color, as opposed to printing on a white, coated piece of paper. If you need the colors to be more "true" (ie closer to if you printed on white stock) you may need to apply a spot white ink first, or even a flood. If you want white ink in the design, you will also need to print a special white ink. Remember that on white paper, you get the white for free, on fiberboard, you have to add it. Check out out Spot White Ink on Fiberboard Page for more examples and instructions.

Many people ask for black fiberboard. it doesn't come that way, it comes as a natural paper made from bits and pieces that are normally discarded, and recycled paper stock. You can however print it black or dye it black. Dying fiberboard in a vat does give you supersaturated black color, but it also softens the paper....so it depends what you want!

Shiny Foil Stamping is a wonderful contrast to fibrous fiberboard. Foil is available in many colors.


Spot Gloss is also an option on fiberboard, but keep in mind that the effect is a bit more subtle that on crisp paper. Should you want to, you can actually varnish the entire package. We have a contrast example a bit below you can check out.

When you have a specific PMS color you want to use (or end up with), you'll need white underneath it if you want it to be truer to the color you would get printing on white paper. Pantone inks are generally more opaque then the process inks, so you might want to consider adding 2x spot white as a base—especially with the lighter colors. Even with 2x hits of white ink, though, you can expect some effect on color.

Fiberboard goes so well with paper trays, cork hubs, and uncoated paper stocks. Let us show you some fun combinations:

TO create artwork using white ink, you have a couple of options. You can create a spot color (spot channel in Photoshop) and set it to display as white. This may work fine for simpler files, but with Photoshop, it can be a headache to deal with. If you do use a custom color, make sure the name is the same in all files you are using, and try test separations on the art as a sanity check.

You can "theoretically" create a custom color, called "white Ink," and set its display color to white, and it will come out on its own plate in the separations.

Our preferred, but arguably old fashioned, method is to use a separate layer for your white, and make all "white" items there, filled and stroked (vector art terms!) with the same single process color. We will place the art you provide, and bring out the white layer to a different page of the layout, so that the areas to take white ink can be clearly seen.

Here are some pages that may help you with ideas:
Special Printing Effects
Hot Foil Stamping
Embossing and Debossing
Spot UV Gloss
How to set up Spot Colors
How to set up PIPS or reverse side printing
Custom Die Cuts
Unusual Folds and Shapes
Metallic Ink printing
Spot White Ink on Fiberboard Stock
Special Disc Printing
Uncoated Paper(Matte)
Fiberboard Paper (brown, kraft)

One of our favorite titles for show & tell is the Deva Film Reel as it actually has all of the effects; hot foil stamping, embossing and debossing, spot UV glass & lamination. Be sure to check our the full spec for the special printing effects on Deva's Featured Title page.