Coating changes how ink sits on paper, which changes how your colours look. It is the single biggest decision you make about a flyer after the size, and unlike size it is almost impossible to judge from a screen.
Gloss
A gloss coating seals the surface so ink sits on top rather than soaking in. Colours stay saturated, blacks stay dense, and photographs look their best. The trade-off is glare: under shop lighting or direct sun a gloss flyer can be genuinely hard to read, and it shows fingerprints.
Choose gloss when the flyer is carrying photography and will be read in the hand — product ranges, food, property, anything where colour is doing the selling.
Silk
Silk sits between gloss and uncoated. It has a light coating, so colours hold up well, but the surface scatters light instead of reflecting it. Large areas of text stay readable, and photos still look good rather than flat.
If you are not sure which to pick, silk is the safe answer. It is the least likely to be wrong for any given job.
Uncoated
No coating at all, so ink soaks into the fibre. Colours come out softer and slightly darker than they look on screen, and fine detail spreads a little. In exchange you get a paper that feels like paper, reads with no glare at all, and — importantly — takes pen.
Choose uncoated for anything someone has to write on, anything text-heavy, and anything where you want the piece to read as considered rather than promotional.
Eco Uncoated and Knight
A5, A3, A6, DL and DDL flyers also offer Knight and Eco Uncoated stocks. Both behave like uncoated paper for the purposes above.
One thing that catches people out
Whatever the stock, colour on paper is CMYK and colour on your screen is RGB — some screen colours simply have no print equivalent. Bright greens and vivid blues are the usual casualties. RGB vs CMYK covers what shifts and what to do about it.
Every order includes an on-screen proof you approve before you pay, so you will see the file as it will print. What a proof cannot show you is the feel of the paper — if that matters for your job, ask us before you order.