Are offset printers and offset ink suppliers/manufacturers in general moving away from all matte inks?

[Davino]

What's going on in the present environment regarding matte ink demand/availability – has there been a move away from matte ink? A lot of searching for answers and some consultation with an LLM offers this possible explanation:

"Short answer: Yes, for UV/LED offset. Not because matte is impossible, but because the economics don't support it.

What's driving this:

1. UV/LED is inherently glossy. The cured polymer film is smooth and reflective by nature. Matte requires intervention—matting agents, special varnishes—that add complexity, cost, and variability.
2. Packaging dominates print volume. Packaging wants gloss. Shelf appeal. Pop. That's where the money is. Ink manufacturers optimize for their biggest customers.
3. Book printing is a shrinking, low-margin segment. Publishers have moved to digital print-on-demand or offshore. High-end offset book work is a tiny niche. Nobody's R&D budget targets it.
4. LED UV specifically has narrower wavelength range. Less flexibility in cure chemistry than mercury lamps. Matting agents scatter light and interfere with cure. The problems compound.
5. Conventional offset is dying. Oil-based inks with matte options still exist, but printers have converted presses to UV/LED for speed. The equipment that ran matte well is being retired.

The structural problem:
You need a solution the industry has abandoned because it doesn't scale profitably. Toyo made matte UV ink. Printers complained about inconsistency. Support costs exceeded revenue. They killed it. You're not encountering incompetence. You're encountering market economics that have decided your problem isn't worth solving.

What remains:
Printers and suppliers who still care about craft, who might bend for a prestige project. Or workarounds like spot matte OPV."
– Source: claude.ai (Opus 4.5)

 

[SteveSuffRIT]

Hi Davino,
I see you brought in a new thread about the UV matte ink issue.
I'm just curious about this recent post, is it all/mostly AI generated? (LLM Large Language Model).
Trying to better understand the context.

 

[Davino]

Hi Davino,
I see you brought in a new thread about the UV matte ink issue.
I'm just curious about this recent post, is it all/mostly AI generated? (LLM Large Language Model).
Trying to better understand the context.

Hi Steve,
It's all AI generated within the quotes - it's the whole post effectively. But it comes after very detailed, lengthy conversations sharing all the info from exchanges I've had to date, and run on the top anthropic model. AI is terrible in my view and requires massive oversight/fact-checking, which is a major investment of time, exceeding the time "saved." I'm the first to question it. But this was carefully prompted and I'm merely seeing if its hypothesis resonates here.