Short answer
A finish changes how much uncoloured surface reflection reaches the eye. Gloss concentrates it into highlights, so away from them dark and saturated colours look deeper; matt and soft-touch scatter it everywhere, lifting darks towards grey and softening saturation. The effect is large for black, navy and deep reds and almost nothing for pale colours, and metallic effects add angle-dependent colour of their own.
Any varnished, laminated or plastic surface reflects a few per cent of light straight off its top surface before light reaches the ink — about 4% at normal incidence for a material with a refractive index near 1.5. That light is essentially uncoloured. On a gloss surface it leaves in the mirror direction, so from most viewing angles the ink colour arrives almost undiluted; in the highlight itself, colour is swamped. On a matt or soft-touch surface the same light is scattered in every direction and added to the colour seen from everywhere. Adding a small amount of white light to a dark colour lifts it a lot; adding it to a pale colour changes almost nothing. That asymmetry is the whole story of why black packs are so sensitive to finish.
The table uses Colourwise's surface-finish model to render five pack colours under gloss (seen away from the highlight), satin and matt. A near-black moves from a CIELAB lightness of about 7 in gloss to about 26 in matt — the difference between a deep black and a charcoal. Navy and deep red lose between a quarter and two-fifths of their chroma in matt. A kraft-style brown shifts only slightly and a pale blue barely at all. Real finishes vary — soft-touch coatings are often rougher than a matt varnish, and ink film thickness matters — but the direction and scale are reliable, and they explain why premium dark packs are usually proofed in their real finish before approval.
Hot and cold foils, metallised films and metallic inks reflect light directionally from metal, so their colour and lightness depend on the angle between light, pack and eye: bright at the mirror angle, dark elsewhere. Under diffuse store lighting a foil can look grey; under a spotlight it flashes. Spot varnishes — gloss on matt, or matt on gloss — use the same physics within one colour, making a logo visible by sheen alone. That is effective on shelf but invisible to people who rely on colour contrast and to many cameras, so a spot-varnish element should not carry essential information. Metallic effects also have recycling consequences covered on the metallisation page.
Shoppers read finish as meaning, not only as optics. Experiments by Marckhgott and Kamleitner found matt packaging made rather artificial foods seem more natural, with knock-on effects on expected taste and purchase intent. Regulators have used finish too: UK standardised tobacco packaging must be a single drab colour with a matt finish, removing gloss and metallic effects as sources of appeal. For a designer the practical rule is to choose finish together with colour — specify both, proof both on the real substrate, and review under the lighting where the pack will be seen.
| Pack colour | Gloss, away from highlight | Satin | Matt | ΔE00, matt vs ink colour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Near-black (#141416) | L* 7, C* 1 | L* 19, C* 1 | L* 26, C* 1 | 12.9 |
| Navy (#142350) | L* 15, C* 31 | L* 23, C* 23 | L* 29, C* 19 | 11.3 |
| Deep red (#96141e) | L* 31, C* 58 | L* 36, C* 50 | L* 39, C* 44 | 8.4 |
| Kraft-style brown (#aa825a) | L* 56, C* 29 | L* 58, C* 27 | L* 60, C* 25 | 3.1 |
| Pale blue (#bed7eb) | L* 83, C* 13 | L* 84, C* 13 | L* 86, C* 13 | 0.6 |
Why: The rough coating scatters surface reflection over the whole face, lifting the black.
Fix: Proof in the real coating; use a denser black or a gloss spot on key areas; judge under store lighting.
Why: Under diffuse lighting there is no bright source to reflect, so the foil reads as mid-grey.
Fix: Outline or back the foil with a contrasting ink so the shape survives without the flash.
Why: The same ink under different finishes produces different apparent colours, largest for dark colours.
Fix: Set separate ink targets per finish so the finished results match, not the wet inks.
Each statement is labelled by kind — established fact, a standard’s requirement, observed market data, a convention, or Colourwise’s own interpretation or analysis — with the strength of the evidence behind it.
Colourwise analysisModerate evidence
In Colourwise's surface-finish model, a near-black pack colour is about 19 CIELAB lightness units lighter in matt than in gloss seen away from the highlight, while a pale blue changes by only about 2 units.
Based on: Calculated with src/lib/colour/surface-finish.ts: 4% Fresnel surface reflection (n = 1.5) distributed with illustrative diffuse shares per finish, added to the body colour in linear sRGB and converted to CIELAB.
Caveat: A simplified model; real coatings vary in roughness, and ink film and substrate also change the result.
Source: What is gloss and how is it measured?; CIE 015:2018 Colorimetry, 4th edition
FactModerate evidence
Gloss is measured with a glossmeter at standard geometries of 20°, 60° and 85°, in gloss units referenced to a polished glass standard, with haze and distinctness of image treated as separate attributes.
FactModerate evidence
Matt packaging increased perceived naturalness for relatively artificial food products in three experiments, with corresponding increases in expected tastiness and purchase likelihood.
Caveat: No effect for products already seen as natural; one research group.
StandardStrong evidence
UK standardised tobacco packaging regulations specify a matt finish as well as a single permitted colour for the outside of cigarette packs.
Caveat: Regulations as made in 2015; not legal advice.
Source: The Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/829)
Reviewed 29 September 2026. Colourwise summarises its sources in its own words and does not reproduce standards text or proprietary colour data. Spotted an error? Tell us.