Types of Printing

We will need to know the type of printing desired or necessitated by your design. The printing methods available are:

FLEXO Uses plastic or rubber plates and is appropriate for simple 1- and 2-color copy. Most commonly used where there is no close register (two or more colors that print within 1/8" or closer to each other) and not a lot of ink coverage (less than 20-25%). Print quality is not as sharp and ink coverage is not as consistent as offset printing. This process is relatively inexpensive.

OFFSET (Lithography) Produces very high quality, close register printing. Offset printing is used when multi-color or excessive ink coverage is involved. This process -- which utilizes a thin metal plate -- is more expensive than flexo but offers a much higher quality print.

GRAVURE Uses a sunken or depressed surface for the image. The image areas consist of cells or wells etched into a copper cylinder or wraparound plate, and the cylinder or plate surface represents the non-printing areas. The plate cylinder rotates in a bath of ink. The excess is wiped off the surface by a flexible steel doctor blade. Ink remaining in the cells forms the image by direct transfer to the paper as it passes the plate cylinder and impression cylinder.

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Additional Options

COLOR COATING (Tint) A Web or continuous printing process used for flood or 100% coating of entire box surface. Additional printing may be applied on top of the tint color. (Note that when a light color is printed on top of a darker color, the darker color will affect the shade of the lighter ink.) There is no plate cost involved in color coating.

HOT STAMP A heat process where the copy is produced by stamping a film/foil material that will adhere to the carton. The stamped copy is actually debossed into the boxboard. The hot stamp film/foil is available in many colors and is a good choice when using a tinted box, as the color of film/foil will not be affected when applied directly on top of another color. This process requires relatively expensive plates of copper or magnesium.

FOIL EMBOSS A process which is actually just the opposite of hot stamping. The logo is embossed (raised) and has a film/foil applied. The plates for embossing are much more costly than hot stamp dies.

BLIND EMBOSS A process selected when a subtle look is desired. The logo is embossed (raised) directly on the board and achieved without using any color of ink or foil. "Male" and "female" metal plates are required.