The future is Digital
Keeping your packaging fresh is essential to your brand identity and many companies are not taking advantage of today’s technological advancements.
Digital printing is one of the fastest-growing types of print and is slowly encroaching further and further into other markets that were traditionally dominated by traditional, more established printing techniques.
The corrugated packaging supply chain is continuously under pressure to reduce lead times and minimum production order quantities. One solution to this obstacle is using digital print. Digital printing onto corrugate boxes is an innovative way to allow businesses to profitably develop new short and medium run market opportunities; providing them with a competitive advantage by offering a wider range of capabilities to attract more customers and grow their business.
Printing innovation
Digitally printing onto corrugate involves using digital files and an industry-grade printer. Packaging manufacturers can print incredibly high-quality graphics directly onto the substrate, instead of transferring artwork via printing plates. Because of the digital access and lack of printing plates, the full CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow & black) four-colour process printing technique can be used, with the addition of “lighter” versions of these four colours.
Unique benefits
There are many advantages to digital print that will help custom boxes leave a lasting impression….
- Full CMYK colour digital print technology
Digital print is perfect for printing many colours in photo-realistic quality, rivalling that of traditional lithographic presses. This presents a huge branding opportunity for those looking to create awareness of their products or services.
- No setup costs
One of the main advantages of digital print is that there are no set-up or origination upfront costs, allowing smaller quantities of printed packaging to be produced cost-effectively.
Traditionally, the process of using printing plates was the only option for printing, and it can be costly and time consuming. Using printing plates discourages companies from making changes to their packaging even when their branding may have changed. Digital print is more efficient and more cost-effective as changes can be made seamlessly and more often in order to keep branding fresh.
- Lower-volume runs
Digital printing on-to corrugate is the way forward for promotional packaging (or other low-volume runs) as it can speed up the process of the goods going to market. It also allows companies to produce and evaluate tests runs and experiment artwork ideas without the additional set-up or origination upfront costs associated with more traditional printing methods.
- Variants
Often companies require more than one print variant within the same line. Digital printing allows the packaging to reflect this by keeping the similarities (logo’s, colours and other branding) while showing the differences in the individuality of the products. This way, customers can easily identify the companies brand as well as seeing the differences in the products. This is much more manageable when using digital print as it allows you to make changes without the expense of starting from scratch each time.
To summarise
Digital print is a flexible and adaptable process, allowing for maximum creativity and originality. The method eliminates the cost of traditional flexo plates and allows you to take advantage of the growing online trend for quick turnaround jobs like limited releases or corrugated subscription boxes.
Digital printing on corrugated boxes means there’s very limited lost production time and minimal waste associated with set-up time. With this efficiency, digitally printing onto corrugate is one solution to help avoid the increasing pressure put on supply chains for quick turnarounds and lower volume jobs.
Find more about the different printing methods available in the packaging industry, please see our Guide: Flexo VS. Litho VS. Digital – The different types of print that are commonly used within the packaging industry
