Some Thoughts on the Design and Application of Digital Printing Corrugated Packaging

We often talk about the advantages of digital printing in terms of speed and supply chain efficiency, and this is for good reason. But what about its design advantages? If you don't want to use digital technology to change packaging, then you will miss a lot of business opportunities.

The design of traditional printed corrugated packaging is partly driven by the cost of printing plates and prepress work. Traditional printing presses use custom plates to apply ink to the substrate. Each color of ink requires its own printing plate, which is produced through a chemical process using expensive equipment. If you find an error in the design, or choose to make changes after creating the plate, you cannot make changes and you must restart the process.

The production of printing plates also requires a lot of labor and pre-press work. Professionals convert the design into layers and perform trapping adjustments. This technology can compensate for the movement of the printing plate during the entire printing process.

In view of the complexity of prepress work and printing plates, corrugated packaging designers have become accustomed to creating simple designs that use a lot of solid backgrounds and a small amount of ink colors. Corrugated packaging design involving digital printing is not subject to these restrictions, making brand creativity the main driving force.

This is not to say that digital printing itself is without challenges. For example, digital ink is more expensive than traditional ink, and digital printers are not suitable for printing large areas of pure colors. Through the creative use of patterns and other design elements, the challenges and limitations of these two aspects can be alleviated. Printing allows the substrate to show more space in the design, or using a patterned background instead of a solid design, can reduce the amount of ink and significantly reduce costs.

Digital printing corrugated packaging has several design elements that it really plays:

Gradient. It is difficult for traditional printing presses to replicate this design element, and generally has a "stepped" effect. In contrast, digital printers can easily handle gradients and provide a completely smooth and soft transition effect, which can play a huge role in packaging.

Photo image. Digital printing presses Print Magazine-quality images with bright colors and high resolution. Printing images on traditional printing presses is a more difficult process, requiring the expertise of designers and press operators. Yes, but it can be difficult and costly. The consistent quality of digital printers makes it easier for designers to use photo images with confidence.

mode. As mentioned earlier, when printing on a digital printer, patterns can well replace physical areas. In addition to cost-saving advantages, patterned backgrounds can also increase visual effects. For example, imagine switching the background design of a packaging carton for agricultural products from pure orange to a pattern similar to actual orange skin. This is not feasible on traditional printing presses, but when you are doing digital printing, it is preferable.

Digital printing has also opened a new creative toolkit for designers, including:

billboard. Consider the retail display when designing packaging, creating an image or design that can be seen when multiple packages are stacked.

Invisible code. The carton that looks like an ordinary printed package on the shelf may actually be a carton, with a unique hidden code on the carton, which can be unlocked through a mobile app. The code can be unique to the packaging carton for product tracking, or it can be common to all packaging cartons to enhance the augmented reality customer experience.

Creative version control. Digital files are easy to set up, and the ability to print multiple designs at a time means that designers can create layout changes that increase the visual appeal of retail shelves. The packaging can contain user-generated content to increase customer engagement, or it can be customized according to the market to make your product locally attractive, and the possibilities are endless.

Digital design needs to change the way of thinking, but it opens up infinite possibilities. The design advantages of digital printing will only increase over time, thanks to the continued growth of e-commerce, and consumers' expectations for personalized packaging experiences.

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