Printing Techniques For Custom Packaging Boxes

Printing is the process of replicating graphic visuals and text in large quantities on paper using certain templates. In today’s world, everything needs to be printed for two reasons. 

The first uses visuals to talk audibly, whereas the second uses text to communicate effectively. As a result, both functions have fantastic printing alternatives. Printing is ideal in a variety of sectors.

This article explains the printing types and why they are appropriate for the custom packaging boxes.

But First, What Influences Print Quality?

The brightness, opacity, sheen, smoothness, porosity, and size of a paper are all important factors for custom packaging boxes, but printing procedures can have an even bigger impact:

Clean print head 

One of the most critical components of print quality is keeping your machine in good functioning order, which includes ensuring that consumables such as print heads are in good working order. 

This requires cleaning the printhead(s) every now and again to keep them free of mineral deposits, the potential for streaking, and bleeding.

You can do this by spraying distilled water over the print head, which will keep any mineral pollutants from interfering with the machine’s components. 

A nozzle check on your printheads can also assist you to figure out whether your printing system has a kink. To eliminate inconsistency and improve print quality, clean the print head and print head nozzles.

Overall, keeping your print head clean can help to lessen or even eliminate many of the issues that can arise when printing labels or flexible custom packaging boxes designs.

Pressure on the print head

Maintaining excellent outcomes also necessitates the use of the proper print head pressure. If you apply too much pressure, you will have muddled results and the colors will be excessively dark.

Checking the height of your print head can assist you in maintaining the highest possible print quality.

Major Printing Options for Custom Packaging Boxes

When it comes to custom packaging boxes, there are numerous factors to consider. One of the first decisions you should make is how you want your design to print.

Flexo Box Printing

Flexography is one of the more conventional printing processes. Flexo printing uses relief plates and anilox rolls to print directly to the surface. 

A raised image is pressed into a flexible relief surface in flexo printing, comparable to letterpress “stamping” in the early days of newspapers. The raised-image plate can be made in three distinct ways:

• Molding
• Laser technology that is guided by a computer
• When a polymer is exposed to ultraviolet light, it changes its properties.

Silkscreen Printing 

Silkscreen printing, often known as squeegee printing, is the process of applying paint to a mesh screen that retains a graphic stencil. It’s a printing process that produces high-quality prints on oddly-shaped custom packaging boxes and surfaces such as cans, bottles, and promotional products. 

Artists and fashion businesses frequently employ it in their showpieces. It’s labor-intensive, therefore it’s more expensive than other printing methods, and it’s not recommended for large-scale jobs.

Litho Box Printing

During the time of the ancient Greeks, simple kinds of lithographic printing existed. “Litho” means stone in Greek, and “graphein” means to write. Stones were carved into stencils by ancient people. 

Since then, technology has progressed significantly. Litho printing today takes advantage of the repulsion of oil and water to one other. It entails utilizing a laser, mechanical, or photochemical procedure to etch a design onto an aluminum plate.

Rotogravure Printing 

Custom packaging boxes printing engineers used rotogravure printing to engrave the desired image into a cylinder. Ink is attached to the determined edges, unlike flexography. Furthermore, it is a procedure similar to intaglio printing in which ink is applied directly to the small portions of the roller. 

Many other printing procedures for custom packaging boxes do not transfer as much ink to the printed services as rotogravure printing does. An image is etched onto a printer cylinder and inked, then transferred to paper using this printing technique. 

Gravure printing is the polar opposite of letterpress, with printed elements recessed below the plate’s surface.

Digital Box Printing

The method of printing electronic visuals onto a variety of substrates is known as digital printing. 

It is direct-to-surface printing technology. While there are various traditional printing methods for custom packaging boxes, such as lithography, flexography, and others, digital printing is frequently favored.

The following are the steps of digital printing:

• Creating a file with a clear image at a high enough quality to fit the size of the print
• Adding crop markings and bleed marks to the print job
• Imposition is the practice of maximizing the use of paper space.
• Saving the electronic document file as a JPEG, PDF, GIF, TIFF, or BMP image.

Use of Inks in Printing  

• Oil-based ink: colorant, binder, and varnish are all included in oil-based inks, which are utilized to produce the desired image. These oil-based inks also come into touch with targetable oil.
• Water-based inks: often known as carrier fluids are inks that are for printing images on paper. Furthermore, such inks dry quickly.
• Powdered-based inks: these are dusty in appearance and are commonly used in photocopiers and laser printers.
• Resin: it is a synthetic polymer that can be liquid or solid and is used to make plastics, varnishes, adhesives, and other items. Types are employed to dry inks and put them on the page in numerous printings.

Tips to Improve Your Printing Speed

Your system uses two criteria to determine your capable printing speeds: pages per minute and pictures per minute.

• Use the Printer’s Native Language — Using native typefaces eliminates the need to transition, allowing you to spend more time printing.
• A Standard Print Form — This feature enables users to develop, edit, update, and print documents all within the software. You’ll be able to spend more time printing because the form is in the same language. 
• Consider Printing Styles – Consider printing from a browser rather than using label design tools. Part numbers are for collecting the information needed to adapt the print job to the printer.

The Bottom Line

Printing custom packaging boxes is a time-consuming (but rewarding!) procedure. There are several alternatives to consider, numerous decisions to make, and numerous grins to be had once you have done everything. 

When you’re ready to start designing some amazing branded custom packaging boxes, we hope these resources will make the process more enjoyable, instructive, and productive. Multiple Packages provides the best custom boxes ever.