Flexographic printing vs. Digital printing

Here are some general rules we use to determine which process to use on a job.

Both of these print processes are big players in the label market. Here are some general rules we use to determine which process to use on a job.

The digital process is very effective to use on short run full color labels. This method is particularly well suited to label jobs that have a high number of versions or contain variable data such a barcodes or consecutive numbers. We have run as little as 1 label up to several thousand labels using the digital process. Another plus with the digital process is since it does not require a plate you can also create very large/long labels. (So far the longest label we have created was 40″ long.)

The flexographic process is best to use for longer runs as it can achieve much higher speeds than digital. This speed advantage produces substantial price savings. We sometimes do use the flexo process even on small runs where special materials are required. (Digital has some substrate limitations that flexo does not.)

Courtesy of guest commentary Steve Brookshire