Stone printing (lithography) was invented by Alois Senefelder around 200 years ago. A stone served as the basis for this procedure. The stone first had to be ground flat, and then a motif was drawn on the stone with grease chalk – mirrored of course. Now printing ink could be applied to the surface. This then stuck to the fat chalk that had already been drawn. Now only the prints had to be made. The custom kraft boxes printed paper was ready.
What is printed custom kraft boxes technology?
This was the first printing process that enabled long runs and color printing for custom kraft boxes in bulk. Clever minds have constantly dealt with the further development of the process. The process gradually changed to offset printing while stone printing was pushed into art.
Today it is the most widely used printing process worldwide and impresses with its quality and the low expenditure of time. But what exactly is offset printing and what are the advantages and disadvantages?
When is offset printing used?
Offset printing is used for a wide variety of materials. The process can be used to print paper, cardboard, cardboard, but also foils, and coated paper. This means that a wide range of products can be covered, from newspapers and posters to high-quality cardboard sales packaging.
This is also the reason why offset printing takes up approx. 80% of the total market volume of the various printing processes.
Also Read: Best Corrugated Box Packaging
How does offset printing for customized boxes work?
The process is also called indirect printing because the color is not transferred directly to the sheet. The color is printed from aluminum plates onto a blanket cylinder and only then onto the sheet. Printing itself is largely automated. Preparation represents the greatest effort, as the printing plates have to be exposed and clamped. In addition, the exact overprint of the color must be checked. An order is only started when everything is perfectly set.
Common Elements in custom box printing
The paint application is based on the principle of repelling water and fat. There are printable and non-printable elements on the printing plate. The elements to be printed take on the greasy color and repel the water from the dampening system.
The reverse is the behavior of the elements that are not to be printed; they accept the water and repel the ink. In this way, the color can be transferred extremely precisely onto the blanket cylinder and then onto the sheet.
Colors in offset printing
The printed colors of custom pizza boxes with logo are represented with the basic colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, key). However, special colors such as metallic and luminous colors can also be used. Each of the colors used has its own printing unit on the machine.
The substrate runs through each printing unit one after the other. The color is applied in the form of dots to the printing material on a screen. The raster simulates a color gradient for the human eye. The individual points can only be seen with a magnifying glass. So works in a similar way to a screen. Here, too, the pixels simulate a color gradient depending on the raster
How do I recognize an offset print in custom boxes?
When examining a sheet with a magnifying glass, a certain pattern of rasterization can be seen. The grid of the four colors are not applied at the same angle, there is a recommendation for this:
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Cyan: 15%
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Magenta: 75%
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Yellow: 0%
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Key: 45%
If the angle is set incorrectly, circular shapes are created, which can then also be seen with the naked eye. This effect is called the moiré effect.
A trained eye can also tell from the edges on the print image whether it is an offset print. With offset printing, the print image is sharp enough to show even small fonts sharply.
How does custom packaging offset press work?
The printing press is divided into different stations. The feeder is at the beginning of each printing machine, a pallet with sheets to be printed is introduced here. From here the sheets begin their journey through the printing press.
The heart of the machine is the printing rollers, which are installed right after the feeder. In each of these, one of the four CMYK colors is applied to the sheet. Since the printing rollers are built into the machine linearly (in a row), the sheet is always applied layer by layer. A sheet that has passed through the first print roller is only printed with one color at this point. All layers of color together result in the desired print image.
How do printer rollers work?
After the pressure rollers – at the end of the machine – there is the tray. Here the finished printed sheets are stacked on a pallet. As soon as this pallet is full, it can be exchanged for an empty one. At the end of the machine, there is also the machine control station. The machine operator has a complete overview of the machine and can control everything electronically.
Printing with cylinders has the great advantage that large formats can also be printed at high speed. In addition, offset printing is extremely even and consistent in terms of the quality of the print.
Are there different types of offset printing in custom kraft boxes?
Yes there is. A distinction is made between custom kraft boxes sheet-fed offset printing and web offset printing. With sheet-fed offset printing, individual, already cut sheets are fed into the machine. This variant makes sense for a print run of 1,000 sheets or more.
With web offset printing, on the other hand, the feed takes place via a large roll on which the printing material is rolled up as a web.
Here it is only worthwhile to produce a quantity of approx. 50,000 copies or more, as otherwise, the effort is too high. Newspapers and brochures, for example, are usually printed using the web offset printing process.
We, Silver Edge Packaging, print with the sheet-fed offset printing process, as this process is best suited for sales and gift box packaging.
Digital printing versus offset printing
Offset printing is constantly being developed in order to optimize and accelerate the process. Despite the increasing number of digital printing machines, offset printing is still very popular. Digital printing is not yet as mature as offset printing, which scores above all with the accuracy of the screening. This accuracy and uniformity are not yet given with digital printing.
What is the price of custom kraft boxes wholesale price?
Custom printed kraft boxes offset printing is mainly used for jobs with long runs. The following applies here: the higher the circulation, the more economical the production. This is due to the fact that a comparatively high level of effort is required in preparation for production.
The basic price for offset printing is therefore relatively high, but the costs only rise very slightly with a higher print run. In comparison, digital printing has extremely low basic costs, but these raise rapidly the higher the print run.
Digital and Offset Printing are very Different
The advantages of digital printing are definitely the low costs. In this way, an order with an edition of 10 sheets can be produced very cheaply. However, the higher the circulation, the higher the costs. With offset printing, on the other hand, it is the other way around; here you have relatively high costs.
However, these hardly increase during production, not even with high print runs. The higher the print run, the more economical the job on an offset printing machine becomes.
Why should I choose custom kraft boxes to offset printing?
Even if the digital printing process is cheaper for small orders, the quality cannot be compared with that of offset printing. The grids cannot be applied so precisely. So the moiré effect occurs much faster. In addition, higher resolutions can be produced in offset printing, for example, small fonts can be displayed better.
So it all depends on what your own requirements are. If you don’t mind the slightly lower quality and only need small quantities – less than 100 pieces – then digital printing is the right choice. But if you value quality and like to need higher print runs, you should have your packaging manufactured using the offset printing process.
Were we able to convince you of custom kraft boxes with logo?
Then select one of our packagings and start the online designer to configure your individually printable packaging. Alternatively, you can also contact our packaging professional; he will advise you and help you to realize your wishes and ideas.
