Sharing of Packaging Material Technology by Chamsmetic | An Analysis of Printing Techniques with Purchasing Friends

Chamsmetic not only has rich experience in biodegradable packaging solutions, providing product support for personal care brands, cosmetic brands, and others in Europe, North America, and other countries, but also has its own packaging factory. Whether it is pump head development and manufacturing or the printing process of wheat straw bottles and cans, the technology is very mature. This article will share with purchasing clients who are interested in biodegradable packaging, the two common color printing techniques in ordinary packaging printing: normal four-color printing and spot color printing.

Four-color printing uses yellow, magenta (or fuchsia), cyan, and black ink overprinting to replicate colored originals; spot color printing uses ink colors other than the normal four colors to replicate the original.

When large-area background colors are printed, spot color printing is more commonly used.

Smart pump head-Chamsmetic

If the original product contains many different colored images, electronic color separation or color desktop systems are required to scan and separate the colors, and then the normal four-color printing process is used for production. If the original product consists of uniform color blocks or regular gradient color blocks and text, the spot color printing process can be selected when considering improving printing quality and reducing the number of overprints.

The ink prepared by spot color printing is obtained according to the principle of subtractive color mixing, with low transparency and high saturation. Uniform spot colors are usually printed in solid printing and require an appropriate increase in ink volume. Due to variations in the technical level of paper manufacturers, the surface color of the same specification of paper may deviate more or less, causing trouble for packaging printing manufacturers to control the product’s color. Reasonable use of the opacity of spot colors can effectively solve these problems, which Chamsmetic’s factory team can easily handle.

Four-color printing results in a combined effect of dot reduction and mixed color addition, with higher brightness and lower saturation of color blocks. For light-colored blocks, the ink coverage of four-color printing is low, resulting in a lack of intensity. Additionally, due to the angle of the dots, the presence of patterns is inevitable. Furthermore, color blocks printed by four-color printing consist of dots in certain proportions, and strict control of ink layer thickness is necessary. Changes in ink layer thickness and printing process conditions can easily cause changes in color intensity and dot enlargement, leading to uneven ink color.

Chamsmetics biodegradable packaging products1

For large-area light-colored uniform color blocks, spot color ink is added to the original ink, and then solid printing is performed to achieve a uniform and rich color effect. If the four-color printing process is used, low-percentage flat screen dots must be used. However, low-percentage flat screen dots are prone to shrink in some areas during plate exposure, leading to uneven ink color. Excessive water supply on the plate, accumulation of paper dust on the plate and blanket, and low smoothness of the paper can cause poor transfer of small dots during printing, resulting in lighter and uneven ink color and increased defective products.

For large-area dark-colored color blocks, the four-color printing process may require the superposition of high-percentage dots of several colors, resulting in a thick ink layer and possible soiling on the back. With spot color printing, only one color needs to be printed, reducing the risk of soiling on the back. Some parts of images and text may be composed of several colors using the four-color printing process, while the corresponding parts are printed in one color using spot color printing, minimizing the risk of register errors.

smart pump head-Chamsmetic2

The application of the spot color ink made from three primary color pigments has been introduced by Chamsmetic. In addition to spot color ink, metallic ink is widely used in packaging printing due to its special metallic luster, especially in the packaging of tobacco and alcohol, adding a noble and elegant touch to the product’s image. However, due to the weak adhesion of metallic ink, the printing difficulty is greater than that of regular spot color ink.

For more related articles on packaging technology, please continue to follow the Chamsmetic team. Personal care brands, cosmetic brands, hotels, and other purchasing friends are welcome to consult and customize packaging solutions for your brand.