My Print Resource

Flexographic printing is a type of printing that involves the use of plates. This type of printing is different from other forms of printing. The material for printing with flexography is on a roll form that goes through various rotary plates. This post tells you tips for an efficient flexographic printing for your print on demand business. The tips below will help you run your print on demand business, with regards to using flexographic printing.

Select a suitable printer

There are various printers you can choose for your print on demand business. Some printers are more suitable than others. They come with different sizes and properties. Ensure that you select a printer that prints efficiently and faster. Choose according to the products you are printing. This is because each printer is suitable for a particular kind of product.

Maintain your printers

Your print on demand business makes use flexographic printers. Do not expose those printing machines to hydro conditions like excessive heat or excessive humid conditions or vibrations which might damage your printers. This is a tip for running a print-on-demand business.

Use similar graphics

When printing with flexography printing, using similar graphics will cut down the number of plate changes you need to make. However when you use different graphics, you tend to make various plate changes. When using flexographic printing, you are placing each colour to the substrates. Using placement and size helps in cutting down the number of required plates.

Use the proper die for the printing

What kind of die are you using for the printing? Ensure that the die you are using is the proper die for the layout. Example when wrapping a bar, you don’t put something on the front side to be on the back or side. It’s die line will have eye marks for the packaging equipment. Communication is necessary between a co-packer, printer and designer for a finished product.

Use relevant materials

The clarity, opacity and colour of materials will change colours. Papers take in more ink than that of the film. A material made of matt dulls out the colours. Certain materials absorbs more ink than other materials. Colour change takes place in variations for each material. Select materials that match the colour for your printing.

Apply efficient design

Your design influences your printing. When you make an efficient design, you can integrate it into a printing process.

Efficient packaging

How do you intend to package these products after printing them. Package the products for your audience. The way you package your products during and after flexographic printing should be suitable for your audience.

Choose suitable ink

What kind of ink are you using to print? Select inks that dry faster, simpler to use, volatile free and offer a superior printing quality.

Use of text and vectors format

Avoid using raster process on text and vectors unless if you want a particular effect. Avoid rasterizing  for a format like logo or text, since you will extract it and make it a different colour. For that use hand to extract the text during prepress. Convert to vector and then to another colour, that is followed by a trapping. This method of printing does not let regular image to get printed in that format. Add the font you are using to convert it to a vector. There is a variation of the text size with the colour. It can vary between 4, 5,6 pt, up to 8 pt is recommendable. You can use Corel Draw or Illustrator when you work with vectors. If you are using Photoshop, don’t leave the vectors. Preview file before printing.