Getting the most from your ink inventory with a prepress hero
Whether printing impactful flexible packaging destined for store shelves, or high-end beverage labels designed to capture attention in the blink of an eye, inks are often the centre of a printer’s world.
How they’re selected, optimised and managed can be a critical competitive edge for packaging and label converters in a world that demands ever-higher quality and ever-shorter lead times.
Packaging and label printers, however, never have to go it alone. With businesses like Creation, specialising in all things ink, it’s never been easier to find new efficiency and precision benefits through the printing supply chain.
As part of our prepress services, we offer comprehensive ink management that helps our customers to match the right ink to the right job, control costs and minimise waste.
Inks at the heart of superior printing
Looking for greater insight across the wide topic of printing inks? Trust the team that deals with the latest ink technologies day in, day out.
We know that effective colour management is more than just ‘making substrate x match pantone y’, it’s an opportunity to support brand consistency and continuity.
Think of iconic colours that stand in isolation; Coca Cola’s red, Kärcher’s yellow or IKEA’s blue, for example. The human eye is highly advanced and will notice if a printed colour is a shade out of alignment, even the smallest Delta E variation. The precision in perceiving colour discrepancies is remarkable, and deviations, however slight, can be readily detected by the discerning eye.
To help our customers to combat colour variation, we take a methodical and scientific approach to the measurement and control of press and print data. We work to ensure that maximum consistency is attainable across any material substrate and printing process, and across every packaging and label format.
The right complementary technologies
Success demands speed and flawless execution with every print run, so the type of ink you use is essential. Then, however, it needs to be backed by equally high-performance technologies. Often, the most effective and agile printers create a connected ecosystem, where each tool is chosen with care to deliver better print, faster and more consistently.
At Creation, we take great pride in our product and service range. Simply put, if it’s not driving value and excellence for our customers, we won’t offer it.
A prime example of this is our Flenex-FW water-washable flexo plate, developed by technology powerhouse Fujifilm. It’s one thing to select the optimal ink and get the colour matching pinned down, but another to get that translating into a finished printed product.
Flenex-FW is a true game-changer, not only ensuring vibrant and true-to-life print results, but also eliminating harmful VOC solvent washout from prepress, supporting carbon reduction goals. They bring a faster make-ready for greater agility, can be processed at colder temperatures than conventional polymer flexo plates, and deliver precision print with ease.
Fixed Colour Palette Printing
As the printing industry evolves, shifts and adapts, so do the strategies to optimise efficiency and reduce environmental impact.
Specifically with regards to printing inks, at Creation Reprographics we proudly champion Fixed Colour Palette (FCP) printing, also known as expanded or extended gamut printing. We see FCP printing as the future of high-performance printing, that redefines the traditional use of spot colour inks.
In an era where margins are pressed ever tighter, cost control and sustainability are paramount, FCP emerges as a great answer. Conventional spot colour inks that are formulated for a specific purpose can be costly and, at times, wasteful. Instead, the FCP approach makes greater use of the standard CMYK/OGV ink colour palette.
The most obvious and immediate benefit is in cost, without the need for expensive and highly specific spot inks. However, there are further benefits to be seen in inventory management and even the speed of job changeover. Ink changeovers can create high cumulative downtime for printers, but FCP printing keeps the same inks on-press at all times. Extended colour gamut printing can reliably replicate around 90% of PANTONE® colours without the need for additional spot colour inks, and looking further ahead, this could be factored into brand design from the very outset.
Guiding your success with expertise
At the heart of Creation’s commitment to printing precision is our team of seasoned reprographics professionals.
We bring in-depth knowledge of inks, substrates, and printing techniques, going beyond just offering products. Our experts are here to provide the expertise that takes the guesswork out of your printing operations.
Whether it’s optimising colour management, fine-tuning file preparation, delivering eye-catching packaging designs or ensuring flawless execution in flexo plate production, our team stands ready to guide you every step of the way.
When quality prepress matters, Creation Reprographics is your dream partner in achieving superior results. When it comes to inks and printing precision, choose a partner that understands your needs. Choose Creation.