A Call For Action

"There's a 20-year history where the cost of rotogravure cylinders have stayed the same, while flexo plate costs have increased dramatically," Chesnut said. "A lot of flexo costs have increased dramatically to the point that it's not a slam dunk that it's cheaper to go with flexo anymore."

Price increases in flexo have come hand-in-hand with improvements in the printing method. According to Larry Walton of American Packaging Co., which prints both gravure and flexo, digital plates and innovations in the shape of plate dots—like those found on Phototype's NuDot plates—improve the quality of flexo printing, but also raise costs.