Flexo Quick to Learn Advantages of CTP

pP: Is it possible to do both commercial printing and package printing well within a single plant?

Vanover: Sure. A commercial printer most likely will have CTP and some kind of workflow to get the data from the customer to the platesetter, but that workflow may not necessarily give them all the means they need to print folding cartons. If they do their homework, and understand that just because you can get the data from the customer to the offset plate doesn't mean you can get packaging data and design from the customer to the offset plate. It's not just that you're working in three dimensions, although a box will be folded and become something different from a page and a piece of collateral, but it's all those things that happen to packaging from a trapping perspective: regulatory compliance, bar codes, things like that. Color management is also more complex for a 12-color box than it is for a 4-color piece of collateral. This is why they would need a separate workflow to support that kind of work if they believe they can add value and bring in that work and provide the level of quality their customers are going to expect. It has nothing to do with the output device; it has everything to do with the workflow that supports it.