Glitter, pearlescent, fluorescent, thermochromic—even the names of specialty inks raise the specter of something exciting.

By Tom Polischuk

That doesn’t mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that specialty inks aren’t a practical tool for use in brand packaging. When a product offers distinctiveness, graphic appeal, consumer safety, or brand protection and security, there’s a lot that can be justified.

Many options

Lorenz breaks the specialty inks category down into four areas: functional, safety, security, and novelty. The use of these inks clearly overlap in some of these areas, such as thermochromic inks, which can provide process functionality or product and/or consumer safety.