Apples and Oranges

However, the increasing use of flexographic printing and its lower cost of production has, over time, created the perception that if you want to employ gravure as a printing process, you are going to pay a premium for it—a perception which isn’t completely accurate. According to Lepp, although there is a price difference, there may not be as wide a gap as some think. “Basically, I think gravure is doing well. It has a strong niche that it is well in control of. I think as the gravure industry continues to address cost issues, it will continue to do better and better,” he says. Though he cites cost as an issue, Lepp states, “I’m not sure that if everything was accounted for, apples to apples, that that’s really the case. It would be hard to argue against that perception. That’s the going perception today: flexo is close in quality at a lower price.”