Converter Perspectives: 
Digital Printing in Packaging

These results highlight a central theme of the survey—that the adoption of color digital printing is much stronger among label converters than it is among folding carton and flexible packaging converters. The main reasons likely have to do with format size and the incidence of short runs. Prime labels' small format makes their imposition on a digital frame fairly simple; most label converters work with narrow flexo webs to begin with, so the print width of color digital presses is not very restrictive. By comparison, folding cartons and flexible packaging images usually are much bigger than prime labels—when laid flat, the converter of folding cartons and flexible packaging may be able to impose only 1, 2, or 3 images at a time on a color digital press, while that same space could hold 10, 20, or more prime labels. Regarding run lengths, there has been a groundswell among product marketers that favors short runs of prime labels. So far, though, there has not been a similar upsurge of short runs in folding carton and flexible packaging.