Packaging Printing

Printing is the part of packaging manufacture that customers judge most immediately and understand least. The choice that matters most is not resolution — it is whether a colour is built from process inks or printed as a spot colour.

If you are weighing that choice now, CMYK vs Pantone for packaging compares the two in practical terms, including what the board and the finish do to the result.

CMYK process printing

Process printing builds every colour from four inks. It is the right choice for photographic images, illustrations and designs with many tones, and it is the most economical way to print full colour. Its limitation is exactness: a specific brand colour built from four inks can shift slightly between runs.

Pantone spot colour

A spot colour is mixed as a single ink to a Pantone reference and printed from its own unit. Because it is not being simulated, it reproduces consistently and can achieve colours process printing cannot reach at all. If your brand lives or dies on one exact colour, this is how to protect it.

Combining both

Most premium packaging uses both: process for imagery and a spot colour for the brand mark, so photography looks right and the logo is exact. It costs more than process alone because it needs an additional printing unit, and it is usually the correct answer for a brand that will reprint the same pack many times.

Substrates

We print on coated paperboard, kraft, art paper and corrugated board. Each behaves differently — kraft shifts every colour towards brown, and corrugated cannot hold the fine detail that coated board can. We tell you what a substrate will do to your artwork before it is printed rather than after.

Colour control

Colour is checked on press against an approved reference rather than assessed after delivery. Because printing and finishing happen on the same floor, a problem spotted at finishing can be traced back to press without involving another company.