What is spot color printing in cardboard gift boxes?

Spot color printing(专色印刷) is a printing process involved in offset printing, using a spot color ink (pure or mixed) specifically formulated according Pantone code. It’s a single and extra run other than the general CMYK 4C printing process, and thus requires its own lithographic film.

Then on what occasions is spot color printing necessary? (1) When the cardboard gift boxes designs involve gold or silver color. Golden and silvery colors differs greatly from rest colors and are extremely opaque. Thus they are impossible to realize on the print by regular CMYK offset printing process. In this case, spot color printing can be used to achieve golden or silvery tones (An alternative method to foil stamping).

(2)The prints often comprise uniform color areas of varying gradient colors and text. These color areas and texts can be achieved either by the process of registering in offset printing or by spot color printing. With comprehensive trade-off between improving print quality and saving the runs of registering, it is sometimes necessary to use spot color printing (An alternative method to registering).

Spot color printing uses a non-standard offset ink such as metallic, fluorescent, or hand-mixed ink. Every color needs one lithographic film and an extra printing run. Also, the potential for problems will generally increase. All these will be factored into the total cost of the final gift boxes.

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[Innove Packaging designs and manufactures window gift boxes, rigid shoulder boxes, decorative drawer gift boxes, hexagon explosion cardboard boxes, luxury nesting apparel gift boxes of 3, and custom odd shaped boxes, etc.]