Flexographic and Rotogravure Printing

Print quality is not a finishing touch in flexible packaging — it is a structural part of the product. The way your packaging prints determines how your brand appears on shelf, how consistently your colours reproduce across production runs, and how credible and premium your product looks in the hands of a consumer. Getting print right matters from the first run, and maintaining that quality across every subsequent run matters just as much.

NytronPackaging operates both flexographic and rotogravure printing lines, giving us the flexibility to recommend the right process for your product, your volumes and your quality requirements. We do not push clients toward one process or the other — we specify what is genuinely most appropriate for the brief in front of us.

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Flexographic Printing

Flexographic printing — commonly called flexo — is a rotary relief printing process that uses flexible photopolymer plates to transfer ink onto the substrate. The plates are mounted on cylinders, inked by an anilox roller that controls the volume and consistency of ink delivery, and pressed against the film as it passes through the press at high speed. Flexo is a versatile, fast and relatively cost-efficient process that works well across a wide range of substrates — films, foils, paper and laminates — and is compatible with water-based, solvent-based and UV-curable ink systems.

We run up to four-colour flexographic printing, which covers the majority of brand packaging requirements for process colour reproduction and spot colour matching. Flexo is particularly well suited to large-area solid colours, simple to medium-complexity designs, and packaging applications where the priority is speed to market and cost efficiency at medium to high volumes. It is widely used for bread bags, bakery and produce packaging, industrial sacks, self-adhesive labels and a broad range of food and consumer product packaging formats.

Rotogravure Printing

Rotogravure — gravure — is an intaglio printing process in which the image is engraved directly into the surface of a chrome-plated copper cylinder. Ink fills the engraved cells, the excess is wiped from the non-image area by a doctor blade, and the ink is then transferred directly from the cells onto the substrate under impression pressure. Because the image is engraved into a hard metal cylinder rather than carried on a flexible plate, gravure delivers an exceptional level of consistency, precision and print quality — particularly for fine detail, photographic imagery, smooth tonal gradients and small text.

We run up to eight-colour rotogravure printing, which gives us a wide colour gamut and the ability to reproduce complex, photographic-quality brand imagery with a consistency that holds across very long production runs. Gravure is the preferred process for premium food packaging, confectionery, coffee, pet food, personal care and any application where the brand demands the highest possible print quality and absolute colour consistency run after run.

Our rotogravure press delivering high-definition print on flexible film

Flexo vs Gravure — Which Is Right for You

The honest answer is that both processes produce excellent results when specified correctly for the right application. The decision comes down to four factors: print complexity, production volume, lead time and budget.

Flexo has lower setup costs because photopolymer plates are less expensive to produce than engraved gravure cylinders. This makes flexo more cost-effective for shorter production runs, simpler designs and applications where a fast turnaround from artwork approval to first production is important. If your brand uses bold, clean graphics with a limited number of solid colours, flexo will deliver a strong result at a competitive price.

Gravure has higher setup costs — primarily because of the cylinder engraving process — but delivers unmatched print quality at high volumes. The cost of cylinders is amortised across the production run, which means gravure becomes increasingly cost-efficient as volumes rise. If your brand requires photographic imagery, fine detail, smooth gradients, very small text or the absolute highest level of colour consistency across hundreds of thousands of metres of film, gravure is the right choice. The cylinder also lasts indefinitely and can be re-used across multiple production runs, stored and refurbished when needed.

For many clients, the right answer evolves over time — starting on flexo for initial market entry and transitioning to gravure as volumes grow and the investment in cylinders becomes justified by the volume.

Colour Management and Brand Standards

Colour consistency is one of the most common concerns brands raise about flexible packaging production, and correctly so. When a consumer picks up your product on shelf, it needs to look exactly like it did the last time they bought it — and exactly like the photography on your website, your social media and your other brand materials.

We manage colour across both our flexo and gravure lines using a structured colour proofing and approval process. Before any production run, we produce a colour proof that is checked against your supplied colour references — Pantone references, brand colour specifications or approved press proofs from previous production. On press, our operators monitor colour continuously using densitometry and spectrophotometry, and any deviation from the approved standard is corrected before production continues.

For gravure clients, we engrave cylinders to the specific screen ruling and cell depth required to reproduce your artwork at the correct ink density, and we carry out print trials before committing to a full production run. Approved cylinder sets are stored and can be reused across subsequent orders, ensuring colour consistency is maintained not just within a run but across multiple production runs over time.

Substrates We Print On

Both our flexo and gravure lines are capable of printing on a wide range of flexible packaging substrates. On the flexo line we print on BOPP, CPP, PE films, paper and paper-based substrates, and self-adhesive label stock. On the gravure line we print on BOPP, PET, nylon, metallised films, aluminium foil, CPP and PE — including reverse printing on transparent films for laminated packaging structures where the ink is protected within the lamination bond.

Reverse printing — where the artwork is printed on the inner surface of the outer film before lamination — is the standard approach for premium laminated flexible packaging and delivers a protected, scuff-resistant print finish with excellent optical depth and clarity. We specify surface or reverse printing based on the laminated structure being used and the end-use environment of the packaging.

Ink Systems

We use solvent-based ink systems on our rotogravure lines, which deliver the ink transfer consistency and drying speed required for high-speed production on film substrates. All inks used in food packaging applications are selected for compliance with food-contact material regulations, and we maintain full traceability of ink batches used in every production run.

On our flexo lines we operate both solvent-based and water-based ink systems depending on the substrate and the end-use requirements of the packaging. Water-based inks are specified where the sustainability brief or regulatory requirements of the client favour reduced solvent emissions, particularly for applications where the packaging is destined for markets with stricter VOC regulations.

Rotogravure Cylinder Manufacturing

One of the distinctive capabilities that sets NytronPackaging apart from many flexible packaging printers is that we manufacture and refurbish our own rotogravure cylinders in-house. Our cylinder workshop handles new cylinder production from steel base through copper plating, engraving and chrome finishing, as well as the re-engraving and refurbishment of existing cylinders. This in-house capability means we are not dependent on third-party cylinder suppliers for quality, lead time or cost — and it means that when a client needs a cylinder re-engraved or a colour adjusted between runs, we can do that quickly and without adding an external supplier into the critical path.

The cylinder is the heart of print quality in rotogravure. An accurately engraved, correctly plated and properly finished cylinder is what separates exceptional gravure print from mediocre results. Because we control this process ourselves, we control the quality of the output.

Artwork and Pre-Press

Good print starts with good artwork. We offer a full pre-press service that works with your artwork files to prepare them correctly for the print process being used — checking colour separations, setting trap values, verifying text rendering at the intended print size, confirming barcode specifications and grade requirements, and producing a colour-accurate proof for your approval before plates or cylinders are made.

If you are new to flexible packaging artwork preparation, our pre-press team can advise on the file format, colour mode, resolution, bleed and safe area requirements for your job, and work with your design agency or in-house design team to ensure the artwork is production-ready before it reaches the press. This stage is where problems are cheapest to fix — and where investment in getting it right pays back many times over in production.

Working With Us

Whether you are placing your first flexible packaging print order or are an experienced buyer looking to review your current print specification and supplier relationship, we are happy to have a straightforward technical conversation about what you need and what we can offer.

We do not have a minimum order quantity for flexo print, and our gravure minimum runs are set at levels that are commercially realistic for the majority of food and consumer product brands. If you are unsure which process is right for your volumes and design, tell us about the job and we will give you an honest recommendation — including where the answer might be digital printing rather than either flexo or gravure.

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