At Rose City Label, we love helping our customers get the best results from their label designs—both visually and financially. When it comes to flexographic printing, a few smart design adjustments can make your artwork more efficient and cost-effective to print.
This post is the first in our series on making label designs flexo-friendly. Today’s focus is on reducing color complexity and improving print registration.
Why Simplify Colors?
Flexographic printing uses individual plates and stations for each color, so every additional color adds time, cost, and complexity. The fewer colors required to create a specific tone, the better your label will run on a flexo press.
Example: Adjusting a Red Color Build
Let’s say you have a red area in your design that’s built using all four CMYK colors—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. While this may look fine digitally, it’s not ideal for flexo printing because:
More colors = more risk of misregistration (colors not lining up perfectly)
More complexity = higher setup time and cost
Here’s how we make it better:
Start by identifying the key colors. For red, we know magenta and yellow are essential. Cyan and black are often used to darken the tone, but they aren’t always necessary. For your color, look at which colors use the largest percentages of CMY or K. Colors with low percentages are more likely to be able to be successfully removed and compensated for.
Remove unnecessary components.
Try removing black first. If the color becomes too light, that’s okay—we’ll compensate later.
Increase cyan in order to compensate for the lack of black.
Adjust remaining values.
Increase magenta and yellow to deepen the red.
Result: You now have a red that’s built from just two or three colors—a huge improvement for flexo production. If it looks similar enough to what you want, it’ll help us out. If not? Maybe try looking at different low percentage color (removing Cyan for example, and compensating with black). It will print more clearly and consistently, and it sets up faster on press.
What About Small Text?
Even if you simplify large areas, fine type—like government warnings or ingredient text—can still be a challenge.
When small text is built from multiple colors, any slight misalignment can make it:
Blurry
Unreadable
The wrong color entirely
A Simple Fix:
Ask your designer or prepress partner if you can change fine print to black only. This single-color solution:
Removes all registration risk
Prints clearly over other colors (like yellow)
Ensures legibility, especially in small fonts
The Payoff
By reducing the number of colors used in large areas and simplifying your fine text, your label design becomes much more flexo-friendly. That means:
Faster press setup
Lower production costs
Cleaner, more reliable results
Want to see how this looks in action?
Watch the video below to follow a real-world example of optimizing a label for flexo printing. Our team walks you through the process, showing before-and-after adjustments in real design files.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of the series, where we’ll examine grading two Pantone colors together to simulate the look of a CMYK gradient.
At Rose City Label, one of the most common questions we get is: What’s the difference between digital and flexographic printing? The answer depends on a few key factors, like quantity, design complexity, and cost.
Let’s break it down in simple terms.
Digital Printing: Best for Short Runs and Complex Designs
Our HP Indigo digital press is ideal for small to mid-sized label orders. Here’s why:
Low Setup Costs: Digital printing doesn’t require physical plates or manual ink mixing, so it requires minimal setup time and cost.
Perfect Registration: The digital press delivers crisp, accurate color placement—every dot of CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) goes precisely where it’s intended, without color shift or trapping issues.
Press Proofs Available: Want to see a sample before your full run? We can produce a low-cost press proof directly from the machine.
Flexible Color Options: Digital is great for full-color artwork, smooth gradients, and photography, especially when the design uses more colors than our flexo press can handle.
When to choose digital:
You need fewer labels.
Your design includes many colors, gradients, or screens.
An immature design that may change often.
Variable data, barcodes, or serial numbers (different on each label).
Textured materials, typically used for wine or spirits labels.
You want lower initial costs.
Flexographic Printing: Ideal for High Volumes and Thoughtful Ink Choices
Flexographic (or “flexo”) printing is a traditional, high-speed method using physical printing plates and ink. It’s perfect for larger print runs.
Ideal for Stable, Established Products: Once the prep and plates are paid for, the ongoing cost can be significantly lower on flexographic designs that print on an ongoing basis.
Fast, Efficient Runs: The flexo press runs at high speeds once set up, making it very economical for high-volume jobs.
Fast Turnaround Times: Multiple presses of different sizes allow for scheduling flexibility.
Pantone Matching: For solid colors, especially brand-specific Pantones, flexo can deliver precise color with a single ink station.
Metallic Colors and Inline Foil: Although we can create simulated metallic colors on digital, flexo printing offers true metallic PMS colors and possibly inline foil stamping, depending on the design
More Flexible Finishing: Flexo labels can be delivered in sheets or rolls, can have top scores, perforations, and even back printing on the adhesive or on the backing paper
Flexo-Friendly Design Tips:
Use spot Pantone colors for linework and text when possible, but be aware of using too many colors, particularly when paired with CMYK.
Fewer colors can mean less expensive labels, and avoiding screened colors can help too.
If it works with your design, CMYK linework can be outlined in black for better registration.
However, flexo presses have a limited number of color stations. If your design exceeds those limits, even at high volume, digital may still be the better fit.
So, Which One Is Right for You?
Based on quantity, a job might look like a good candidate for flexo, but if the design has too many colors, digital might be the only option. On the flip side, a simple, Pantone-based design in large quantities can be perfect for flexo.
Quantity: Generally, lower quantities are better for digital
Complexity: Very complicated designs, fine screens, or more than seven colors, all lean toward digital
Cost: Smaller runs are less expensive on digital, while larger runs have a lower unit cost on flexo
Design Stability: A known, mature design that will reprint often is often better on flexo
Still Unsure? We’re Here to Help.
At Rose City Label, we evaluate every job individually to determine the best print method. Our goal is to provide you with beautiful, high-quality labels on time and on budget.
Contact us today if you’re not sure which print method is right for your next project.
Watch the video below for a side-by-side explanation, label examples, and design tips from our production team.
At Rose City Label, sustainability isn’t just something we talk about—it’s a commitment we live every day. This past year, we proudly participated in Portland General Electric’s (PGE) Green Future Enterprise program, taking meaningful action to power our business with clean, renewable wind energy.
In 2024 alone, Rose City Label purchased 201,203 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of wind renewable energy certificates.
To put that into perspective, this amount is equivalent to powering more than 235 homes for an entire year! Knowing that our efforts have such a tangible impact motivates us to continue and grow these sustainability practices.
But the benefits extend far beyond our own walls. Our choice to support wind-generated electricity contributes to broader community health and resilience. In partnership with over 225,000 other participants in the Green Future program, we’ve collectively prevented over 3.7 billion pounds of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere in 2024 alone.
Every effort counts, big or small. Being part of PGE’s Green Future Enterprise is not only about embracing renewable energy; it’s about taking responsibility for a cleaner, greener future for Oregon and beyond. This initiative also fosters local clean energy jobs, boosting our economy and paving the way for continued environmental stewardship.
Rose City Label is honored to play a role in supporting our environment. We proudly display our PGE Green Future Enterprise certificate as a reminder and celebration of our ongoing commitment.
Thank you to our incredible customers, partners, and employees for helping us make these sustainable choices possible.
Together, we’re creating a brighter, cleaner future for everyone.
As President of Rose City Label, I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with outstanding brands, helping them share their stories through beautifully crafted labels. The Celebrate Series is particularly special, bringing together modern aesthetics and lively character—perfectly embodying Kramer Vineyards’ spirit of celebrating life’s everyday moments.
The journey began with Kramer Vineyards’ desire to elevate their sparkling wines with labels that captured the fun and uniqueness of each varietal. Kim Kramer, winemaker and visionary behind the series, partnered with Rachel Tourville of Graphic Lime Creative to transform these wines into a unified, yet distinctly expressive collection.
Each wine’s personality is wonderfully captured in the design: bold colors inspired by past iterations, wraparound labels featuring striking vertical typography, and thoughtful imagery connecting directly to each wine’s story.
“The modern design is chic and eye-catching. This is the perfect example of how a series can be done beautifully.”
Judge
We’re incredibly proud to have printed these labels, and to see our partners recognized for their creativity and vision. It reaffirms our belief that a well-designed label is more than just packaging—it’s a powerful storyteller.
Congratulations again to Kim Kramer, Rachel Tourville, and everyone at Kramer Vineyards. We’re honored to be a part of your journey and excited to continue celebrating everyday successes together!
One of the most common issues we see at Rose City Label is label artwork submitted without all the necessary files. We get it—file prep can be confusing. But don’t worry! We’re here to help you get it right the first time so your labels print perfectly.
When you create a label in Adobe Illustrator, it’s essential to understand that the final .ai file often doesn’t include everything it needs to print correctly—mainly if you’ve used custom fonts or imported images.
Packaging your file is a critical step before you send it to us.
Why You Need to Package Your File
When you send only the Illustrator file:
Custom fonts may not display correctly on our end.
Linked images may be missing entirely.
The layout might shift, causing unexpected print issues.
Packaging gathers all the assets—images, fonts, and artwork—into a single folder. It keeps everything clean, tidy, and ready for print.
How to Package in Adobe Illustrator
Here’s a quick walkthrough:
Open Your Final File: Ensure everything looks correct on your end—images are linked, text is in place, and you’re happy with the design.
Go to File > Package: This tells Illustrator to gather everything needed to reproduce your file correctly.
Choose a Destination: Pick a folder location (like your Desktop), name your package something clear (like Sarat_2023), and make sure these options are selected:
✔ Copy Links
✔ Collect Links in Separate Folder
✔ Include Fonts
✔ Include Linked Files
Click “Package”: Illustrator will create a folder that contains your .ai file, a Links folder for images, and a Fonts folder with any custom typefaces you’ve used.
Zip the Folder: Right-click the new folder and choose “Compress” (Mac) or “Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder” (Windows). This ensures nothing gets lost in transit.
How to Send It to Us
Once zipped, you can send the package in whichever way works best for you:
Email
FTP
Dropbox
WeTransfer
Or any file-sharing method you prefer!
Taking a few extra minutes to package your file correctly saves time, avoids production delays, and ensures your labels look as great in print as they do on screen.
Thanks for working with us—we’re excited to bring your label to life!
