Trapping isn’t very sexy, but it is critical for optimal print quality on a traditional printing press. On our traditional flexographic printing presses – still 85% of our business – we will always have minor variations during a press run. Always. These presses run very fast and they are driven by motors, belts and gears. We maintain them very well, but there is ALWAYS minor variation during the run. This variation shows itself as mis-registration. Colors don’t perfectly align with each other as all colors are laid down.
Without proper prepress trapping, a very small sliver of white can show between colors that are supposed to meet. Since perfect 100% registration isn’t possible, and we don’t want white outlines, trapping is the solution.
Trapping is basically a way to compensate for movement on press by making the adjacent colors overlap each other. Look at the image above on the right. The yellow is ‘spread’ or enlarged by 0.5 points (very small amount!). This trap allows just enough overlap between the colors to hide any possible press variation. The good news is that you (the customer) don’t have to worry about this – we take care of it in our system. Our state of the art Esko software automatically traps files to our specifications – we calibrate the amount of trap to match our press tolerance. This is one of the many value added services that we do in the background to make sure your labels look perfect – but we thought you may want to know a bit more about it.
Want to talk about trapping for your particular project? Call us today.
We don’t normally sell applicators directly, but we do have many relaitonships in the industry to help you. We produce Millions of labels each month for you and our clients, and most of these are applied to a Bag, Box, or Bottle containing your very special, high quality product. Getting the label on the product straight, without bubbles, and secured so it doesn’t come off is what these label applicators do best. There are many options in many different price ranges. From very simple, hand crank machines to fully automated production lines, we can help.
This applicator is one of our favorites – one of our winery customers used this machine last year on a short bottling run with great success.
Call us today and we will connect you with the proper company to help you.
This two sided window label is still in the R&D stage of digital production, but it shows great promise! This label really does have 14 colors laid down in one pass on the Indigo.
CMYK Printed Face Down on Clear Material (Mirror Image to view through the adhesive)
6 layers of White Ink to provide a barrier between the sides
CMYK Printed Face Up to be viewed from inside the retail location
Once again, Indigo digital technology is blowing us away — this wasn’t possible without the digital press.
Want to blaze new trails or experiment with amazing new label options? Call us today – we can help.
The new HP Indigo Press is up and running full speed. We are excited to help more customers with this amazing new technology. Our first few orders have been very well received by our customers. Since the press is all digital, it really is more like running a large super computer than a mechanical printing press. There are still many, many complicated moving parts, but it is all driven by a digital control system, which makes all the printing as accurate and repeatable as anything available in the industry.
We are still growing into this press and we look forward to sharing more and more about it. For now, please just remember us for ANY label you may need. We have a solution for every label – large to small and any run length.
Thanks for your trust and confidence – call us when your next label project comes along – I think you will be very pleased with what we can do for you.
This news was just released from our trade association, TLMI. Regardless of your feeling about GMOs in foods, it is nice to have some level of clarity about future label requirements. Please call us if you have questions:
FDA Makes Announcements on BPA and GMOs
Bisphenol-A (BPA) – After an additional 4 years of analyzing roughly 300 studies, the FDA as reaffirmed its position that BPA is safe for use in food and beverage packaging. They will continue to review studies as they are issued by the scientific community, but another major decision from the Agency on its safety for packaging is not scheduled to occur. Industry stakeholders and the health/environmental community had been awaiting this decision for some time.
GMOs – At a Congressional hearing yesterday, the FDA stated that all science available indicates that use of GMOs for food production is also safe. They have a slightly better history with GMOs, as they have been regulated and monitored since their inception, whereas, BPA has been in use for 60 plus years, and the Agency had a lot of catching up to do. Also, in contrast to BPA, there appears to be little political divide on GMO safety and labeling requirements. Top Democrats have expressed concern that even labeling of GMOs may cause more confusion then anything else, and give the impression that the federal government believes they are dangerous.
Impact for TLMI Members – Or maybe we should say, “lack of impact”..both of these decisions will make it much more difficult for state legislators to implement either bans, or even labeling requirements, reducing potential customer and supplier burdens to TLMI member companies. That being said, we anticipate that in 2015 a handful of state legislators around the country will introduce bills touching on either BPA or GMO requirements. We will keep you informed as they do.
Thanks to all of you that have followed our journey the past 3 months — today is the day that our press put ink on paper! This is a huge step forward in print technology for Rose City Label. Thanks in advance for your patience as we learn to maximize this amazing new resource. Better quality and faster labels for you!
You can’t really tell from your computer screen, but the print quality is outstanding. Very fine dots, very crisp edges, and unlimited potential for the future – stay tuned for more information!
Thanks again for trusting us as we move forward with technology and innovation. Thank you!
The new HP Indigo Press is up and running full speed. We are excited to help more customers with this amazing new technology. Our first few orders have been very well received by our customers. Since the press is all digital, it really is more like running a large super computer than a mechanical printing press. There are still many, many complicated moving parts, but it is all driven by a digital control system, which makes all the printing as accurate and repeatable as anything available in the industry.
