Welcome back to our series on making your label designs flexo-friendly! In Part 1, we covered how simplifying color builds can reduce misregistration and improve print quality. Today, we’re tackling another challenge: reverse type and gradients in four-color process designs.
These design elements can look great on screen but often complicate things on a flexographic press. Let’s walk through how to adapt them without sacrificing style or breaking the bank.
The Challenge: Reverse Type in 4-Color Builds
Reverse type (white or light-colored text knocking out of a darker background) can be tricky in flexo, especially when that background is made from all four CMYK colors.
Fine lines get fuzzy when each color registers slightly off.
The result? Blurry, unreadable type—even if your layout looked great digitally.
The Solution: Use Pantone Solids and Strategic Layering
Instead of relying on CMYK blends, try this approach:
Pick a rich, solid Pantone color for your background. For example, a warm yellow-brown makes a great base.
Overlay a second Pantone as a gradient. Choose something light, like Pantone 211 (a light pink). At first, it won’t look like much alone, but when combined with the brown underneath, the two create a rich, saturated gradient that mimics CMYK without the registration issues.
Avoid fading both colors at once. Don’t let both colors disappear into each other; this creates muddy, gray areas. Instead, keep one solid color in the background and fade just one on top for a cleaner, more consistent look.
What About Fine Type on That Gradient?
If you’ve got small reverse type knocking out of your gradient area, here are two good options:
Option 1: Add a Dedicated Spot Color
Use a third Pantone, like the same brown in your background, to fill in the small text. Because it’s a single plate, your type will print clean and crisp.
Option 2: Outline with Black
If adding another color isn’t in your budget, use a black outline around your small type:
It adds structure to the edges and reduces the impact of minor misregistration.
If done subtly, the outline blends into the darker background.
You still define your text with just one ink, making it far more reliable on press.
The Bottom Line
Reverse type and gradients don’t have to be dealbreakers for flexographic printing. With thoughtful design tweaks—like using spot colors and smart layering—you can retain your design’s visual impact while making it faster and easier to print.
Watch the video below for a visual walkthrough. See the original label design and how our team adjusted it to solve these issues without drastically changing the look.
Stay tuned for Part 3, where we’ll explore some general guidelines for Flexo printing.
Need help making your design flexo-friendly? Contact us today. We’re here to help you save time, reduce costs, and print with confidence.
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.
