Printing Options
Every mainstream press produces a commercially good cosmetic carton. What separates them is where their costs sit and which substrates they suit, and that is what should decide your choice.
- Four presses compared
- Spot colour vs process build
- Where ganging saves money
Quantity decides the press
Digital printing has almost no setup cost and a flat unit cost. Offset litho charges plates once per design but its unit cost falls steeply with volume. Where those two curves cross is your answer.
For most lip packaging that crossover falls somewhere between one and three thousand units, moving with the colour count and the finishing. Below it, digital. Above it, litho. A supplier quoting both at your quantity is telling you where you sit on that transition, which is more useful than a recommendation.
Ask for two prices. Request pricing at your quantity and at the next volume break. If a modest increase drops the unit price sharply, you are near the steep part of the curve, which is explained in more depth in our article onhow quantity affects unit pricing.
The four presses
Each has a substrate and a colour profile it suits, quite apart from the economics.
| Process | Economic at | Strongest on | Weakest on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital | Under roughly 2,000 units | Many designs in one job, variable data, short lead times, no plate charge | Unit cost at high volume; very large flat solids |
| Offset litho | 2,000 units upward | Fine halftones, small type, widest stock range, lowest unit cost at volume | Small runs, where plate cost dominates the price |
| Flexo | Very high volume | Uncoated kraft, simple spot-colour work, pressure-sensitive labels | Fine gradients and small reverse-out type |
| Screen | Any quantity, as an added pass | Heavy opaque ink, thick white on dark or reflective stock | Photographic detail; slow as a primary process |
Spot colour or process build
This is the decision that most affects whether your packaging looks the same next year as it does this year.
A four-colour process build recreates a colour from cyan, magenta, yellow and black. It drifts within normal tolerance between runs. On a photograph that is invisible; on a flat brand colour or a lipstick shade swatch it is not, and a customer comparing a nude against the one they bought six months ago will see it.
A spot Pantone is a pre-mixed ink. It costs an extra ink station and reproduces identically every time. Most cosmetic cartons end up as process plus one or two spots: process for imagery, spots for the brand colour and any shade swatch. On amulti-shade lipstick carton that is close to standard practice.
Printing on difficult substrates
Three stocks behave in ways that catch designers out, and all three have the same fix.
- Uncoated kraft absorbs ink into the fibre, so every colour reads warmer and darker, and there is no true white at all.
- Metallised and holographic board reflects through translucent process inks, so pale colours come out metallic.
- Black-through board keeps cut edges dark but gives you a much darker surface to print onto.
In each case the answer is an opaque white layer, printed first in the areas that need to read normally. It is an extra ink station, and it has to exist in the artwork as its own named layer rather than being requested at proof stage. The behaviour of each stock is set out on theboard grades page.
Ganging: the saving most brands miss
When several cartons share a board, an ink set and a finish, they can be printed together on one press sheet.
Ganged designs share the plates, the make-ready and the press time. On a multi-SKU range this is frequently the largest single saving available, and it is only accessible if the specification is standardised. It is the practical reason to resist letting each product in a range pick its own board and laminate.
A twelve-shade launch printed as one ganged job costs substantially less than twelve separate orders of the same total quantity. That is how mostbulk programmes across a lip rangeare structured.
What to ask for at proof stage
A proof is the reference your production run is measured against, so it is worth getting the right kind.
| Situation | Proof to request | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Plain coated white board, process colour | Calibrated digital proof | Substrate adds nothing unpredictable |
| Kraft or uncoated board | Printed proof on the actual stock | Colour shifts warmer and darker; no true white |
| Metallised or holographic board | Printed proof on the actual stock | A screen proof cannot show ink over a reflective base |
| Black-through board | Printed proof on the actual stock | Surface darkness changes every colour |
| Spot colour central to the brand | Printed proof or a drawdown | Confirms the mixed ink against your reference |
| Foil, emboss or spot UV | Production-standard sample | Position and register need physical checking |
Check three things on any proof: that spot colours match under daylight rather than office lighting, that the smallest type is legible at final size, and that any shade swatch reads correctly beside the actual product. Approve in writing, and keep the approved proof.
What we need from you to quote a press
Four figures are enough for an accurate answer.
- Total quantity, and the quantity per design if the job has variants.
- Number of designs or shades sharing the same die line.
- Colour count: process, spot colours, and whether opaque white is needed.
- Board grade and weight, or a description of how the pack is sold.
With those we quote the press that suits the job rather than the one we would prefer to run, and say plainly where the alternative would be cheaper. File requirements for whichever press is used are the same and are set out in the artwork guidelines for print files.
Send us your quantity and colour count
With those two figures we can tell you which press we would quote, what it would cost at your volume, and where the next breakpoint sits.
Price starts from $0.30 per piece for large-volume orders. Final pricing depends on size, material, printing, and quantity.