Digital Labels vs Flexographic Labels: What Is The Difference?

So, what is the difference between digital printing and flexographic printing?

When printing custom labels there are two different types of label printers a consumer can use. Below we will talk about the advantage of each method of printing custom product labels.

Digital Labels Printing

The first option is digital labels, this is best for start up companies who don’t need a lot of labels at first. Or for consumer product testing with small product quantities. Usually this label printing is best for labels up to 8,000 labels, depending on the size of the label.

5 Advantages of digital labels

1. Digital label printing does not require plates to be made.
2. Printing your custom labels on a digital label printer can be cheaper for small quantities
3. The turn around time for digital label printing is about 3 days faster on average compared to flexographic printing.
4. There is minimal press set up time, saving you set up costs and additional plate fee charges.
5. It is possible to see your label printed before you print the entire run, for an affordable sample fee.

Flexographic Label Printing

The second label printing option is to choose a flexographic press. This label printing press is best for very large quantities of labels, and wholesale stickers. The reason this label printer is the best for large volumes of labels and stickers is because it can print faster, and is less expensive to operate once the job is set up.

5 Advantages of printing flexographic labels

1. When printing large volumes of labels and wholesale stickers the price is cheaper than digital label printing.
2. Flexographic label printing supports 100% accurate pantone color matching. Allowing you to choose any pantone color or custom color you want.
3. Kold foil labels can be printed on our flexographic label printer, digital labels cannot be printed with the kold foil material.
4. When printing your custom labels on a flexographic label printer you have more options to use different label materials like brown kraft paper, estate paper for wine labels, tamper evident materials, destructible labels, UL material, and other unique substrates.
5. A flexo label printing press can print unique custom labels like booklet labels, also known as peel and seal labels. This label is perfect for a customer who wants a hinge label, or a label that can peel off, to read more label instructions underneath the first surface. Another unique label is the pouch labels, great for powders, creams and lotions. Blister packaging labels for pharmaceutical companies can also be cut on this label press per your size and blister container.

 

Conclusion

Many sticker companies only have one of these label printer options, but here at Bay Tech label company we have both digital labels and flexographic label options for our customers.

Many private labels are printed both ways, but with a magnifying glass and a close eye it is possible to see the way a label was printed.

This about sums up the different between digital labels and flexographic label printing. As you can see there are different options and roads for each situation, so we hope this private label guide will help you to choose the right method of printing for your next product labels or custom stickers.

If you need flexible packaging, custom printed stickers, or blister packaging then you can rely on Bay Tech label company to help. Contact us today for a free product label quote now.