What is direct printing? Direct flexo prints onto the corrugated sheet after it has been made, usually in one or two colors. It is the most common and most economical route for shipping cartons, and it handles simple logos, handling marks and barcodes well. Fine gradients and small text are where it struggles.
What is preprint? Preprint runs the linerboard through a press before it is glued into corrugated board, so the print sits on a smooth continuous surface. Quality is noticeably better than direct print, but the process needs volume to be worthwhile, which puts it out of reach for most small orders.
What is litho-lamination? An offset-printed sheet is laminated onto the corrugated board afterwards. It gives the highest print quality available on corrugated, including photographic images and full coverage, at a real cost premium and with more handling steps. Retail-ready and display cartons are the usual application.
How does flute choice interact with print? Coarser flutes telegraph their ridges through the surface, which shows as a washboard effect across solid areas. Finer flutes print better but cost more and change the strength profile. That trade-off is explained in the guide to choosing corrugated flutes.
How should you choose? Match the route to quantity and artwork. Simple one or two color marks on a protective shipping carton rarely justify preprint. Full-color retail graphics usually do. Digital print on corrugated now covers the short-run middle ground, at a higher unit cost. Routes are compared in the overview of printing methods.
What does it do to cost and lead time? Each additional route adds a process step, and litho-lamination adds both material and labor. Setup is front-loaded, so unit price falls sharply as quantity rises. Where that money goes is broken down in the box cost breakdown.
What should you send when enquiring? The artwork, the quantity, whether the carton is retail-facing or purely protective, and how many colors. That is enough for a supplier to recommend a route instead of quoting whatever they happen to run. Structural basics sit in the corrugated box basics guide.
Chengtop produces corrugated shipping boxes, folding cartons and custom inserts at our plant in Wuhan. Send quantity, artwork and destination through the quote request page and we will come back with a quote.
