Smart Color Selection: A Key to Lowering Your Custom Packaging Expenses

There is no doubt color is crucial for the presentation of a product, according to research published on Emerald, “Impact of color on marketing” around 60 to 90 percent of the assessment of the product is based on color alone. Though as a packaging buyer, it’s essential for you to know a lesser number of colors is cheaper to print on packaging boxes than more colors.

So, you need to balance the cost with the number of colors to get the optimum result in the design. If you select artwork for your packaging that demands to use more than 4 color processes, it will cost you more for the extra 1 to 2 colors. 

Here is your guide to selecting the appropriate printing colors that will reduce the packaging cost surprisingly. 

Relationship between Colors and Cost

1 Color Printing: In this process, a single solid color is applied to the packaging to print the artwork or logo of your brand.  

2 or 3 Color Printing: In this process, two or 3 colors are mixed together to print the required colors on the packaging. 

CMYK Printing: It indicates four color printing in which cyan, magenta, yellow, and black are used to print the artwork on the packaging boxes. 

Spot Printing: In spot printing, specific shapes are formed by pre-mixed recipes for the printing process. 

The cost of printing correlates with the number of colors, when you use more color for your packaging design to print, the more will be the cost or vice versa.  

Have the Same Effect by Reducing Colors

When your designer creates an effect in the artwork with 4 colors in combination with 1 or 2 spot colors, you are going to be charged for 6 printing colors. To reduce the 6 colors to 4 colors, you need to convert the spot color to process printing (CMYK printing) to get the same effects. 

Spot colors are more vivid as compared to the effect created by CMYK. If the specific spot color is not the primary color of your brand or logo, you can go with the four-color printing options. 

Difference between Spot Colors and 4 Color Printing Process

Spot Colors

A printing process usually consists of 4 to 6 units that have their separate plate to transfer the specific spot color on the paper. These colors are matched by using Panton Book to get a more vivid and brighter result. When you see them through the magnifying glass, you will never notice any dots.  

4 Color Process 

This is suitable for printing artwork with different images. It uses a CMYK combination to produce the required color. It does not need a pre-mixed recipe as this printing process is based on a subtractive mechanism, where in-line four units on the press will release inks in the given percentage to create the image on cardboard paper. 

Conclusion 

When your design is at the earlier stages of development, be connected with your packaging supplier to get the desired visual effects at lower cost implications. If the spot colors are not the primary color of your brand, you can achieve the same effect through the CMYK printing process. Though that will not be as clear as the spot color but will provide you with nearly the same result at affordable prices.