Top 4 Printing Techniques For Designing Custom Tea Boxes

When printing on packaging boxes, make sure that your packaging layout lets your products stand out from the competition. So, design your tea boxes to make them capable of alluring potential buyers and also drive more sales. Have you ever wondered why all the printed packaging boxes don’t look the same? This is because there are various techniques for box printing and each one of them offers a distinctive appearance to the boxes.

As printing has evolved too much over the years, thus understanding the basics of different techniques is helpful in making the right choice for designing your custom boxes. Let’s plunge into each option and discover the best one for your boxes!

What Are The Latest Printing Techniques For Tea Boxes?

Printing is essential for creating high-quality, attractive and sales-winning custom tea boxes. Therefore, various printing techniques are available in the market that offer ingenious ways for uplifting the visual appeal of product boxes. The four most preferred printing techniques are;

• Offset lithography
• Flexography
• Screen printing
• Digital printing

Offset Lithography:

A combination of two old printing methods i.e., offset and lithography, this printing technique is the most ancient and traditional way of designing packaging boxes. However, this indirect printing method offers versatility and also produces high image quality.

Working Mechanism:

This is a two-step method whose first step involves the engraving of images to be printed on aluminum plates. Secondly, these plates are inked and pressed against rubber rollers, from where the image is then transferred onto the tea packaging box surface.

A high-quality oil-based ink is used for printing designs, whereas water is used to prevent the ink from coloring the areas not to be printed. Besides, a silicone layer can also be used to prevent ink from reaching the areas where you don’t have to print any designs.

Pros:

• High quality image results
• Suitable for printing on various material surfaces
• Support the application of finishing layers
• Perfect for printing large volume of boxes

Cons:

• Not appropriate for producing short run custom boxes
• Expensive method
• Support only flat surface printing

Flexography:

Mostly used in the printing of food packaging, this technique transfers the print directly from flexible plates onto the stock surface. Box designers use oil-based as well as water-based inks in this method. Additionally, this method is preferable for printing of wholesale tea packaging as it offers low cost and fast turnaround rate. However, unfortunately it doesn’t produce superior quality results.

Working Mechanism:

Derived from letterpress printing, this printing method uses a direct approach and firstly the image is directly engraved onto rubber plates using a laser beam. The ink is then transferred from a chamber to the rubber roller which directly applies it onto the printing surface, removing the excess of it.

Pros:

• Cost-effective procedure
• Supports printing on various stock types
• Print multiple colors quickly and at a time
• Good for printing complex designs
• Suitable for large volume printing

Cons:

• Image quality is not so fine
• Color gradation is not smooth and seamless

Screen Printing:

More like an artwork, this printing technique is very powerful and also reliable to produce clear and sharp images or text on the wholesale tea boxes. However, this method uses multiple screens to produce a multicolor image as a single screen can print only one color. Furthermore, this printing method is suitable for the brands that use pre-made or stock packaging.

Working Mechanism:

This technique is usually used for printing promotional or marketing content. In this method, the machine uses a mesh with stencil on its top to print the images. Hence, a mesh covers the material surface and the ink is pushed onto it through stencil using squeegees. Last but not least, this technique is popular among the brands who want affordable and professional looking bulk tea boxes.

Pros:

• Employable on broad range of materials
• Supports printing on non-flat surfaces
• Produce high quality print images and long-lasting results
• Cost-effective method

Cons:

• Slow production rate
• Not viable for long-run orders
• Single color printing at a time
• Need separate screens and mesh designs for every project

Digital Printing:

The key points of this method also known as inkjet printing are efficiency and precision in the design. Digital printing has observed a rapid growth in recent years and due to its high-quality image production it is gaining more popularity day by day. Nowadays, printers used in homes and workplaces use this printing technique which is the future of printing without any doubt. However, laser or inkjet printers are used for printing large format or large quantities of custom tea packaging boxes.

Working Mechanism:

This very straightforward method involves the direct transfer of image from device onto the surface of custom tea boxes. Although, it is time consuming, costly and needs expertise but produces amazing results. Moreover, 3D printing achieved through the digital printing method has no substitute and has revolutionized the whole packaging industry.

Pros:

• Quality of image production is so high
• No need for printing plates
• Low cost per unit for short-run orders

Cons:

• Not suitable for long-run projects
• Doesn’t support application of all add-ons
• Expensive for high volume printing
• Color matching is so difficult
• Doesn’t support the use of metallic ink