Top-Class Finishing Trend Covered at drupa 2008

In the run-up to drupa 2008, the world's finishing experts agree that highly finished packaging materials is a trend that can't be denied. The drupa print media fair, running from May 29 to June 11 in Düsseldorf, promises to offer everything package designers' and printing service providers' hearts desire.

The combination of printing inks, the appropriate printing substrates, the right printing machinery and finishing technologies, as well as the industry's innovative drive, is unparalleled and stimulates vital impetus for the future development of packaging printing.

The European packaging printers and finishers are pulling out the stops—all in aid of a result that's shiny and chic. Gold and silver dominate, but other metallic effects also catch the eye. Varnish, UV varnish, matt and gloss varnish, foil-stamping, cold foil, rapid-drying inks—all of these are finishing effects intended to entice customers into purchasing at the point of sale. Printers are able to work on all surfaces, on the broadest spectrum of substrates; in fact, it's impossible to try and put a figure on just how wide that spectrum is.

Sheet-fed offset packaging printing is regarded as the most highly industrialized of the individual segments—the range of printable substrates is broad and extends from corrugated board and plastics in every imaginable thickness to tin plate, composites, lightweight/heavy/ double-sided paper, and paperboard. Gravure printing is big in China and Japan, above all because of the large print runs common in those countries. For more information on drupa 2008, visit www.drupa.de.