What Is Digital Printing?

Digital printing allows you to take an image and transfer it directly onto the surface of a substrate without printing plates. This can be a cost-effective method of branding your packaging to create a memorable unboxing experience. The key advantages of digital printing in comparison to traditional methods include reducing lead times, increasing personalization options at scale and shortening production runs. Digital printing on boxes is about more than pretty aesthetics — it can turn a bland cardboard package into a moment of joy for your customers.

Types of Digital Printing

There are many different types of digital printing, from inkjet and laser printing to solid ink, dye sublimation and digital press printing. Each type serves a different purpose and caters to various media, such as paper, fabric and plastics. Typically, inkjet and laser printing are used to customize packaging. 

With digital printing, it is easy to modify a digital file and use it across the media you intend to print on. This reduces the amount of work and resources needed to put together your branded packaging assets.

Most digital printing for packaging is done using a high-volume printing press. Initial prototypes or proofs could be printed on smaller machines, but when it comes to digital printing on cardboard boxes, regular printers would not be able to cope with the thickness of the cardboard and the volume of boxes to be printed.

Benefits of Digital Printing on Boxes

There are many benefits of digital printing on corrugated boxes, including:

Easy upgrades: You can easily add text, images and QR codes without the need for retooling. This transforms your boxes into effective marketing tools that excite customers. 
Rectify errors: Quickly update your digital file image to make corrections with minimal impact on production.
Full-color graphics: Digital printing offers vibrant, high-resolution images that can cover 97% of Pantone colors. This means you can replicate your brand colors and create a standout package.
Reduced lead times: Working with just-in-time production, digital printing makes it easy to create seasonal variations or promotional versions of your business’s boxes without new tooling or prepressing. 
Shorter production runs: Digital printing methods enable on-demand printing and are ideal for shorter production runs. 
Lower cost per unit: Digital printing can offer a lower cost per unit for smaller quantities of printed boxes because printing plates and cutting dies are not required.
Boost your social media presence: Because digitally printed boxes are fully customizable, you can easily tap into social media trends and update your packaging to give your target audience a unique experience. Users may share your product through unboxing videos, increasing its reach. 
Keep customers coming back: Digital printing on boxes allows you to create a bespoke experience that exceeds your customers’ expectations and makes you stand out from competitors by showing attention to detail.

How Digital Printing Works

Digital printing on cardboard boxes is a relatively simple process because it skips some of the steps used in traditional printing. Here’s how it works:

Choosing boxes: Consider the type of boxes or packaging that you’re using. A custom box manufacturer can help you find the most efficient style, dimensions and strength of box for your business. At this stage, it is also important to consider what color of cardboard to use to print your design on.
Designing images: Once you’ve decided on the right boxes, you can design the images you want to apply to them. Your design team can do this, or you can source help from in-house experts at a custom box manufacturer. Your file must have a high enough resolution for it to display on your packaging with maximum impact.
Getting set up: Next, using the final digital image, your custom box manufacturer gets all the technical aspects of digital printing set up correctly. This includes adding bleed and crop marks to the printing outline and maximizing the use of substrate space to reduce resource requirements.
Sending the file to the printers: The completed digital file is converted into the optimal format for your packaging and is sent to the printers to start production.

Digital Printing Trends

Many e-commerce sellers are already using digital printing to customize their boxes and enhance their users’ experience. These trends are influencing how businesses are using digital printing for packaging:

Increasing Personalization

Creating standout branded packaging can elevate your product, give it a more luxurious feel and help you justify a higher price point. Personalized packages also create moments of surprise for your customers and make them more likely to remember your brand. You can add names or other unique features based on your customer segments.  

Printing on All Sides of the Box

You also need to think inside the box. Another digital printing trend is printing on all sides of a cardboard box, inside and out, to reinforce branding and extend the unboxing experience. This gives you more room to consider other packaging trends, such as implementing QR codes with user guides. 

Prioritizing Sustainability

Sustainability is more than a buzzword — it is a necessity when it comes to packaging. According to one sustainability report, more than 90% of consumers say sustainability is an important consideration when choosing a brand. Additionally, 20 of the largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) manufacturers are committing to 100% recycled packaging by 2030. 

Digital printing can help you align with your customers’ desire for sustainable packaging, partly because of its streamlined process, which naturally creates less waste than traditional methods. Digital print is also effective for emphasizing your eco-friendly efforts, such as touting the benefits of plastic-free packaging on your box. 

Design Quality Custom Packaging for Your Business at Bolt Boxes

Digital printing offers many advantages for businesses that need a cost-effective way to create a smaller quantity of colorful branded boxes. With reduced lead times and quicker and easier modifications, digital printing is one method for creating memorable unboxing moments for your customers. Reaching out to a manufacturer offering digital printing on boxes frees up your time and resources spent on packaging while still ensuring quality and fast delivery times. 

Bolt Boxes is the fastest custom box manufacturer in the world, and we have more than 60 years of experience helping businesses safely ship their products. We also prioritize sustainability and use 100% recyclable kraft boxes containing 60-95% post-consumer waste. We make everything in-house, so you can get super-fast service with tighter quality control than businesses that outsource many parts of the process. See our exacting standards for yourself, and get in touch with us today!