Flexo print revealed by all the videos serie to explore the world of flexo.

It is important to understand every feature of the flexo printing system – for labels or packaging– through its many essential contents to approach it without compromise.

Ongoing development in technology, care for details and a human capital standing out for professionalism and dedication: Flexo 24 has a know-how from over 40 years of experience in the field of photopolymer plates and flexo printing. For these reasons we now want to share with you all our secrets about the flexo world!

Flexo print revealed: all the videos to express your creativity and suit your print requirements.

By watching the videos of Flexo 24’s web series you will access various contents, like:

• information about flexo and the technology innovations of this field,
• useful tips for creatives, graphic designers and project supervisors,
• a tutorial to help you with the configuration of your plate for flexo printing, the configuration of your plate for flexo printing,
• with the creation of a file suitable for flexo printing,
• with the flexo calibration test and more besides!

Go to the Flexo 24 Youtube channel and check out all the videos from the web series!

You can view the Flexo 24 videos directly from this page or you can click on the icon in the screen and go to the Flexo24 Youtube page.

You can then follow the official Flexo 24 channel: click on SUBSCRIBE!

Through the exclusive contents we will discover Flexo 24’s distinctive high-level technology quality.

The complete web series of Flexo 24 – your partner in flexo:

• tutorial and insights on flexo printing,
• guides for the creation of your files suitable for flexo.

Flexo print with Flexo 24 – Ep. 0.1 – TRAILER

For Flexo 24 flexo printing means professionalism, high technology and top quality of the final product. Flexo 24 is the key to suit all the new production requirements of Creatives, Graphic designers and Project supervisors and can match the modern printing standards for packaging and labels.

About Flexo 24 - Flexo 24, Ep. 1.

Today, printing challenging 10-colour images is really possible: this is a great goal for packaging and for any other printed products. But Flexo 24 marks the beginning of a new era for flexo printing.

The constant evolution of plates – Flexo 24, Ep. 2.

Sets of printing plates supplied in 24 or 72 hrs, but 30 years to become what we are today: expertise and professionals to offer a top quality service.

Printing plates with a look to the future – Flexo 24, Ep. 3.

Flexo 24 is constant research and development. A technical department equipped with ever-evolving automated systems. Top quality materials for excellent digital plates. Our experts always know how to meet your needs in flexo.

High-tech flexibility – Flexo 24, Ep. 4.

A great technical expertise in flexo is the base of Flexo 24’s success. An exclusive B2B e-commerce that can count on next-generation production equipment.

Flexo 24: flexo print revolution – Flexo 24, Ep. 5.

Flexo 24 improves constantly the products offered to creatives, graphic designers and project supervisors thanks to the synergy of its day-to-day teamwork.

How to order your flexo plates – Flexo 24, Ep. 6. - FULL ENGLISH -

How to order your plates in 3 steps for a top quality packaging Flexo 24 is the most effective way to start your creative or technical print in a very fast time.

PDF tutorial for flexo printing (1 / 2) – Flexo 24, Ep. 7.

The first step to purchase your plates is to prepare a correct PDF file for your flexo printing set. On Flexo24.com a software that reads your PDF and checks more than 20 graphic features is available online to help you create correctly your flexo plate.

PDF tutorial for flexo printing (2 / 2) – Flexo 24, Ep. 8.

To create a PDF file suitable for flexo you will need some simple but important tips. Flexo 24 wants to share these tips with you to be your best partner to boost productivity. After you have checked the accuracy of your PDF print file you can proceed with your order.

Flexo plates in 24 hrs – Flexo 24, Ep. 9.

Digital flexo plates with Flexo 24. Two fully automated production lines for the engraving and processing of photopolymer plates: a next-generation technology to cut production time and costs. Flexo 24 produces perfect plates for national and international customers.

How to create a flexo plate – Flexo 24, Ep. 10.

Flexo 24 provides a turnkey service:

1. manage independently your own orders for flexo plates with a guarantee of a perfect, top-quality product;
2. calculate online the price for the best plates for your substrate;
3. navigate through a dedicated platform and make your payments safely.

Flexo 24 is the perfect partner for the success of your print project.

Flexo Customer Care - Flexo 24, Ep. 11.

Customer-oriented flexo plates. You can get in touch with our customer care by phone, through the online chat, by email or through the social media to have your questions about flexo answered.

Calibrated flexo printing machines – Flexo 24, Ep. 12. - FULL ENGLISH -

Calibrated flexo printing machines thanks to the calibration test by Flexo 24, the best system to set your compensation curve for the dot gain value. Set it from the first stage of your order to purchase flexo plates for packaging or labels.

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Flexo plates for every substrate – Flexo 24, Ep. 13.

Flexo for packaging, labels or flexibles printing? Flexo 24 provides plates suitable for the main 5 flexo substrates: paper and paperboard, plastic film, aluminium and adhesive paper, carton, tissue. Next-generation flexo machines and field experts are the key for Flexo 24’s success and uniqueness!

Tutorial on substrates in flexo printing – Flexo 24, Ep.

Flexo print on paper? Be it on calendered or on rough paper, Flexo 24’s digital photopolymer plates will always guarantee the best print results in flexo and the best colour performance. Get top-quality results without compromise.

Flexo plates for labels – Flexo 24, Ep. 15.

To each print application its own plate! Printing on labels always requires extra care not only in selecting the features of the right flexo plate, but also when you prepare your file at the pre-press stage, which requires some caution.

Tutorial on tissue printing: no secrets! - Flexo 24, Ep. 16.

Flexo print on tissue? Though tissue is very similar to paper, its main features are roughness and absorbency. The production of a flexo printing plate for this type of substrate requires some specific care when you create your file.

How to get successful packaging results – Flexo 24, Ep. 17.

Packaging-mania! The plate makes a difference in flexo printing. Choose yours according to the substrate you will be printing on!

Flexo specialists / professionals – Flexo 24, Ep. 18.

For Flexo 24 flexo printing means professionalism. Supervised workflows, certified measurement tools, care for every detail. Order your plates online with Flexo 24, it’s easy and fast.

What is the moiré effect? – Flexo 24, Ep. 19.

Rely on our specialists if you want to be sure to achieve excellent print results! Flexo 24 guarantees to supply products studied in every single detail using top-quality materials with a confidence from over 30 years of experience in the flexo market. Plates and photopolymer digital plates at the highest level.

Tailored flexo print – Flexo 24, Ep. 20.

Packaging, plastic film or paper printing: with Flexo 24 productivity is under control! Your flexo plates can be tailored to meet the most unusual requirements.

Purchase your flexo plates online – Flexo 24, Ep. 21.

With Flexo 24 graphic studios and production managers can easily start the production of flexo plates with just a few clicks with the guarantee of getting a top-quality product.

How to increase production at lower costs – Flexo 24, Ep. 22.

The engraved plates are incredibly versatile and can print on many different types of substrate. This is one of the reasons why many printers shifted their production to flexo printing. And on top of that, flexo printing allows to increase production at lower costs with a guarantee of optimization of production times and costs.

The human capital – Flexo 24, Ep. 23.

Flexo 24 is not just modern e-commerce, innovative procedures and cutting-edge technology, but it is mainly a team of specialists always at your service. At Flexo 24 we are ‘flexo’ people, and we are ready to answer any of your questions and doubts.

Flexo 24: evolution in progress – Flexo 24, Ep. 24.

We made a precise choice: providing our customers with flexo plates to get the best print results. Evolution is always in progress at Flexo 24: we are confident that tomorrow, just like today, we will be able to offer the best solution for your flexo application on any substrate.

Start now and become a customer of Flexo 24: make up your own plates!

1. Flexo 24 has a pre-flight software that prepares files for producing your flexo plate.

To generate pdf files for the production of photopolymer plates, different types of programs are available. Some of these are:

ArtPro, a software distributed by Esko and designed to generate pdf files for flexo. Esko is a leading company in the creation and distribution of software and hardware in the field of flexo printing.

The most popular is Adobe Illustrator by Adobe System, the mother company of the PDF file format. Unlike ArtPro, Illustrator does not have built-in tools for generating high-precision pdf files. CorelDRAW Technical Suite 2017 is a very sophisticated professional platform for creating pdf files. A free trial version is available.

2. In the pdf for flexo printing, objects and images with some tonal range are screened.

The pdf file for flexo printing should be prepared correctly and accurately in order to avoid unexpected and undesirable print results. We recommend that a pdf file for flexo printing should include objects and images as vectors (converted into curves) and not rasterized.
The main difference between vector and raster:

• the rasterized format is made up of a series of pixels and is re-processed by the output device.
• If the file uploaded contains full-tone images (greyscale, CMYK or RGB), these will be screened.

PRO TIP

If the file contains full-tone images, these will be screened. Please note: RGB or LAB images will be converted into CMYK with a standard ISO Fogra39 profile, therefore print results cannot be predicted.
Convert images before including them. We also recommend that the resolution of images added to pdf documents be created according to the following equation: Resolution (DPI) = LPI x 2 LPI. Screen ruling in inches used to process the plates/prints.
Example. If you print at 150 LPI (60 LCM), the equation will be: 150 x 2 = 300 DPI i.e., your 1:1 image must have a 300 DPI resolution.
If the LPI/DPI ratio is much higher than 0.5, the printed result will be very "blurred” because the RIP will make an interpolation of the image to obtain the missing information. Only CMYK or Pantone colors images are allowed.
Before exporting, place onto the art board the images that will be rasterized at Resolution (DPI) = LPI x 2.

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3. Minimum dimension of texts in the pdf files for flexo plates.

According to the current regulations, the minimum size of text allowed on the smallest packages is 0.9 mm referred to the lowercase "x". This dimension is independent of the points of the font size, because every font family is different even if they have the same size in points.

PRO TIP

The dimension of the smallest text should be increased to larger than that prescribed by the current regulations if it is printed in reverse and with colour because it will tend to "close up".
Printing texts in reverse with a plate thickness of 1.14 mm with UV inks on film allows very fine texts and details to be reproduced.
For example, the same result is not granted by printing with a 2.84 mm thickness plate with water-based inks on paper or cardboard. This is because the liquid ink and the absorbent material together with the printing pressure generate some friction with the final substrate and cause the ink to overflow.

4. The pdf contains fonts: we recommend converting them.

If your artwork contains some texts, we recommend converting them into curves before exporting the pdf to achieve reliable plate processing. In the workflow, the RIP will check the exact match of the fonts and if a match is lacking, the fonts will not be replaced and the pdf will be blocked.

To avoid re-generating the files due to any mismatches, the system only accepts the pdf format:

• with fonts included,
• or, if this is not possible, with fonts converted into curves.

As indicated in the post for the pre-flight software.

5. Texts and objects must be overprinted to avoid a wrong trapping and undesirable print results.

To generate the pdf files to process your flexo plates, we also recommend setting the trappings. Trappings are trims created around each color to avoid blank outlines in the event of mis-registration. According to the type of printing press and to the thickness of the plate used, the lightest colour should be extended inside the darkest colour.

PRO TIP

When possible, we recommend overprinting texts and objects onto the background to avoid mis-registration issues.

6. Imposition to increase production volume.

Through the online software, you can upload pdf files up to 123 x 203 cm, 50” x 80”. Inside this area, you can include more repetitions to increase your production volume.

PRO TIP

Staggered repetitions/lanes allow a smooth cylinder rotation and avoid bumps and related unprinted areas.

7. Compensate normal plate distortion.

Asymmetric scaling is useful to process a plate for flexo printing. If you know the direction the plate will be mounted onto the press drum, scaling can compensate for normal plate distortion. Scaling does not affect the size of the pages in the document, it merely changes the scale at which the pdf to upload onto online software is generated.

PRO TIP

It may be useful to use the online calculation sheet.

8. Exporting your pdf to create a flexo plate.

The exported pdf must always include all the colors used in the original file, in your project file:

• the Pantone colors, if any,
• any special colors, for example white or varnish
• in addition to the CMYK colors, if used.

PRO TIP

Once you have uploaded your pdf into the configurator, the online software analysis will generate the previews with the ink/channel name. If your project does not need it, you can disable the color already when exporting: this will increase the response speed.

Start now and become a Flexo 24 customer: create your own plate!