In the world of analog (pre-digital) packaging production, film and plates were—and, in many cases, still are—an important bridge between the customer, the Consumer Packaging Companies (CPC), and the print and converting provider. However, these two products are more than mere film and plate media. The processes and, more importantly, the skills used to image that media are really what ensures an acceptable end product.

The division of responsibilities during the transition to digital in commercial printing was split between the designer and the printer, with the help of increasingly “smarter” software to reduce some of the skill requirements. With the packaging transition it isn’t quite as easy. Understanding the complex relationship between machine, color, plates (in the case of flexo), and an extensive array of substrate media and the converting process is a skill that has been the purview of the prepress house for generations. In packaging, as was the case with commercial print, with the migration to digital printing the need for film and plates disappears. However, even with the advent of new imaging technologies, these core skills still play an important part of the process. So where do those responsibilities lie now and in the future?

Existing packaging prepress services saw this coming for a while and have been reinventing themselves to address the inevitable shift to digital. Their role has always been more than just the platemaker for the converter. In many cases it has been the liaison between the CPCs and the converter, since they managed the many variables that controlled the nuances in the platemaking process that ensured the expected results.