Inkjet printing is now part of many industrial print applications, including wide-format signage, tile printing, and label printing. In the packaging world, inkjet supports both conventional label printing and an intriguing alternate to it—the direct digital printing of bottles, cans, and tubes. This so-called “direct-to-shape” printing is a virtuoso use of inkjet, one that takes advantage of inkjet’s unique ability to print curved, non-porous surfaces with full-color images directly, with no intermediate paper or film substrate.

While direct-to-shape printing is also used to output on actual products (e.g., personalized or promotional gifts like balls, pens, or water bottles), this article focuses on direct-to-shape printing for packaging. Within this market, digital printing is generally growing as a complement to offset, flexo, and other analog presses that print labels, folding cartons, flexible packaging, and corrugated. To better explain this still-developing use of inkjet, let’s consider some basic questions about it.

This application is primarily found cylindrical packaging (e.g., bottles, cans, and to a much smaller extent plastic tubes). As a result, beverages like beer, soft drinks, and mineral water are all candidates for direct-to-shape printing, as are the various cosmetics and other products sold in squeeze tubes. The receiving surfaces are slick and non-porous, and include polyethylene, aluminum, and polypropylene.