Silkscreen
Silkscreen is a suitable print for most paper bags from our e-shop, including wine bags, luxury bags with lamination or colored bags.
We offer printed paper bags from 100 pieces, in 1 to 6 colors, full-color CMYK, including gold and silver. Suitable print designs are logos, websites or brief information.
We can print only the front and back sides. It is necessary to maintain 2 cm spacing from the edges and from the bottom of the bag + approx. 9 cm spacing from the top, see article: 3 rules for preview placement.
What is silkscreen not suitable for?
First of all, it's the placement. Our technologies do not allow placing the preview in the margins.
We print on already manufactured paper eco bags, and due to the gluing of handles inside the bag, irregularities arise where we cannot place the print. Therefore, it is not possible to print in the handle area.
Screens wear out during printing and over time small impurities appear in the print. This usually happens with quantities over 1000 prints. To maintain the best quality, we often make new screens during printing of quantities higher than 1,000 pieces, which we no longer charge for. Not only for these reasons, the price of printing bags over 1,000 pieces no longer decreases. We prefer to carry out orders up to 1,000 pieces of paper bags with silkscreen and try to direct higher quantities to other technologies. In the case of printing on cotton bags, we carry out orders even over 5,000 pieces.
Laminated bags
We print on laminated bags using silkscreen. The compliance with edge spacing still applies, and there are additional limits here. For more complex designs or other requirements, we offer offset printing, but more about that next time...
Flexography
We offer flexography to customers for orders with 1,000 to 20,000 pieces. Usually these are simple, single-color designs. We are able to print a maximum of two colors in one design. However, they must not have precise or close overprint.
Flexography is only possible on kraft paper eco bags white and brown, not on colored kraft bags, luxury laminated or bags with cord handles, for example Sieny.
Flexographic machine
This is a time-tested machine into which the printer inserts bags one by one from one side. The machine prints quite briskly and the printer must center the bag placement in a relatively short time. The bag then passes between two cylinders, the larger cylinder has a printing plate attached to it (see article: printing plate) and the smaller one functions as counter-pressure.
Since the bag passes through "on its own" without firm attachment, the design may shift on the bags. These shifts (up to 3 mm) are still within the norm. Larger deviations and print correctness are checked by an assistant printer at the end of the machine who excludes poor prints.
Disadvantages of flexography
This technology cannot print on colored kraft bags, luxury laminated or bags with cord handles.
It is not possible to print overprint of two colors.
The entire machine needs to be washed before each new order, the plate positioned, paint poured and other machine properties set. This process takes over an hour, so it is not financially viable to offer flexography for orders with lower quantities of bags, i.e. under 500 pieces and in some print combinations under 1,000 pieces.
Difference in calculations between technologies
Now we'll move on to price calculations. We've put together two examples of inquiries and offers where you can see the difference in prices between both technologies.
1. Example – Kraft paper, 500-2000 pieces, single-sided, single-color
Common inquiry from a customer who writes to us directly via email:
"I'm looking for a white bag with twisted handle of size approx. 24x33 cm. My graphic has one color. I would like to print single-color. Please quote for 500, 1000 and 2000 pieces. Thank you
PS: I'm sending print data in .pdf in the attachment"
Our offer, for illustration we calculated flexography for 500 pieces and silkscreen for 2000 pieces:
In the table we can see that even at 500 pieces, flexography is still worthwhile. In this case, it's due to the low plate price. Moreover, silkscreen has faster delivery at 500 pieces.
Attached preview image with graphics, graphic size is 18x4 cm:
2. Example – Kraft paper, 1000-3000 pieces, single-sided, two-color
Customer inquiry that comes to us from the e-shop via the "REQUEST PRINTED BAG" button:
Our offer, for reference we also calculated silkscreen for 2000 pieces:
In all cases, flexography is ultimately cheaper. However, the price difference between technologies is not high, mainly due to the high cost of printing plates. Each color needs its own plate (see article about printing plates). The preview also contains a chargeable color, this item must be charged again for repeat orders.
These bags are dimensionally large and only 200 pieces fit in one package. Since we chose pallet transport to save the customer's financial resources, where the entire order fits on one pallet and the price differs only in the distance from our company, we listed regional prices instead of per-piece differences.
Attached preview image with graphics, graphic size is 22x32 cm:
How to submit an inquiry?
Choose a bag on our e-shop, through the "REQUEST A QUOTE" button in the product category. Or through the "REQUEST A QUOTE" button in the product detail. In both cases, it will direct you to this form. In the form, you choose the number of colors contained in your graphic and the quantities of bags. Then just confirm the anti-spam protection "I'm not a robot" and send your inquiry.
Our sales department will immediately send you a price calculation. At the same time, you will clarify printing data with us, which is important to provide in vectors (curves) so we can maintain 100% print quality.
If you need help with the e-shop, just write to [email protected]
We are always at your disposal and believe that our printed paper bags solution will bring you money savings, joy and benefit.
Don't hesitate to contact us
Customer line: +420 246 082 412
Showroom and warehouses – Taskahned.cz
PRINTSTEP s.r.o.
Taskahned, Průmyslová 1472/11 (former Barvy a laky premises)
102 00 Praha 15 – Hostivař
tel.: +420 246 082 412
mobile: +420 731 172 988
e-mail: [email protected]
