Guide to Restaurant Packaging

When selecting single-use packaging for your cafe or restaurant, the general rule is that paper is always better than plastic. 

Between PMS, CMYK, HEX, and RGB, it can feel like you’re reciting the alphabet and it can all get confusing quickly. Where Pantone and CMYK are for printed materials, HEX Codes and RGB Codes are both ways to represent colors digitally, by using different number systems.

With some types of high speed production of printing ink on paper, it can take time to get your printed artwork ‘up to spec’ to where it looks good enough to be approved by the press operator. And this can take less or more time than anticipated. 

‘Halftones’ is a printing technique used in many printing processes (including offset, flexo and screen printing) that uses a series of small, closely spaced dots to create the illusion of a gradient.

Offset printing is a technique in which the image is transferred, or “offset,” from a printing plate to a rubber blanket to the paper. It’s called "offset" because the ink is not transferred directly from the plate to the printing surface, as it is with something like letterpress printing.

Two of the most common printing styles are with Spot Colors and CMYK. Previously, we discussed in this post, spot colors refer to a single solid color to print with. A print job can have multiple spot colors. Usually spot colors are printed using the Pantone (PMS) color system that allows for consistent color outcomes across various orders. 

Screen printing, or silk screen printing, is a printing method where a fine mesh screen is stretched across a frame and ink is placed into the screen. Screen printing is done one color at a time. So each screen will be printing only one of the design colors. That’s why you’ll have one screen setup cost per color, per print location. The most common items that use screen printing are t-shirts, hoodies, apparel, reusable water bottles, and metal signage.

Letterpress is a printing technique used to create a 3D impression on paper. With letterpress printing, when you pass your fingers over the art, you’ll physically feel the design. It uses an inked, raised plate, pressed against paper. It’s often used in the production of high end invitations, business cards, notecards and for some retail packaging. You know, the ones that make you comment on how nice of a card it is when you’re holding it. Letterpress is printing that you can feel.

 

For those of you taking part in the launching of a new cafe or bakery, one of the more important aspects will be the design of your brands’ identity. And although you may want everything to be branded with your gorgeous design, it may be wise to scale down the number of custom printed supplies when just starting out.