Christian Becker

Developments in presses and ancillary equipment have made gravure's consistency and vibrancy viable for short runs. by Jessica Millward, Associate Editor Call it the "me" generation of packaging. Individualized, shorter runs are on the it-list of customers across the gamut of package printing processes. Fifteen years ago, this wasn't particularly good news for gravure, the king of long-runs. The larger set-up costs and longer pre-production time involved in printing with cylinders rendered "short-run gravure" a near-oxymoron. The evolution of quicker-change presses and innovative ways of engraving, however, has introduced gravure into the shorter-run arena. And with set-up costs on a steady decline,