John Sarik

Package printers still put metallic inks to work more often than other specialty formulations, but printing with custom-blended colors is even more commonplace. By Kate Tomlinson, Assistant Editor TWO YEARS AGO, packagePRINTING's annual ink usage survey asked tag and label, flexible packaging, and folding carton converters to identify their top specialty inks choices. The response was overwhelmingly in favor of metallic inks—83 percent of respondents had put metallics to work during 1998. pP's 2001 survey revisited this topic to find not much has changed. Due to some new options in specialty ink, usage percentages are spread over a wider spectrum, but metallics are still