The more area on your packaging covered with color, the more expensive each piece becomes. However, if you want a dark background, there's a trick to get almost the same effect for less money.
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What full-surface printing means
Full-surface printing means not just applying a logo but coloring the entire surface – for example, the whole lid of a pizza box in dark green or black.
It looks elegant but has a practical downside. In digital printing, each box is colored individually. More coverage simply means more color, and color is the most expensive part of digital printing. Also, the machine runs slower with heavy color application because the ink needs to dry. Both factors increase the unit price.
The trick: think in reverse
Instead of coloring the entire area and leaving your logo light, you can do it the other way around: the cardboard stays as it is, and only your design is printed. Brown kraft paper with a rich black logo often looks even more premium than a fully printed surface – and costs significantly less.
Examples:
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If the effect of a colored background is still important to you, there's a middle ground. A wide color bar at the top edge, a colored circle behind the logo, or a pattern with lots of free space in between – this adds color without covering the entire surface.
We'll show you both
You don't have to try it yourself. Send us your design, and we'll create a free preview showing how it would look the other way around. Then you can see side by side what the variant looks like visually and what it does to the price. We'll also handle adjusting the print file.
In short
A lot of color coverage costs more, especially in digital printing.
A design on unprinted cardboard is the cheaper and often more attractive option.
Partial areas like bars or circles are a good compromise.
If you like, send us your design and tell us which effect is important to you. We'll then tell you where you can save without it looking cheap.
