Corrugated Printing Made Simple: 3 Ways to Customize Your Boxes

Creating eye-catching, colorful packaging isn’t just a fun way to distinguish your brand from the competition. A recent study published by the Journal of Marketing in 2025 shows that bold colors still increase consumer interest across a wide range of industries. But before you start designing a new look for your corrugated mailer boxes or other packaging, consider what printing method you’ll use to apply it. The printing method can affect the details of the design, such as requiring color separation for multi-step processes, making it a good choice to choose one from the start.

1. Digital Printing

For most of today’s modern packaging orders, digital printing is simply the best choice. It’s a direct to package surface, single-pass printing method for accurate and rapid results from a variety of design files and formats.. There’s less set-up required, making it a flexible fit for small print orders and packaging that is custom printed with customer or seasonal details.

But the benefits of digital corrugated printing don’t stop there. It’s an affordable option due to the ability to order small runs without extensive set-up fees. If there’s a need to change the design over time, it’s a relatively straightforward process since there are no plates to alter or reproduce. Running off a few test packages to compare is affordable and quick. You can see how your packaging looks and feels in person before committing to a bigger order. That’s an unbeatable benefit for most start-ups, entrepreneurs, and expanding brands.

You’re also not limited in your color options when you work with digital printing. Flexographic and lithographic printing methods both apply color in separate passes. With digital printing, all the colors are applied in one pass. Complex or even photographic level printing won’t dramatically raise the cost of production or add extra lead time to the process. This method offers quality equal to or nearly equal to lithographic printing, combined with greater flexibility and cost savings.

It works well for long-term and ongoing printing projects as well. Although it’s a good choice for testing designs and ordering short runs, it's a great choice for speeding up large runs and allowing for changes as needed mid-order. There’s no need to worry about wasting resources or waiting long periods for small adjustments to the design. Only digital files are needed to complete the printing process, streamlining the process by cutting out an entire preparation stage between design and execution.

The adaptability of the digital method makes it the right choice for corrugated printing. You can move quickly from idea to design to printing, with no delays for plate creation or alteration. If you’re planning to make a lot of changes to your packaging over time or as your brand grows, digital printing will likely serve you best when dealing with corrugated materials.

2. Flexographic Printing

For simpler designs that need to be printed at great volumes and at top speed, flexographic printing remains a good option. It’s a versatile printing method that works well with corrugated materials, conforming to textured or uneven surfaces without issue. Packaging companies like Box Genie develop a number of polymer plates that each feature one color of the entire design. Attaching the plates to large rotating cylinders allows for rapid and accurate printing. Each cylinder and plate produces a different color, eventually completing the design in a multi-pass process. However, today’s flexographic printing processes allow for up to 10 colors to be added per pass. That means it’s a quicker way to produce multi-color prints than many packaging buyers expect.

It’s not a method capable of producing photo-quality printing or incredibly intricate designs. However, it has enough resolution to produce fine text, quality graphics, and accurate reproductions of thin lines. For many large volume orders where speed and replicability are key, it’s a good fit. You’ll get consistent results over hundreds of thousands of packages printed without the need for new plates. Fast-drying ink is automatically applied as the polymer plates are rotated by the cylinders, reducing the chance for misaligned or smudged artwork. In the end, you get a quality packaging look in a hurry, even when ordering in large volumes.

3. Lithographic Printing

Lithographic printing involves a slightly different process for applying graphics that can provide photo-quality reproductions even on corrugated materials. It’s also known as offset printing or litho-lamination. Yet, unlike digital or flexographic printing methods, it’s not always applied directly to the surface of a corrugated packaging material. Instead, it’s often printed on a label or thin sheet of material that’s attached to the corrugated material. This creates a crisp and high-quality print while still producing the desired effects on the finished package. It’s not just glued on in most cases, but actually laminated onto the surface as a full wrap layer.

When you need sharp text, exact accuracy, and beautiful and vibrant photographic images, lithographic printing is the best option. Color-specific plates are developed, and then a rubber blanket method is used to transfer ink from them onto the label material. Since there are more steps to transfer the ink in the lithographic method than with flexographic printing, a run that uses this method will take longer to complete. However, the high-quality results are usually worth the extra wait. Digital printing offers the same quality in many situations, but some designs may still benefit from the quality offered by traditional lithographic methods.

Choosing a Printing Method

No matter which method you choose for corrugated printing, you really can’t go wrong. Still, there are benefits to choosing each method in specific scenarios, depending on what you want from your packaging. In general, digital printing will offer you the best balance of benefits for most corrugated packaging designs. However, there may be situations where you want traditional plate printing instead and must choose between lithographic and flexographic options.

For Speed

Flexographic printing is the fastest method for large volumes. Yet don’t discount the rapid setup provided by digital printing. Both are good choices for getting packages in a hurry when you realize you need to make an order without a long turnaround time. Lithographic printing requires the longest set-up time, but the flat plates used for it last longer without losing quality than flexographic plates.

By Volume

Digital printing can work well for small to medium volumes, but the cost drops for large volumes by switching to flexographic or lithographic printing. The limitation is that you’ll be using the same design for the whole volume since plates are made and used over and over again to save money. If you want to place smaller orders or change your designs often, digital printing will save money in the long run by reducing plate creation and updating costs.

By Design Complexity

For photographic designs and dense blocks of text that need great legibility, stick with lithographic printing. If it’s too slow or expensive for your plans, digital printing will give you nearly the same level of quality in almost all cases. You can also optimize your designs for the best results with digital printing, including by adjusting it after a small test run, which isn’t so easy with traditional lithographic methods.

What Can Complicate Printing on Corrugated Material?

Corrugated materials offer protection and crush resistance that make them ideal for shipping most products. However, the surface requires care during printing, which is why certain printing methods are recommended for these materials. You can easily get crisp edges and aligned prints by using one of these three printing methods, despite the slightly uneven surface. If you're working with a porous surface, the packaging experts at Box Genie will match the right ink to the job for even coverage and rapid drying. This prevents any concerns about warping or wrinkling during the drying process.

Using digital printing also protects the corrugated material from being damaged by bending or pressure from plates during the printing process. But lithographic and flexographic printing work as well for making accurate prints on corrugated materials when you choose a printing team that knows how to handle these materials. Don't let the challenges of corrugated printing stop you from using a packaging material that relies on it. With the right process, you can not only print decorative designs on the exterior of the corrugate sheeting, but also dielines and markings that help indicate packaging assembly details during later stages.

Achieving Perfect Packaging

There’s no need to make the decision all on your own if you’re not a packaging expert. Work with the Box Genie team to find the right solution for every stage of packaging printing. You might even decide to combine multiple methods in one project to create crisp lithographic labels for some sections and quicker digital printing on others. Contact us today to start designing better packaging and achieving eye-catching designs even on corrugated materials.