By Cassandra Balentine
Part one of three
The addition of digital manufacturing lines to a traditional label converting house brings in additional opportunities for shorter run work. For those considering this move, many factors come into play.
Mike Pruitt, senior product manager, professional imaging, Epson America, Inc., believes digital presses perform best with a steady flow of smaller, frequent jobs, meaning a print shop may need to adjust their approach to secure many smaller jobs, and, over time, integrate web to print systems to maintain throughput and profitability.
James Thomas, head of sales and business development, Focus Label, suggests first moving any viable short to medium runs from flexographic to digital. Look to existing customers to see if digital work can be obtained from them.
The biggest challenges for traditional label converters moving to digital involve capital investment, workflow adaptation, staff training, and sales strategy. “Given the cost of new industrial digital label equipment, it must have an return on investment (ROI) to justify replacing paid off productive machinery,” says Pruitt.
Pruitt adds that digital presses are always ready and require constant workflow to ensure optimal results. While they may require less manual labor than analog machines, operators must maintain consistent, precise routines to keep the technology running at peak performance.
Understanding Challenges
Russell Doucette, product marketing manager, Konica Minolta, feels the best advice is to really know your label costs that are running on digital presses. Toner coverage, yields, and substrates are critical to know in order to fully understand your true label costs. Konica Minolta offers a variety of costing tools that allow our customers to pinpoint their costs when producing labels on Konica Minolta label presses.
Thomas agrees, noting that understanding the costs to market and the correct product to invest in. “Not to invest to much that makes the transition difficult and not to invest to little that means another investment in a short period of time. What is the ROI of digital investment against outsourcing and the margins currently earned.”
For traditional converters, BAmanda Bacon-Davis, VP, ink and influence, SnapPress, says the hardest part of moving to digital isn’t technology—it’s mindset. “Many are used to high-volume flexographic runs and think digital can’t match that return on investment. But the real challenge is learning how to sell digital’s strengths: its agility, short-run profitability, and ability to win projects flexographic can’t touch. We’ve helped converters bridge that gap by showing them how to rethink pricing, workflow, and value. Once they see they can print five custom jobs in the time it used to take to set up one, the lightbulb moment happens—and it usually sticks.”
John-Paul Burton, managing director, Eclipse Label Equipment, adds that traditional label converters often have huge investments in equipment and cutting tools. That includes not just the print and finishing machines themselves, but the time and expertise, the established processes, etc. “Going digital means fundamentally reworking the way they’re doing business. It’s simply incredibly difficult to let go of all that and adopt something so different.”
Juan Kim, CEO, Valloy Incorporated, feels the strongest driving force to digital is manpower. “No more young people would like to learn flexographic, offset and letterpress. Digital printers and finishers are inevitable choice in this industry.”
Paul Edwards, VP, digital division, INX International Ink Co., admits that there are several challenges, but they can be summed up as business related and technical. “The technical side of things is easier to understand since most digital label presses now are refined, and easy to use and maintain.”
Edwards points out that is very important that the way the equipment is cleaned and maintained is followed carefully as it will not always be instinctive to the operator who has not used an analog process. “Although the systems are relatively easy to learn and maintain, operators need to be well trained to make the most out of the investment and efficiency of the process.”
The business side can be more challenging and must be learned. “The process starts by understanding where the differences in the product lie. The look and feel of the final product can be different and this must be understood and explained to the customers and the salesforce involved. Obtaining and processing the artwork will need to be understood as the implementation of a digital workflow for efficiency—based upon the shorter runs and digital content—needs to be adopted,” shares Edwards.
The on-demand printing aspect where products can be printed and shipped rapidly also needs to be managed, especially at the back end to ensure the products are shipped correctly.
Edwards says these are the challenges that need to be considered and addressed in order to successfully move to digital.
For traditional converters, Taylor Buckthorpe, director of sales and marketing, Colordyne Technologies, says workflow adaptation, not printing itself, is the challenge. “Digital requires a shift in mindset—from long-run production efficiency to agile, job-driven scheduling. Prepress and job management become more data-centric, demanding integration between MIS systems, artwork automation, and digital press queues.”
Another challenge is cost modeling—understanding how ink consumption, substrate compatibility, and maintenance affect job profitability. “Many converters also underestimate the training curve required to manage digital workflows, color management, and maintenance. Our goal at Colordyne is to simplify that transition through open systems, transparent ink cost modeling, and hands-on support that makes digital adoption approachable and profitable,” offers Buckthorpe.
Jan2026, DPS Magazine
