Positive and negative printing on adhesive tapes

Two important terms in the printing of adhesive as well as non-adhesive tapes are the positive and the negative printing.

It can best be explained on the example of a simple letter. If we want to print the letter A using positive printing, the letter A will remain elevated on the printing plate and the entire remaining area will be lowered, so that during printing, only the letter is immersed in colour and this colour is transferred to the printed material, which then looks for example like a sheet of paper in a book. 

It follows logically from this that in case of the so-called negative printing, the letter A will be engraved in the printing plate so that during printing, the entire remaining area will be immersed in colour and only the area of the letter A will remain without colour. 

Use of negative printing with full colour coverage. 

For all-over printing, slightly different rules apply to each material.

Material:
BOPP -  cannot be printed up to the edges. The minimum margin is 2 mm.  Example of BOPP
LDPE -  cannot be printed up to the edges. The minimum margin is 4 mm.  Example of LDPE
PVC -  can be printed to the edges. Example of PVC
PAPÍR -  for paper tapes, we do not recommend printing large areas at all. 

When printing with classic cliché, it is not possible to print an continuous printing (without interruption). The minimum gap is 1.5mm and can be vertical or slightly angled (approx. 15°).

Print without interruption

Printing without interruption can be achieved using a printing form called Sleeve. This ensures that the motif is not interrupted anywhere, but the print length of the Sleeve is only 251,2 mm.
And in the case of using Sleeve on BOPP material, it is still not possible to print up to the edges (see picture).
Example of BOPP+Sleeve
Example of LDPE+Sleeve
Example of PVC+Sleeve

Negative print without interruption and up to the edges.

The only way to get a unique colour of the tape up to the edges and without interruption is the choice of PVC+Sleeve. Of course, this option is also the most expensive.