Spot Color Printing without Spot Color EP Sustainable Printing

Abstract

Today, some companies are committed to fulfilling their social responsibilities while also pursuing profits. One of the key social responsibilities of companies is environmental consideration. In the Japanese printing industry, the Japan Federation of Printing Industries (JFPI) has announced a voluntary action plan toward the “2050 Carbon Neutral Declaration,” stating that by 2050 it aims to “minimize energy-induced emissions,” “transform processes and structures,” and “create local communities through printing technology.” Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited issued a press release titled “Conversion of Secondary Packaging Printing of Ethical Drugs to CMYK Ink for the Purpose of Reducing Environmental Impact,” announcing that all secondary packaging materials (including assembled boxes, instruction manuals, and labels) will be printed using CMYK ink instead of spot inks by the end of 2026. Printing with spot color inks generates a large amount of waste ink and solvent and has a high environmental impact. However, some projects cannot be printed using only CMYK inks because of their narrow color gamut, making the use of spot color inks unavoidable. This study describes “EP Sustainable Printing,” a spot color printing workflow that achieves a high color gamut while reducing environmental impact and presents verification results demonstrating its effectiveness.