Printing on material that does not work well in offset press often calls for Flexography. You see flexo printing in everyday products, for instance, cereal boxes, corrugated cartons, milk cartons, candy wrappers, plastic bags and bottle labels.

Because flexography uses a relatively soft plate and prints plate to surface, it works for rough materials, such as wallpaper, fabric, cardboard, and paneling, where quantity requirements make screen printing prohibitive. Flexo is also very useful for printing decals because the same plate that prints can also kiss die cut.

The drawback of flexography is that it does not give the fine screen rulings of offset printing, so images may not seem sharp. In addition, the soft plates stretch and bend on press, giving flexography standards of dot gain and register lower than those of offset.