Despite all the gains and benefits of computer-to-plate (CTP) imaging and digital design, the process of creating compelling packaging designs is actually more complicated than ever. In the days of film, it didn’t matter what creative application you may have been using — Adobe Illustrator or QuarkXPress, for example — because in the end the creative work became film, which any packaging manufacturer could accept.

Then came CTP, and film stepped aside and allowed digital workflow to take center stage. No longer was film trafficked; rather, digital files became the means for exchanging packaging content. And suddenly, it became increasingly important what design application a creative director may be using, and what types of digital file formats a package printer may (or may not) accept.

In the digital workflow for print and multimedia, graphic artist must think beyond aesthetics and accept some of the responsibility that prepress suppliers once held.

If any of your design work in the past decade has been for print, you’ve undoubtedly borne witness to a revolution unfolding — the advent of digital content creation and computer-to-plate (CTP) print manufacturing. Film went away and was replaced by the exchange of digital files between designer and printer.