Packaging design software is software in which a carton or a label is designed and checked, and then prepared as plates and files for the printing press. It is used for the boxes, wrappers and labels that every product on a shop shelf comes in.
A carton starts as a flat sheet that is cut and folded. The designer first draws the carton's shape as a flat outline, called a die-line, which shows where the sheet is cut and where it is folded. She then places the artwork on the outline: the picture, the brand name, the text and the barcode. The software shows the carton folded in 3D on screen, so she can see how the artwork wraps round the box.
Consider a biscuit maker in Bengaluru that changes the pack for a 200 g carton. The designer draws the new die-line, which can be based on a shape from CAD. She adds the artwork. The software checks the file: whether the text is large enough, whether the barcode will scan, and whether the colours can be printed. It then splits the artwork by ink colour. On an offset press or a flexographic press, each printing unit prints one ink colour. So each colour needs its own plate, and the software prepares a file for each plate. A digital press needs no plates. The print job goes on to the printer's own print management software, which plans which press runs it and when.
Colour needs extra care. A brand's red must look the same on every pack, on every press. So the designer chooses colours from a fixed list, such as Pantone shades, and the software warns when a colour cannot be printed with the ordinary four inks. Before the real run, the printer prints a proof, a sample for the brand's manager to approve. Packaging software keeps this approval on record.
Two rules affect packaging. Fonts used in the artwork need a licence, which is the topic of font licensing. And in India, a pack must also carry details such as the maximum retail price and the net quantity, as the Legal Metrology rules require. In addition, companies that put plastic packaging on the market must collect and recycle a share of it. This is called extended producer responsibility, and it is handled by EPR compliance and waste marketplace software. So designers now also record what the pack is made of.