中文For decades, the flexography awards have been a celebration of a特定 craft — ink on anilox, plates on a cylinder, the patient art of squeezing a perfect image out of a flexo press. Beautiful work, no question. But anyone who has walked a modern label plant knows the reality on the floor is messier and more interesting than that. A job might start on a flexo press and finish on a digital one. Or it might be born digital and only touch flexo for one finishing layer. The lines have blurred, and this week the Flexographic Technical Association (FTA) finally acknowledged it.
The FTA has opened entries for its 2027 awards program and, for the first time, introduced a dedicated Digital category within the Excellence in Flexography Awards. Alongside it comes a multiprocess pilot that recognises packaging produced using flexography in combination with another printing process. In other words, the awards are catching up to how packaging is actually made in 2026.
Why does this matter? Because for years, digital print has lived in a slightly awkward corner of the industry’s self-image. The traditional program required at least 90 percent of a submitted piece to be produced on flexo. That rule made perfect sense when flexo was the only game in town for long runs. But it quietly excluded a whole generation of hybrid, short-run, variable-data and digitally decorated work that is now central to many label businesses. The new Digital category uses judging criteria built specifically for digital applications, while holding the same quality bar as the rest of the Excellence awards. The multiprocess pilot goes further, evaluating both the flexo and the complementary process, and how well they actually work together in the finished package.
There is a practical nudge here too. The FTA has introduced a flat entry fee of USD 95 for all award categories for members, which strips away some of the friction of entering multiple programs. Entries are also open for the Technical Innovation Award and the Sustainability Excellence Award. Winners will be recognised at the FTA Awards Banquet during the 2027 Forum Infoflex.
Nathan Ridnouer, president of the Foundation of Flexographic Technical Association, framed it well: by recognising digital printing and multiprocess production, “we are ensuring the program reflects how packaging is produced today while continuing to celebrate the highest levels of quality, innovation and craftsmanship.”
Read that twice, because it is the right instinct. Awards are not just trophies; they are a mirror the industry holds up to itself. When the mirror only shows flexo, digital printers feel like guests at someone else’s party. When it shows the whole hybrid reality, everyone lifts their game.
For label converters sitting on genuinely impressive digital or combined work that never felt “flexo enough” to enter before, this is the opening. And for the traditional flexo houses, the message is comforting rather than threatening: your craft is still honoured, it is just no longer the only craft in the room.
The future of label printing was never going to be one technology wiping out another. It is going to be smart shops mixing flexo’s economics with digital’s flexibility — and now, finally, getting recognised for doing exactly that.
Source: Labels & Labeling — “FTA adds digital awards category”
