Does Extended Colour Gamut Printing Pay? Where the Return Comes From, What It Costs, and What the PPWR Adds

What Is the Return on Investment of Extended Colour Gamut Printing?

The return on investment of extended colour gamut printing is the net saving a converter gains by printing brand colours with one fixed set of process inks, set against what the switch costs. The saving comes mainly from ink changes that no longer happen between jobs; the cost comes from press units, prepress, colour control and brand approvals.

Extended colour gamut (ECG) printing is a printing method that builds most brand colours from screened combinations of one fixed set of process inks, typically cyan, magenta, yellow and black plus orange, green and violet. A spot colour is a colour printed with a dedicated, premixed ink. What a fixed ink set changes in the PPWR evidence file is covered in our article on extended colour gamut printing and the PPWR; this article is about the money.

The converter invests and runs the press, the brand owner approves each converted colour, and the packaging buyer sees the result in price and rerun consistency.

Key Facts

• According to Rutherford, the publisher of PPWR Connect, the break-even of extended colour gamut "is a function of job mix, not of volume".
• According to Packaging Europe (30 April 2018), a supplier technical day on one characterised flexo press reported a reduction of 60% in changeover time, 50% in waste material and 20% in ink cost; no independent study was cited.
• Under Article 5(4), the 100 mg/kg limit on the sum of lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium applies in the packaging or in any packaging component, and concentrations are never added up across components.
• The Article 6(4) delegated act is due by 1 January 2028 and has not been adopted.
• Article 39(2) provides that the EU declaration of conformity has the model structure set out in Annex VIII, contains the elements specified in the module in Annex VII, and is continuously updated.
• The three regulatory lines above are confirmed by our dated PPWR referential (baseline reviewed 3 October 2026).

Where Do the Savings of Extended Colour Gamut Printing Come From?

The savings of extended colour gamut printing come from ink changes that no longer happen. According to Rutherford, the main gain is changeover and washup time between jobs, followed by lower ink inventory, less makeready waste, ganging of jobs that share an ink set, and more predictable reruns. Each gain is counted per avoided ink change, not per job.

Rutherford sets out the five gains in its article When extended gamut pays off. On inventory, "a fixed set of seven replaces a shelf of mixed spot inks, along with the leftovers that expire on it". On makeready, there is "one press condition to reach and hold rather than a new one per ink set". On ganging, "jobs with different brand colors can share a form as soon as they share an ink set".

A changeover is the time and material a press spends between the last saleable output of one job and the first saleable output of the next. Rutherford advises to "count ink set changes per shift, not jobs per shift".

What Does Switching to Extended Colour Gamut Printing Cost?

Switching to extended colour gamut printing costs press capacity, prepress work, colour control and brand approvals. According to Rutherford, seven inks need seven press units, separations become a per-job colour decision, profiles must be maintained like production tooling, and every converted brand colour becomes a build with a measured tolerance that the brand owner approves.

• Press units. Rutherford writes that "seven inks want seven units" and that a six-unit press "runs a reduced set and covers less of the gamut, which is workable".
• Prepress. According to Rutherford, "separations become a per-job color decision rather than a mechanical one", and "the profiles and device links have to be maintained like production tooling".
• Plates and anilox. Each process ink a build uses is one more plate for that job. An article by a supplier, published by the Flexographic Technical Association on 3 June 2023, states: "you must get serious about anilox standardization and process control".
• Colour control. DeltaE is the measured colour difference between a printed colour and its target. Rutherford writes that a brand colour built from several inks has a compound DeltaE, which is "why extended gamut and closed loop color control tend to arrive together".
• Brand approvals. Rutherford advises converters to "bring measurement data to that conversation, not a sample".
• Compliance evidence. The fixed set is documented once for the PPWR file.

How Do You Calculate the Payback of Extended Colour Gamut Without Borrowed Figures?

The payback of extended colour gamut printing is calculated from a plant's own job mix. Count the ink changes the fixed set removes, value each in press time, substrate and ink, add the inventory released, subtract the running costs that rise, and divide the one-off investment by that net annual saving.

1. Baseline. Record ink-set changes per shift, minutes per change, the cost of a press hour, substrate spoiled per makeready, and the spot inks in stock and written off over a year.
2. Coverage test. Rutherford advises to "test your top twenty brand colors against the seven-ink gamut, not the PANTONE book as a whole".
3. Avoided changes. Subtract the changes that remain for out-of-gamut colours, varnishes and special effects.
4. Gross annual saving. Multiply the avoided changes by the press time, substrate and washup materials each one costs, then add the inventory released and the write-offs avoided.
5. Added running costs. Price the extra prepress per job, the colour measurement effort, any additional plates and the approval cycles.
6. One-off investment. Add press units, anilox, profiles, colour control equipment, training, first approvals and the documentation of the ink set.
7. Payback. Divide the one-off investment by the gross annual saving minus the added running costs.

Rutherford offers a rough filter before any calculation: "if the press changes ink sets more than once per shift, the case is worth building".

What Do Published Figures Say About Extended Colour Gamut Savings?

Published savings figures for extended colour gamut printing are few and come from suppliers. According to Packaging Europe, a technical day held in March 2018 by six suppliers on one characterised flexo press reported a reduction of 60% in changeover time, 50% in waste material and 20% in ink cost, without citing an independent study.

Packaging Europe reports that the press had been "characterized under agreed parameters of anilox, inks, plate and tape" before the session. The figures therefore describe a prepared press on a demonstration day, not a plant's own job mix. On coverage, Rutherford cites "around 90 percent of PANTONE spot tones, against roughly 55 percent with conventional CMYK by commonly cited estimates", and warns that the remainder tends to contain "certain reflex blues, fluorescents and metallics that no build reproduces".

Published figures can check an order of magnitude; they cannot replace the plant's own baseline.

When Does Extended Colour Gamut Printing Not Pay?

Extended colour gamut printing does not pay where ink changes are rare or where key brand colours stay out of reach. According to Rutherford, "it does not pay when you run the same two brand colors for weeks", and a press that does not hold a measured condition has to be fixed before any job is converted.

Four situations weaken the case: long runs, a portfolio dominated by colours that no build reproduces, a press with fewer units than the set needs, and unstable colour on press. In each, the switch keeps its costs and loses most of its saving.

Who Gets the Return: the Converter, the Brand Owner or the Packaging Buyer?

The return on extended colour gamut printing lands first with the converter, which runs the press and holds the ink stock. Brand owners and packaging buyers see the return indirectly: in rerun consistency, in the ability to gang short runs, and in whatever share of the saving a supply contract passes on.

Rutherford notes that "a brand that qualifies a seven-ink build in one plant expects the same build in the others". For the packaging buyer, useful questions are which colours stay spot and how the saving is reflected in price; the PPWR does not regulate that commercial split.

Does the PPWR Change the Return on Investment of Extended Colour Gamut?

Regulation (EU) 2025/40 contains no provision that requires or restricts a printing process or the number of inks, so the PPWR adds no regulatory gain to the extended colour gamut business case. The PPWR shapes one cost line: the evidence a converter, as supplier, owes the manufacturer for each ink printed on a packaging component.

Under Article 3(1)(16), a supplier is any natural or legal person that supplies packaging or packaging material to a manufacturer. Under Article 16(1), suppliers shall provide the manufacturer with all the information and documentation necessary to demonstrate conformity, including the technical documentation referred to in Annex VII. Under Article 5(6), compliance with the heavy-metals limit of Article 5(4) is demonstrated in the technical documentation drawn up in accordance with Annex VII. A fixed set documented once serves every reference printed with it; our article on supplier declarations sets out what counts as usable evidence.

The switch itself is a change to the packaging. Under Article 15(4), manufacturers shall adequately take into account changes in packaging design or characteristics and, where conformity could be affected, carry out a re-assessment. That re-assessment belongs in the one-off investment line; our article on when a change calls for a new declaration of conformity covers the trigger.

No recyclability gain can be priced in today. Table 4 of Annex II lists inks and lacquers, printing and coding among the parameters for setting design-for-recycling criteria, and defines inks as "mixtures of colorants with other substances applied onto the material by a printing or coating process". The Article 6(4) delegated act is due by 1 January 2028 and has not been adopted. A fixed set changes the number of inks, not necessarily their chemistry; see our article on recyclability grades A, B and C.

Makeready savings are plant economics, not a PPWR credit. Under Article 3(1)(25), packaging waste excludes production residues; on our reading, substrate spoiled at the press is one. Under Article 10(1), minimisation concerns packaging weight and volume, by 1 January 2030; the number of inks is not one of its terms.

What Does the Referential Not Confirm?

Our dated PPWR referential (baseline reviewed 3 October 2026) confirms the three regulatory Key Facts. The following statements are read on the linked Official Journal text, not confirmed by the referential.

• The absence of any provision on printing processes, ink sets or makeready targets in Regulation (EU) 2025/40.
• Article 3(1)(16) and (25), Article 5(6), Article 10(1), Article 15(4), Article 16(1) and Table 4 of Annex II, as phrased here.
• Our reading that substrate spoiled at the press is a production residue.
• Everything about press economics, attributed to Rutherford, Packaging Europe and the Flexographic Technical Association: the referential covers the Regulation, not printing. We found no independent study of extended colour gamut savings.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a standard payback period for extended colour gamut printing?

No source we read gives one. The payback depends on the number of ink changes the fixed set removes in a given plant, which is why the calculation starts from that plant's own ink-change count.

Do the published 60% and 50% figures apply to any press?

No. According to Packaging Europe, the figures come from one press characterised in advance for a supplier demonstration. A plant's own baseline decides what extended colour gamut printing saves there.

How PPWR Connect Helps

PPWR Connect does not measure colour, choose inks or calculate the return of a press; it holds the compliance side of an ink-set change. A label or liner defined once in the shared component library is reused across SKUs, and the library shows where each part is used. For each packaging component, heavy metals, PFAS against the Article 5(5) limit values, substances of very high concern and bisphenol A can be declared as present, absent or not declared, each with its source and supplier evidence. A supplier PDF such as a test report or a datasheet is read by the platform and filed as evidence against the SKU for the declaration of conformity. Dated packaging versions keep the before and the after of the switch, and the Impact screen lists the declarations of conformity a data change touches. The Academy course Substances & Supplier Data, at €89 and included in the Academy Pass, covers what a supplier must provide under Article 16. Start with our PPWR compliance software or the PPWR readiness assessment.

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Rutherford (rutherford.fr) develops production control software for offset printers and converters, including ColorLoop. Veoria (veoria.com) develops inline colour measurement for label and packaging presses, including DeltaOne.