Are color labels also important for consumers or do they hide secrets that only manufacturers should know? Do you know why there are colored circles and squares on the packaging?
Colored markings on the packaging of food and appliances
Do you still remember staring at the new tetrapak boxes and seeing those striking colored circles and squares on them? But tetrapak is nothing new and the world is flooded with colors, brands, prints and boxes for anything. Nevertheless, it is interesting to learn what they are actually used for when they do not indicate content, quality, price, country of origin or recycling options.
Circles, squares and also crosses. Have you noticed them yet? Nathan Nagele explains why they are important on packaging in this post from the YouTube channel of the same name.
Source: Youtube
Are rings and wheels on the packaging necessary?
These are printing color blocks, or process control marks, that packaging manufacturers use to flawlessly print the design of each packaging. Thanks to the marks, it is possible to control the correctness of colors and print quality and to have consistent products across different batches, but also in different printers and on the opposite side of the world.
Printing machines can focus on these marks and then print each color not only at the required intensity, but also at the right place.
The process color printing method combines different amounts of specific colors. These are cyan, magenta, yellow and black, which are also referred to as CMYK from the English cyan, magenta, yellow and key. By mixing these colors, all possible colors and a wide spectrum of shades are created.
Color marks as a hoax
Process brands have confused consumers many times. In the past, there has even been a hoax, or false news, or if you want a fraudulent claim, that the color markings on toothpaste tubes indicate their ingredients.
According to this long-debunked false claim, the green strip or square at the end where the plastic tube is welded was supposed to indicate its all-natural composition. Blue was supposed to be natural with healing ingredients, red natural with chemicals and black just full of chemistry.
Although this is a complete fabrication, and just process control marks, people have simply associated green with natural pastes. After all, green is commonly used when a company wants to draw attention to the connection with nature. Therefore, with these traps, the logo, text or part of the tube was green, and therefore the green had to appear in the place intended for the printer’s color block. The originator of this false statement then made up another set of traps.
Sources: rd.com, inkstation.com.au
