Recently, we hosted a live webinar focused on ANY-PRESS CMYK+White Printing, highlighting how common CMYK limitations on specialty substrates can be solved in a simple, production-ready way.

Rather than listing product specifications, the session centered on real-world print challenges—especially those faced when working with transparent, dark, or metallic materials—and demonstrated how CMYK+White workflows can turn these “difficult jobs” into profitable applications. Live printing demonstrations played a key role, allowing viewers to clearly see the difference in output quality.

Early in the webinar, we addressed a question many converters and print service providers regularly face:

Why does CMYK struggle so much on non-white substrates?

The answer lies in the nature of CMYK itself. CMYK colorants are inherently translucent, meaning they rely on a white, reflective base to achieve accurate color and contrast. On transparent films, dark stocks, kraft paper, or metallic materials, that reflective base is missing. As a result, colors appear washed out, muted, or sometimes nearly invisible.

The solution is straightforward: print an opaque white foundation first, then print CMYK on top of it.

What makes ANY-PRESS different is its ability to do this in a single pass, without adding complexity to the workflow.

ANY-PRESS is designed to keep production fast and efficient while enabling CMYK+White printing. There are no plates, no pre-coating steps, and no multi-pass processes. White is printed as a foundation layer directly onto the substrate, followed immediately by CMYK in the same pass, with roll-to-roll output.

During the live demo, transparent PET film was printed using both CMYK-only and CMYK+White workflows. The difference was immediately visible. Colors printed without white appeared significantly lighter, while prints with a white foundation showed stronger opacity, higher contrast, and improved color accuracy. Variable data examples—such as barcodes, QR codes, and serial numbers—were also demonstrated, highlighting real production use cases.

Beyond output quality, the webinar emphasized how CMYK+White printing enables new business opportunities. Applications that are often considered too difficult or unprofitable with CMYK-only workflows become viable with ANY-PRESS.

These include transparent “no-label look” labels, dark and kraft substrates, metallic labels, holographic and security labels, and short-run flexible packaging. In each case, CMYK+White printing helps improve readability, color consistency, and perceived value—while maintaining production efficiency.

This demonstrates that any-press-cmyk+white printing is not simply an added feature, but a practical tool for expanding an application portfolio and increasing revenue potential.