DESIGN AND PRINTING: PACKAGING BECOMES A LANGUAGE OF PRECISION

This pathway logic meets a specific expectation among trade visitors: to navigate the show by following a business theme, rather than moving through it in an undifferentiated way. This is complemented by a tailor-made visit, available through the Business+ programme, which offers support before, during and after the show, qualified business meetings and a conference agenda, the Paris Talks, structured around the themes Reinvent, Regenerate and Shine, where packaging design plays a central role.

A sector where design is no longer an afterthought

For a long time, packaging design was considered at the end of the chain, after industrial choices had been made. That era is over. Graphic design, container ergonomics, ink selection, colour calibration and regulatory readability are now integrated much further upstream, sometimes from the product specification stage.

The European PPWR (EU Regulation 2025/40), which entered into force on 11 February 2025 and will apply from 12 August 2026, is accelerating this movement. It replaces Directive 94/62/EC and, for the first time, sets quantified objectives directly applicable across the 27 Member States, including the recyclability of 100% of packaging placed on the EU market by 2030, as well as the harmonisation of pictograms, labels and mandatory information.

In practical terms, every graphic decision now has an industrial implication. The number of inks used affects the recyclability of a flexible film. An overly dense printed surface can compromise optical detection in sorting centres. The addition of a selective varnish changes how a cardboard pack behaves in the recycling stream. This articulation between creative intention and life cycle constraints is precisely what the Printing & Design pathway at ALLFORPACK EMBALLAGE PARIS brings to life.

This growth reflects a structural shift: brands want shorter runs, limited editions, regional variations and variable codes, such as batch numbers, personalised QR codes and anti-counterfeiting markings, without having to bear the cost of flexographic plates or gravure cylinders for every variation.

The Printing & Design pathway brings together this technological diversity: new-generation flexography, modernised gravure printing, single-pass inkjet, hybrid presses combining digital and conventional processes, hot foil stamping, embossing and inline-controlled selective varnishes. Manufacturers regularly present at the show, such as Bobst, Domino, Kongsberg, Screen, MGI Digital Technology, Xeikon and Konica Minolta, exhibit operating machines, allowing visitors to assess speeds, resolutions and colour quality first-hand. Alongside them, prepress and colour management software providers, including Hybrid Software, present the digital building blocks that secure brand consistency across dozens of production sites.

Connected labels, data and traceability

The label, long considered a purely informative medium, is becoming the point of convergence between design, printing and data. With the PPWR, as well as the gradual rollout of the digital product passport across several sectors, the printed content on packaging must combine human readability, machine readability and environmental compliance.

This is reflected in the increasingly advanced solutions exhibited at the show: serialised Data Matrix codes for traceability, RFID labels for logistics, laser marking on sensitive substrates and invisible inks to combat counterfeiting. Label printers, whether working in narrow-web flexography or digital printing, must now master a data ecosystem that goes far beyond visual rendering alone. The French sector is particularly well represented, through specialists in self-adhesive labels and regional converters committed to reducing solvent-based inks and switching to water-based or UV LED inks.

Graphic eco-design, ink sobriety and compatible materials

The environmental dimension runs throughout the pathway. On the design side, visual sobriety is gaining ground: tighter colour palettes, removal of saturated backgrounds, enhancement of raw substrates and elimination of laminations that hinder recyclability. On the press side, exhibitors are highlighting reduced start-up waste, automated ink dosage control, low-energy drying and compatibility with recycled fibres.

This approach aligns with the framework set by ADEME for the Professional Packaging EPR scheme, which came into force on 1 January 2026 and structures the obligations of companies placing packaging on the market while steering design choices towards effective recyclability. Design is therefore becoming a management tool as much as a brand signature. The specialist studios present on the pathway, together with the agencies associated with the European Brand and Packaging Design Association (EPDA), a partner of the show, illustrate this transformation: creativity does not disappear in the face of constraint, it organises itself around it.

Brand owners, creators and machines: the triangle that makes the pathway so relevant

One of the strengths of the Printing & Design pathway lies in the coexistence, within the same exhibition area, of the three families of players that make up the value chain. Brand owners, retailers and manufacturers meet design studios, printers and converters, as well as suppliers of machines, inks, substrates and software. This configuration, reinforced by live machine demonstrations, distinguishes ALLFORPACK EMBALLAGE PARIS from a show strictly dedicated to graphic arts or commercial printing: here, each solution is placed within the logic of final packaging, with its filling, packing and downstream logistics constraints.

For visitors, it is also an opportunity to assess the coherence of a packaging approach as a whole, from the creative brief through to the pallet leaving the warehouse. For exhibitors, it is a focused commercial qualification environment, where contacts made on the Printing & Design pathway often lead to multi-disciplinary projects.

The Printing & Design sector at ALLFORPACK EMBALLAGE PARIS therefore sits at the crossroads of creativity, technology and compliance. It offers a concrete reading of the trade-offs that packaging players will face over the next three years, between brand appeal, regulatory requirements and decarbonisation trajectories. To explore these issues on the ground, meet exhibitors from the pathway and attend the Paris Talks dedicated to packaging desirability, join ALLFORPACK EMBALLAGE PARIS from 24 to 26 November 2026 at Paris Nord Villepinte.