The ultra competitive world of print today, means that packaging needs to stand out against the competition, and catch the eye within seconds – but it also needs to add peace of mind for the brand owner and the customer that it is an authentic product.
The deception of a counterfeit product undermines economies. It hampers innovation. It causes risk for the consumer and harm to the brand owner.
Security features are a vital line of defence for brands and consumers alike to ensure that what you are getting is the real thing.
Whilst there are a number of options on the market, many security additions can be unsightly, or take up a lot of room, or don’t sit well with the rest of the creative – and perhaps the ‘look’ of the packaging is considered not as important as keeping credibility for the brand, but why compromise when you can have both security and a well designed creative aesthetic for your packaging.
Brand owners are therefore increasingly looking to their packaging suppliers to provide ever more clever and creative security and authentication solutions.
Anti-counterfeiting solutions comes in various forms. Holograms are difficult to reproduce and can display complex images or logos that shift with light and angle, but they can be expensive to produce properly. Tamper evident seals show clear signs if a package has been opened or altered, but they can be ugly. Special inks such as UV reactive or thermochromic inks change colour under certain conditions, making them hard to fake, but often special equipment is needed in order to check these features. Microtext is another solutions, but it is visible only under magnification add more subtle security, so are not necessarily obvious to the consumer making quick pick purchases off the shelf. Unique textures or embossing are a good feature, causing raised or textured surfaces which can be felt and seen, making duplication more challenging, but not all brands like a rougher texture for their packaging.
These are very effective deterrents against counterfeiting, reassuring customers they are receiving genuine products, but they can all be costly and time consuming to add to your packaging.
The new generation of embellishments, such as those produced either in line on press, or increasingly through the use of digital embellishment presses, which are much quicker and more flexible, solve many of the problems experienced with more traditional methods of security addition.
This technology allows brands to personalise packaging in ways that were once difficult.
In this new world of digital embellishments, CyanX offers the ZRX from Harris & Bruno, a press based on a B1 platform that offers flood coating, digital spot coating, tactile raised coatings, and foiling, all in one single pass – thus vastly removing the complexity of embellishing print.
The exceptional performance and innovative features of the ZRX help realise opportunities for commercial success and allows customers to easily add a number of different finishes and features to packaging to make it harder to replicate by counterfeiters.
The ZRX offers quality and efficiency for a wide range of printing applications. Its ability to digitally embellish uncoated media safely, and the ability to create raised matte tactile effect is a game changer for the digital embellishment world.
Whilst traditional embellishment is time consuming and costly, the ZRX brings this down to just minutes, in a cost effective way.
If you would like to know more, please just drop us a line, or talk to us at [email protected]. Our experienced and knowledgeable team will be able to help.
1st May 2026