Zincopar wins Esko Dot Award for trading card packaging

Italian flexographic prepress specialist Zincopar has won the Quartz Award in the Water Web category at the inaugural Esko Dot Awards for its Brainrot Collectible Trading Card Packaging project.

Presented at Esko World 2026 in New Orleans, the award recognized a project developed with printing partner Ekaflex. Judges highlighted its precise dot reproduction, image sharpness, registration accuracy and consistent results across complex artwork printed with water-based inks.

The project required 15 coordinated designs to be reproduced with consistent color and fine detail. Through prepress optimization and color profiling, Zincopar determined that conventional four-color process printing could achieve the required quality, replacing the seven-color process initially planned and simplifying production.

Massimo Cipolla, CEO of Zincopar Group, said: 'We chose to enter this project because it represents the type of work we handle every day.

'With multiple artworks in the same product range, even minor variations in color or reproduction quality could affect the consistency of the finished packaging. It was a challenge we were able to overcome using the latest Esko technology as part of our integrated workflow.'

Founded in 1938 as a zinc printing plate producer, Zincopar operates from sites in Parma and Treviso, Italy. Its production environment connects structural design, prepress, color management, workflow automation and plate imaging to standardize production and reduce manual intervention.

'Our company uses 100percent Esko technology,' Cipolla added. 'Within this ecosystem, Esko Quartz Screening helped deliver the image definition, smooth tonal transitions and production consistency required for the winning project.'

Jan De Roeck, director of marketing, industry relations and strategy at Esko, said: 'Zincopar's achievement demonstrates how the combination of advanced screening technology, process expertise and workflow integration can push the boundaries of flexographic print quality.'

Cipolla credited the collaboration between prepress and printing teams for the result.

'Receiving the Quartz Award is an important recognition for Zincopar and a source of great pride,' he said. 'It reflects our commitment to continuous investment, innovation and collaboration across the value chain to deliver outstanding results and keep raising the quality standards of flexographic printing.'

The inaugural Esko Dot Awards attracted 29 entries from around the world. An independent judging panel assessed entries on technical print quality, degree of difficulty and Esko ecosystem excellence.