Esko unveiled Pixel+ at drupa 2012 in Düsseldorf as an optical, electronic, and screening enhancement for HD Flexo imaging designed to support flat-top dot creation across multiple digital flexo plate vendor platforms. Product manager Pascal Thomas described Pixel+ as partnering with technologies such as DuPont Digicorr and Digiflow, MacDermid Lux, and Flint NExT.
The Pixel+ introduction addressed a persistent flexible packaging prepress challenge: achieving very smooth highlight printing and gravure-like solid ink density on a single flexo plate without compromising either tonal region. Flat-top dots improve ink transfer consistency and raise solid ink density while maintaining highlight control.
Esko also previewed next-generation HD Flexo plate imaging combining digital main exposure via Inline UV2 diode technology with innovative screening, enabling different dot structures within one plate suited to both highlight and shadow or solid areas of a print job.
Flexible packaging printers evaluating CDI Spark imagers with Inline UV1 or Inline UV2 back-exposure modules saw drupa 2012 as a validation point for fully digital platemaking workflows that reduce manual exposure steps and improve repeatability across shift changes and seasonal substrate swaps.
By December 2012, Esko reported customer successes with Full HD Flexo at converters including Bischof + Klein in Germany, where production runs up to 250,000 meters demonstrated consistently reproduced quality matching proofs—evidence that drupa previews were translating into commercial flexible laminate programs.