Digital Print Asia (DPA) 2.0 will bring the digital printing ecosystem together on 24–25 September 2026 at Hilton Bengaluru Embassy Manyata Business Park, with this year’s edition centred on: AUTOMATE • ACCELERATE • ACHIEVE.

Moving beyond technology-led conversations, DPA 2.0 will examine how automation, AI, smarter workflows, emerging applications and data-led decision-making can translate into higher productivity, stronger margins and sustainable growth.

The two-day programme will feature industry leaders including Sergey Belokurov, Shashi Ranjan, Mehul A. Desai, Leonard J. Fernandes, Janus Annunciation, Ajay Aggarwal , Ayush Rathi & many industry leaders bringing perspectives from across the digital print value chain.

A key feature, DIGITAL³, will bring together three pathways to digital growth: Pack to Profit, Press to Publish and Pixels to Product. The tracks will explore opportunities across packaging, publishing and commercial print, focusing on applications, workflows and commercial viability.

Another key takeaway will be the DPA Playbook, a practical resource being developed for printers. Designed as an operations-focused digest, it will capture tools, frameworks, checklists and key session learnings that businesses can refer to beyond the summit while evaluating workflows, productivity and growth opportunities.

DPA 2.0 is backed by leading digital print industry players and technology partners, reflecting strong industry participation behind the platform. The summit is also supported by the All India Federation of Master Printers (AIFMP), while Label & Packaging World comes on board as a media partner, amplifying key conversations and developments across the wider print and packaging ecosystem.

“Digital printing has reached a stage where the conversation must move from capability to commercial impact. DPA 2.0 is designed to help the industry understand where digital can create measurable value, improve productivity and open new growth opportunities,” said Tushar Dhote, Curator, Digital Print Asia.

With 50+ speakers, 24+ sessions and 300+ attendees expected, DPA 2.0 aims to deliver practical learning, meaningful networking and business-focused outcomes.

Introduction

For over four decades the author worked with paper as labelstock manufacturer. Reels of paper received fresh from the mill were often cool to the touch, a sign of higher moisture content, since evaporation causes cooling. Paper is hygroscopic: made of cellulose fibres with a natural affinity for water, every sheet, reel, or board continues to exchange moisture with the surrounding air throughout its life. This never-ending “breathing” lies behind more printing and converting problems than almost any other variable—curl, cockle, misregistration, static, brittleness, poor lamination bonds, weak corrugated boxes, and inconsistent print quality all trace back to moisture, directly or indirectly.

This article covers why moisture content (MC) matters, ideal levels for different papers and boards, and its effects on costing, printing, converting, storage, and incoming QC.

1. What “Moisture Content” Means and Why Paper Holds Water

Moisture content is expressed as a percentage of total paper weight:

Cellulose fibres have hydroxyl (–OH) groups that hydrogen-bond with water in the air. As relative humidity (RH) and temperature change, paper absorbs or releases moisture until it reaches its equilibrium moisture content (EMC); where it neither gains nor loses water relative to its environment. Due to hysteresis, paper drying down settles at a slightly higher EMC than paper wetting up to the same RH, so the sheet’s moisture history matters, not just current room conditions.

Equilibration moisture content time scales with thickness: thin sheets typically take 30 minutes, typical offset sheets 2–4 hours, thick boards considerably longer—which is why acclimatisation matters before running paper.

2. Ideal Moisture Content by Paper and Board Type

There is no single “correct” level; it depends on grade, coating, and process. General benchmarks:

Paper / Board Type	Typical Ideal Moisture Content
Digital printing papers	4.5% (minimises curl, aids toner adhesion)
Offset (sheetfed) papers	5.5–6%
Coated woodfree / art paper & board	4.5–5.5% (higher risks heatset blistering)
Uncoated woodfree	5–6.5%
Newsprint	7–8%
Tissue	2–7%
Corrugated medium/liner	7%
Kraft paper (sack/wrapping)	6–8%
General stock before conversion	4–6%

Most commercial papers are made to 4–6% absolute MC and expected to stay stable in a 45–55% RH environment. The right number should ultimately come from the mill’s technical data sheet and your own experience, these are starting benchmarks, not universal law.

3. Moisture, Weight, and Costing

• Paper is sold by weight, so moisture is sold too. A reel at 6% MC holds more water-weight than the same reel at 4%, despite identical fibre content—buyers effectively pay paper prices for water.
• Paper gains or loses weight after leaving the mill depending on warehouse, transport, or pressroom RH relative to its EMC (picking up moisture in humid monsoon transit, losing it in dry heated winter storage). This is why mills use moisture-barrier packaging and why unwrapping paper to sit unconditioned is risky.
• Wrong moisture is a hidden cost centre even at correct invoiced weight: it surfaces later as makeready waste, wash-ups, misfeeds, static downtime, rejects, and rework—costs that hit the job sheet, not the paper invoice.
• Conditioning (45–55% RH air handling) costs energy, but unconditioned press halls usually cost far more in spoilage.

Worked example: A modest labelstock maker converting a million m² uses approximately 70 tons of face paper. At 6% moisture that’s 4.2 tons of water versus 2.8 tons at 4%, a 1.40-ton difference. At Rs. 75/kg, that’s a loss of Rs. 1,05,000 per month (Rs. 12.60 lakhs per year). The bigger the consumption, the bigger the loss when paper is supplied above EMC.

• Paper that swells (from pressroom, water-based ink/coating, or ambient humidity) then shrinks when dried, but rarely back to original dimensions and rarely evenly.
• Consequences: labels/cartons that no longer fit their container; folding cartons whose panels misalign; laminates that curl or blister as paper shrinks against dimensionally stable film; and text/image creep front-to-back in a bound book block.
• This is why the same sheet behaves differently on a humid morning than a dry afternoon—operators aren’t imagining it.

Edge trimming and re-conditioning, or simply acclimatising wrapped paper in the pressroom before opening, is standard best practice.

6. Overdried Paper: Brittleness and Static

Too-low moisture brings two linked problems:

• Brittleness: dry fibres lose flexibility, giving hard papers that break on the web, lack print cushion, and crack when folded, showing up as cracked folds, split scores, and web breaks on high-speed presses.
• Static: dry air and paper are poor conductors, so friction from feeding and separation builds static rather than dissipating it. Below 40% RH, sheets can build electrostatic charge, sticking together and attracting dust.

Combined converting impact: double-feeds/misfeeds, dust-attracted print defects and coating pinholes, poor stack squaring, brittle cracking at creases, and increased scrap and downtime for static-bar adjustment.

• Strength (tensile, tear, burst, fold endurance, edge crush) peaks within a specific moisture band: too little makes fibres brittle and fracture-prone; too much softens fibre-to-fibre hydrogen bonds, cutting stiffness and compressive strength, that is why corrugated loses stacking strength in humid warehouses.

Good register, flat delivery, and consistent folding all depend on keeping moisture and moisture uniformity in a tight band.

8. Moisture Effects Across Paper & Board Types

Substrate	Moisture-Related Behaviour	Applications Affected
Uncoated woodfree	Forgiving; absorbs press moisture, prints predictably, curls if imbalanced	Stationery, books, forms
Coated paper/board	Surface-sensitive; excess moisture blisters in heatset drying, too little cracks on creases	Labels, cartons, magazines
Kraft paper	Strong, tolerant of swings, but wets and expands significantly	Bags, sacks, wrapping
Corrugated board	Very sensitive; flute geometry and adhesive bond weaken as MC rises	Shipping cartons
Label stock	Multi-layer—each layer moves differently, causing curl, edge lifting, register drift	Pressure-sensitive labels
Tissue/lightweight	Very fast equilibration; needs tight humidity control	Hygiene products

9. Moisture and Printing Processes / Inks

Sensitivity varies by process:

• Offset (litho): most moisture-sensitive, since the process adds water via fountain solution. Too-dry sheets absorb solution unevenly and pick less ink; too-moist sheets upset ink-water balance and slow drying. Run at 40–60% RH (optimum ~50–55%) to avoid curl, creasing, and dot doubling.
• Letterpress: no fountain solution, but fully subject to dimensional, curl, brittleness, and static effects.
• Flexography: water-based inks make substrate moisture affect absorption/drying directly, especially on absorbent papers and kraft.
• Rotogravure: less humidity-sensitive (fast-drying inks in engraved cells), but web tension and register on long runs still shift with moisture.
• Digital laser (toner): sensitive via the heat-fuse step, excess moisture flashes to steam causing curl/blistering/poor adhesion; too dry, static disrupts feeding. Needs 50–55% RH.
• Digital inkjet: absorbency and moisture affect dot gain and drying; prefers 45–55% RH to prevent ink spreading.

Ink type matters: oxidative/absorption-drying inks (litho, letterpress) depend on paper absorbency and fountain-pH interactions; water-based flexo inks depend on absorbency; solvent inks resist sheet moisture but not dimensional movement; UV inks are least sensitive during cure, though the substrate still moves and curls.

10. Does Moisture Impact UV Printing?

UV inks cure by photoinitiated polymerisation, not evaporation or absorption, so moisture doesn’t interfere with the curing chemistry—a key UV advantage. But moisture still matters indirectly:

• The substrate still expands, shrinks, curls, and builds static exactly as for any process.
• Poor ink holdout on moist, absorbent sheets can cause uneven gloss or mottle.
• Static from dry/brittle stock still causes feeding and stacking problems.
• Intense lamp heat can flash off surface moisture unevenly, occasionally causing localised curl.

 11. Moisture, Registration, and pH

Registration: Multi-colour jobs need the sheet to hold a precise, repeatable size pass-to-pass. Since moisture-driven change is mainly cross-direction, uneven moisture between passes—or drying over a long run—shifts dot position. Tolerances are often ±0.1%, yet a 15°C temperature change at constant humidity can shift EMC by ~0.5%, enough to cause visible misregistration or ghosting. Sheetfed printers therefore often run paper slightly above final EMC, letting the press’s own heat and fountain solution move it toward equilibrium predictably.

pH: Water is the medium through which acidic/alkaline components become chemically active.

• Paper pH ranges ~4.0–8.0; most modern (alkaline-process) paper falls at 6.0–8.0.
• Acidic paper slows ink drying—below pH 5 drying can nearly stop, worsened at high RH as extra water drives hydrolysis. Strongly acidic paper can emulsify ink and cause scumming.
• In offset, control temperature (20–23°C) and RH (50–60%) to manage acidity/moisture drying issues.
• Highly alkaline paper (pH >9) neutralises the fountain solution’s acidity, causing its own press-control problems.
• For archival work, neutral-to-slightly-alkaline (pH ~7) is preferred, since acidic paper yellows and embrittles over time.

12. Moisture and Coatings (Water-based, Solvent, Hotmelt, UV)

Each system interacts with substrate moisture differently:

• Water-based: rely on the substrate absorbing water to set, a near-saturated (high-MC) sheet accepts it slowly, extending drying, risking blocking, and increasing curl; an overly dry sheet absorbs too aggressively, causing mottle.
• Solvent-based: less affected during drying (solvent evaporates, not water), but residual water pickup and solvent-driven fibre swelling still cause curl/register shift.
• Hotmelt: set by cooling, but application heat flashes surface moisture unevenly and trapped moisture can steam-blister the bond.
• UV-curable: most moisture-tolerant at cure, but substrate moisture still governs wetting/holdout and dimensional stability.

General rule: coatings interact with a substrate actively gaining/losing water, so substrate moisture control before coating is as important as coating chemistry.

Implication: a box rated in the lab may be far weaker in a humid warehouse or ocean freight—hence building in safety margin and keeping pallets off damp floors.

14. Storage Conditions

Storage is a first line of defence, not an afterthought:

• Store at 20–24°C and 45–55% RH; most papers are designed to be stable in a 45–55% RH environment at 72°F, close to the 23°C/50% RH conditioning atmosphere used for testing.
• Keep reels/reams wrapped until use—mill wrapping is a moisture barrier; once broken, paper moves toward room EMC immediately.
• Avoid storing directly on concrete floors or against exterior walls (cooler/damper, risk condensation).
• Stack away from doors, docks, HVAC vents, and sunlight.
• Acclimatise paper in the run environment before unwrapping (hours for sheets, longer for boards), especially when moving between different-RH environments.
• Rotate stock (FIFO) to avoid seasonal humidity pickup.

16. Environment on Printing and Converting — Summary

Ambient temperature and RH influence every stage:

• Feeding/handling: static (too dry) or blocking (too humid).
• Printing: ink/water balance (offset), dot gain (inkjet), toner adhesion (laser), colour registration.
• Drying: blistering on coated stock (too-high MC into heatset ovens); poor drying on moist or acidic sheets.
• Finishing: cracked folds/scores (too dry), curl (imbalance), bond failures, die-cut defects.
• Packaging/shipping: reduced box compression and dimensional creep.

Common thread: stability matters as much as the exact number. A plant steady at 50% RH out-performs one swinging 30–70% even at the same average—because change, not a static condition, drives dimensional and strength shifts.

 17. Tests on Receipt of Paper and Board

A structured incoming-QC routine catches problems before press-time:

Physical checks

• Basis weight (grammage): confirms ordered weight/thickness.
• Caliper: checked for uniformity across the lot (ideally under standard conditioning).
• Moisture content: verified against the mill’s target (commonly 4.5–7% by grade).

Structural/strength tests

• Bursting strength (Mullen): rupture pressure, key for packaging.
• Tensile and tear: predicts high-speed, high-tension performance.
• Ring Crush / Edge Crush (RCT/ECT): edgewise compression for box stacking, read alongside moisture state.

Surface/print-quality tests

• Smoothness (Sheffield, Bekk, Bendtsen): surface uniformity.
• Cobb test: surface water absorption over time.
• Wax pick: surface fibre bond strength.

pH check: a low-cost surface test flagging slow-drying, scumming, or fountain problems before the press.

18. Packing and Storing Converted Products

Finished products are still hygroscopic:

• Re-wrap or shrink-wrap promptly to slow moisture exchange, especially before long storage.
• Palletise off the floor and away from walls using slip sheets/pallets.
• Maintain the same 45–55% RH, moderate-temperature storage—finished goods are as vulnerable to curl, shift, and compression loss as raw stock.
• Keep products away from transport temperature extremes (unheated trucks, non-climate containers).
• For corrugated cartons, avoid prolonged high-humidity exposure (outdoor storage, humid ports)—compression can drop 30–50% at high RH.
• Store label/pressure-sensitive stock flat, away from heat—uneven laminate pickup causes curling and adhesive failure.

Key Takeaways

1. Paper never stops moving, it exchanges moisture with its environment for its whole working life.
2. Every grade has an ideal moisture band; there is no universal number.
3. Moisture costs money directly (sold by weight) and indirectly (spoilage, downtime, rework).
4. Dimensional change is uneven—more across width than length—so problems appear as curl, cockle, and register drift, not uniform stretching.
5. Too much moisture weakens bonds; too little makes fibres brittle and static-prone. Both extremes cost you.
6. Environmental stability matters as much as the exact target.
7. A disciplined incoming-QC routine—moisture, caliper, strength, surface, pH—catches problems before downtime.

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This article is a technical overview for printing and converting professionals. Confirm specific moisture targets, test methods, and tolerances against your supplier’s technical data sheets and relevant standards (TAPPI, ISO) for your grade and application.

Authored by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Ltd. New Delhi July 2026

An international achievement that highlights the collaboration between technology, creativity and production quality in the premium label sector. CARTES is proud to announce that, in collaboration with distinguished customers, has received a total of 9 prizes at the FSEA Gold Leaf Awards 2026, held in Nashville, USA: 5 Gold, 1 Silver and 3 Bronze. The Gold Leaf Awards are one of best international reference events, recognizing excellence in printing, embellishment and special effects applied to packaging & visual communication. The award-winning labels were produced in collaboration with leading converters, confirming the value of CARTES technologies in the production of labels with strong aesthetic, technical and communication impact. The recognized works are the following categories:

Best Use of Laser Cutting

Best Use of Digital Embellishments – Label Creative

Best Use of Digital Embellishments – Label Technical

Best Use of Foil/Embossing – Label Digitally Printed

Best Use of Foil/Embossing – Label Creative

This significant achievement confirms the ability of CARTES solutions to help customers produce distinctive labels, combining technical precision, creativity, advanced finishes with high-end embellishments and digital converting.

Thanks to its modular technologies for printing, embellishing, and converting self-adhesive labels, CARTES supports converters in developing premium items designed to enhance brand

value and differentiate products in the market.

“We are extremely proud to share this important achievement with our customers,” says Enrica Lodi, CMO of CARTES. “The nine awards received at the Gold Leaf Awards 2026 demonstrate the value of the collaboration between CARTES technology, the production expertise of converters and the creativity of designers applied to the label industry. Each award-winning label is a concrete example of how innovation and quality can

transform packaging into a distinctive experience.”

This success further strengthens CARTES’ commitment to the development of innovative solutions for label finishing and confirms the company’s role as a technological partner to produce high-value premium labels. Images of the award-winning labels for the award-winning categories are:

• Latest innovation delivers up to 50% faster print speeds and 25% more battery life over any prior Pathfinder® generation

• Built to solve the pressures retailers and logistics operators face by enabling faster associate onboarding
• Adapts to existing user workflows while supporting labor and operational efficiencies

Avery Dennison, a global leader in materials science and digital identification solutions, today announces the launch of its latest unified handheld label printer, Pathfinder® Edge™.

The launch marks the most material step change yet in the 40-year history of the device. Engineered to help retailers and logistics operators move faster and work smarter on the shop floor and across the supply chain, Pathfinder Edge combines scanning, printing and label application in a single ergonomically enhanced device. The result is a tool that prints up to 50% faster than its predecessor, with up to 25% longer runtime on a single charge. It delivers significantly more labels per charge compared to prior models, keeping workflows moving through the busiest warehouse or shop floor shifts.

As a connected platform designed to fit seamlessly into modern data-driven operations, Pathfinder Edge is built to handle the full range of in-store and in-warehouse tasks, from price marking and markdowns to routing labels.

Key benefits include:

• Accuracy and throughput: Quick-scan trigger for rapid, accurate barcode capture in high-volume environments
• Trained in minutes, not days: An interface that makes training quicker and day-to-day use simpler
• Advanced connectivity with NFC, Wi-Fi 6e and  Bluetooth®, keeping the device in sync with the operations stack
• Minimized unplanned downtime: Predictive monitoring flags issues before they cause failures

When used with appropriate Avery Dennison labels, Pathfinder Edge addresses specific challenges across the retail and logistics industries:

• In parcel logistics, faster and more accurate print-and-apply means higher throughput, fewer misrouted shipments and failed deliveries – with less training and onboarding needed for seasonal associates 
• In apparel and general retail, accurate reticketing and markdowns enable stores to respond to shifting demand on the spot
• In food and grocery, markdown optimization helps reduce waste and improve on-shelf availability

Michael Goller, VP, Digital Solutions, Avery Dennison, says: “Retail and logistics leaders face a difficult landscape as customer expectations grow while labor and margin demands tighten. At the same time, many face the challenge of juggling multiple devices on the shop floor while tackling manual, error-prone workflows. That’s why we built Pathfinder Edge – to remove hassle and enable greater efficiency and accuracy.”

Pathfinder Edge is available now, launching as the first model in a new line of all-in-one mobile devices for retail and logistics. The next models in the line, which include RFID capabilities, will be available soon. This will extend the platform into inventory management, freshness tracking and reticketing. Avery Dennison remains fully committed to its client base and will continue to service the existing fleet of Pathfinder devices. 

Steinemann DPE, a KURZ company, based in  St. Gallen, Switzerland who develop and build industrial, high-end digital print embellishment machines for the graphic arts industry have appointed Weldon Celloplast Limited as their Agent in India.

KURZ/Steinemann DPE offers unique digital embellishment possibilities through perfectly coordinated system solutions consisting of machines, consumables, service, and software.

Steinemann DPE’s digital print enhancement solutions provide answers to these challenges:

• Fast changeover times for ever-smaller lot sizes
• Profitable production of small and medium-sized repeat orders, avoiding high inventory costs for on-demand orders
• Extremely fast availability of the finished packaging to the brand owner through quicker turnaround times from design, printing, embellishment to delivery
• Highest flexibility in implementing brand owner’s trends and design requirements on the packaging, including last-minute changes during production

KURZ INDIA PVT. LTD. is part of the KURZ Group, a worldwide leader in thin film technology with over 5,800 employees. KURZ develops and manufactures decorative and functional coating that are applied to carrier foils and employed for a wide variety of products: for automotive components, cell phones, TVs, washing machines, furniture, packaging, books, textiles, bottle labels, bank cards and lots more

Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi India is a total solutions provider to the label industry and represent globally renowned manufacturers of printing equipment, tooling, inspection and waste management systems besides offering tamper evident security label materials. Founded in 1982, Weldon offers comprehensive sales and service services for machinery and systems of the brands they represent. K D Sahni Managing Director of Weldon says, “KURZ/Steinemann DPE is offering unique digital embellishment equipment for both sheet and roll form converting of packaging. We look forward to a great collaboration with KURZ Group to enable our printers in embellishing the package for their demanding customers!”