Flexography is the fastest growing conventional printing process, especially in packaging such as corrugated containers and flexible films. It has also made significant advances in publication printing, particularly newspapers. Because the quality of flexo printing has improved so much, it is now used extensively for process colour printing, as well as spot colour, on a wide variety of materials.

It is used extensively for printing tags and labels, many in full process colour. Flexography was originally called aniline printing because of the aniline dye inks that were originally used in the process.

The aniline dyes were made from coal tar and were banned for use in food packaging by the FDA because of their toxicity.

Flexography is like letterpress in that both print from a raised image surface. Flexo plates, whether molded from rubber or imaged from photopolymer, are generally made from flexible materials. Flexo inks generally are low viscosity, highly fluid and quick drying, although there is a trend toward higher viscosity inks. The inks are made from a dispersion of resins, solvents, colour and additives, which are either organic or aqueous based.

Essentially, flexographic printing is a modern version of letterpress, widely used for printing on the non-porous materials used in various types of food packaging. Flexographic printing is also well suited for printing large areas of solid color.