Flexographic printing, or flexo, is a relief printing technique similar to letterpress that employs rubber or soft plastic plates, a simple inking system and fast drying inks. Flexo printing allows the inked surface to apply to many kinds of substrates, such as plastic film, light or heavy paper, natural kraft, stretchable material, foil, etc. It's the most flexible, or diverse type of printing process.

In gravure printing, the image is applied to a printing substrate by use of a metal plate mounted on a cylinder.  It uses a depressed or sunken surface for desired image.  The image to be reproduced is etched into the metal plate, sometimes using a laser.  The metal plate is bathed in ink then wiped clean before application.