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About Markets Tools & Services

Coloration

Vibrant, compliant and attention-grabbing packaging

Vibrant, compliant and attention-grabbing packaging

Color plays a pivotal role in all aspects of life. It lightens and brightens the world, it attracts our attention, and it can turn the ordinary into something extraordinary.

It’s the same in packaging too. Color (and the properties associated with the colorants used) can be the difference between a customer picking up a product, or walking straight past it. It can be the difference between a package complying with safety regulations, or falling short. And it can be the difference between a brand being perceived as high-end, or considered careless in its approach to the consistency of its brand identity.

Our coloration solutions for paper and board packaging cover all of these – making packaging look great and perform better, while enhancing the opportunity for circularity, and supporting paper producers, converters and brands to meet their sustainability goals.

Bringing the color

We provide a full range of solutions for coloration tailored for the paper and board packaging industry, with a focus on sustainability, regulatory compliance, and high-performance applications.

Our range of pigments, dyes and optical brighteners are designed to enhance printability, color vibrancy, and surface finish.

The high substantivity of the dye to the fiber, or substrate, ensures efficient dye retention – improving waste water cleanliness, reducing waste and supporting eco-friendly production. These solutions also meet eco-label standards and depending on product selection it can have Nordic Swan, Blue Angel, EU Ecolabel and BfR & FDA food-contact.

Carta® – Anionic dyes

Carta® liquid dyes are a range of anionic direct dyes specially developed for packaging paper and board applications. They provide reliable and economical coloration of board and other paper grades, ensuring that customer’s shade requirements are met. Many also comply with essential regulations like Nordic Swan, Blue Angel, EU Ecolabel and BfR & FDA food-contact.

Carta® liquid dyes are REACH-registered within Europe and TSCA within the US – while some are certified for compostability.

These dyes support recyclability and regulatory compliance, making them a versatile choice for high-quality, eco-conscious packaging​.

Cartasol® – Anionic & cationic dyes

Cartasol F® is a range of attractive anionic direct dyes. They offer superior performance, including high substantivity, good lightfastness, and excellent bleed resistance. For deeper shades they can be used together with Cartafix® fixing agents for perfect results. Ideal for colorful fine paper and board.

Cartasol K dyes have similar attractive shades, but have the added benefit of a cationic charge which helps the dye attach very quickly to the fiber. This allows clean backwaters and quick shade changes as they can be added very late in the system.

Cartasol M dyes are cationic dyes specially developed for attractive board packaging. They cover all types of fiber and can be added in both wet end or surface applications.

Cartasol® dyes are REACH-registered and suitable for food-contact applications as most are also BfR compliant. Many are also confirmed to be compostible.

Diresul® – Sulfur dyes

Diresul® is a range of sulfur dyes designed for deep, rich coloration in paper and board packaging applications.

The Diresul® range provides excellent dye retention giving clean backwaters even at extremely deep shades. This is a clear advantage over carbon black pigments and direct dyes which aren’t able to achieve the depth of shade, and can make the system dirty.

These formulations are food-contact compliant (BfR certified). They are also approved by Nordic Swan, Blue Angel & EU Ecolabel eco-label standards. Particularly effective for achieving intense black shades, these dyes offer high lightfastness, excellent bleed resistance and food contact compliance.

Diresul® solutions are widely used in premium packaging but can actually be used for any paper requiring deep black shades with excellent lightfastness and bleedfastness.

Cartaren® – Pigments

Cartaren® is a range of pigment dispersions that provide vibrant, stable coloration with excellent lightfastness and bleed resistance – making them ideal for premium packaging and specialty paper applications.

Additionally Blue and Violets are commonly used for tinting white papers and boards. The bright shades help to maximize the whiteness levels achieved and are applied together with optical brighteners offering Optical brightening agent (OBA) efficiency savings.

The Cartaren® range is eco-friendly, REACH-compliant, and meets food-contact safety standards (BfR & FDA). And with high durability and regulatory compliance, Cartaren® is an excellent choice for enhancing printability, surface appearance, and recyclability in paper-based packaging​.

Cartazine® – Basic dyes

Cartazine® are traditional basic dyes, offering attractive bright shades for wood-containing packaging grades. Typical uses include eggboxes and moulded fiber where high lightfastness is not required.

Some Cartazine® products are labelled as pre-58 FDA food-contact compliant.

Cartafix® – Fixing  agents

Cartafix® are cationic fixing agents that can help to improve the backwater and bleedfastness of anionic direct dyes and help retain pigments in paper or board.

The Cartafix® range complies with Nordic Swan, Blue Angel, EU Ecolabel and is BfR & FDA food-contact.

Leucophor® – Optical brightening agent (OBA)

Leucophor® is a range of OBAs designed to enhance the whiteness and brightness of paper and board packaging. These agents absorb UV light and re-emit it as visible blue light, counteracting yellowish tones and providing a crisper, more vibrant appearance.

Our offering can vary due to regulations by region. In Europe our Leucophor® OBAs are REACH-compliant and suitable for food-contact applications (BfR compliant). Within North America our Tetra and Disulpho FDA approved OBAs are also available.

These solutions help to reduce reliance on bleaching, improve print contrast and ensure brilliant whiteness – an ideal option for premium and recycled paper packaging​.

Questions about our solutions?

Reach out here and will get back to you as soon as possible.

Get in contact

Product availability may vary by country or region. Some products may not be available in certain markets. Our team is always on-hand to help – please contact us to discuss

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