The shifting landscape of label printing has required significant innovation from equipment and material suppliers. Speed, quality, and sustainability are all paramount, and every converter’s individual needs are different. With SKU proliferation and faster turnaround times, the equipment must be tailored to each company’s specific book of business. HEIDELBERG and Gallus have emphasized this reality with their newest R&D initiatives.

Converters have been tasked with maintaining productivity and profitability while navigating complex market dynamics and tightening margins. With the digital label printing market projected to grow to over $20 billion over the next 10 years, the segment represents a key driver of innovation and value creation across the packaging and print industries. 

“Gallus offers both standalone digital and hybrid platforms because converter needs differ,” explains Dario Urbinati, CEO, Gallus Group. “The Gallus One, a standalone press, is ideal for converters focused on short runs, fast turnaround, and variable data printing. The Gallus One is a compact, all-digital press designed for high efficiency, low waste, and minimal setup, perfect for markets demanding agility and personalization. 

“On the other hand, the Gallus Labelfire, a hybrid system, combines digital printing with flexo and finishing in a single line,” he adds. “This approach suits converters who manage a broad mix of short, medium, and long runs or who need inline embellishment. Our customers often find that the hybrid approach bridges the gap, providing digital flexibility with conventional efficiency. Because Gallus builds both platforms, we can help converters optimize configurations to best match their production strategy and growth targets. And today, our customers can find additional products in our portfolio. 

The changing needs of converters have necessitated significant innovation. Therefore, HEIDELBERG and Gallus have unveiled the Gallus Five and Gallus Alpha. Both presses have been engineered to serve different facets of the label and package printing market.

The Gallus Five is a high-performance hybrid press built on the robust Gallus Labelmaster platform, and it combines five key benefits to offer a combination of performance and versatility. Industrial throughput, high-resolution image quality, with plug and play modular configurability, and finishing at full press speed are all hallmarks of the new equipment. 

At the same time, total cost of ownership has been significantly reduced. Specifically, the new hybrid press offers 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution and production speeds up to 100 m/m, increasing productivity for label converters. Built on Gallus’ modular System to Compose concept, the Gallus Five is available in 340mm and 430mm widths and is fully compatible with the existing Gallus Labelmaster portfolio. Meanwhile, the newly introduced “SDC Pro” semi-rotary diecutter offers high-speed cutting at up to 100 m/m, rapid job changeovers, and optional cutting-depth adjustment. 

Developed together with HEIDELBERG, the Gallus Five also introduces a host of advanced features designed to optimize productivity and reduce costs. This makes it particularly valuable for volume-driven markets where consistent, industrial-level quality, speed, and efficiency are critical such as  health, beauty and cosmetics, pharmaceutical and OTC, as well as the food and household segments. The press incorporates the newly developed HEIDELBERG Saphira UV05 ink set – a major advancement in ink technology – with a high-pigmentation formulation that significantly cuts ink consumption, lowering total cost of ownership. It also delivers premium color performance, covering up to 95% of the Pantone color gamut, including the vast majority of the most frequently used spot colors in packaging while ensuring compliance with the latest ink safety regulations.

“Looking at our industry, I’m continually encouraged by the level of innovation and ingenuity emerging across the sector. Even in the face of challenges and volatility, print businesses continue to adapt, evolve, and move forward with new ideas and advancements all the time,” remarks Urbinati. “As a result, the landscape of digital technologies has advanced at an incredible pace – seeing improvements in aspects from quality and reliability to workflow automation. Naturally, as these digital technologies have evolved, so too has hybrid printing – and the real challenge in recent years wasn’t in the capabilities of technology itself, but in bridging the gap between the promise of digital and the reality of implementing it effectively on the printshop floor, whether as a standalone solution or part of a hybrid workflow.

“With platforms like our System to Compose, we’ve moved beyond simply combining technologies to creating hybrid systems that are designed intentionally as hybrid from the ground up,” Urbinati continues. “It’s not about forcing digital elements into a conventional workflow anymore; it’s about giving converters the ability to build holistic, flexible systems that seamlessly blend the agility of digital with the proven strengths of flexo. We’re now seeing that come to life across the industry – solutions that are smarter, more integrated, and genuinely transformative in how they help converters deliver more, faster, and with greater confidence than ever before.”

Serving the other end of the market, the new Gallus Alpha, an accessible, value-focused, digital-only printing solution, addresses the needs of converters looking for an efficient, cost-effective entry point into digital printing. Targeted at fast-growing markets such as retail, pharmaceutical, and logistics, the Gallus Alpha brings ease of use, flexibility, and performance to converters adapting to shorter runs and faster turnaround times. Available in 340mm width, the Gallus Alpha comes in two configurations – four-color + white or six-color + white – and offers high-resolution printing of 1200 × 1200 dpi at 65 m/m. 

Notably, the press provides a pure roll-to-roll digital configuration for operational simplicity and seamless integration into existing production workflows. With the Gallus Alpha, converters gain a digital-first platform that enables faster onboarding, versioning, and agile job switching, all critical to thriving in a dynamic, fast-paced marketplace.

“Today’s converters need future-ready solutions that deliver industrial speed, accuracy, and workflow automation to run a profitable business,” says Urbinati. “With the Gallus Five and Gallus Alpha, we’re enabling smarter, more connected printing at every level, from entry-level systems to fully scalable hybrid platforms. 

“Importantly, with the Gallus Five, we are taking the market beyond conventional definitions of hybrid,” he continues. “The press represents a new evolution: a high-performance, fully integrated solution that brings together the best of digital and conventional technologies, intentionally designed and crafted from the ground up and anchored by our System to Compose approach. This isn’t just another evolution in technical capability – it’s a holistic, practical approach focused on removing barriers in even the most demanding areas of the market, accelerating digital adoption, and creating tangible, game-changing opportunities for converters worldwide.”

HEIDELBERG and Gallus have positioned themselves for a bright future in this industry, one that will increasingly rely on flexibility, speed, and automation. The ultimate goal is to simplify the printing process for label converters and deliver solutions that meet their needs.

“At Gallus, we envision a future where digital label printing continues to revolutionize the industry, driven by advancements in automation, integration, and ease of use,” notes Urbinati. “Converters should anticipate seamless integration across the entire production process. Gallus is at the forefront of this transformation, offering solutions that connect the  prepress, printing, and finishing stages.”

Customer demand for personalized products will only continue to rise. Gallus’ digital printing technology enables converters to offer high-quality, customized labels that cater to niche markets and specific
consumer preferences. 

“Additionally, according to industry reports, the market is projected to reach $36.9 billion by 2030, driven by scalability of inkjet technology and increasing demand for short-run, high-quality labels,” adds Urbinati. “Gallus is ready to support converters in capitalizing on this growth by providing digital printing solutions that cater to diverse market needs.”