Esko on 3 June opened Esko World 2026 by unveiling a host of new innovations designed to help brands and packaging suppliers accelerate digital transformation, improve collaboration, and deliver smarter, more connected packaging workflows from specification through to final production.
Taking place in New Orleans, the global packaging technology event brings together packaging converters, label specialists, brand representatives and premedia professionals under the theme ‘Jazz up your packaging.’ At the center of this year’s innovation strategy is the evolving Esko vision ‘Spec to Pack’, connecting packaging specifications, assets, workflows and production data across the entire packaging lifecycle in a single, unified digital ecosystem.
“Packaging today is no longer a collection of disconnected workflows,” said Srinivas Kuppa, Esko chief product officer. “With the Esko AI-enabled packaging cloud, we are creating a connected digital foundation where intelligence permeates every capability layer, helping customers move faster, ensure compliance, and deliver uncompromising quality from packaging concept to print.”
As the three-day Esko World event began, Esko highlighted the continued expansion of its S2 platform, the packaging cloud environment that connects all Esko applications, workflows and packaging data in a single scalable ecosystem designed to improve collaboration, automation and speed-to-market.
“As part of the evolution of S2, we are thrilled to introduce several new AI-enabled innovations, focused on improving productivity and reducing complexity across packaging operations,” said Jan De Roeck, Esko director of Marketing.
These include:
*SmartSelect in ArtPro+ – enabling fast, accurate and safe interactive editing
*ReArt – helping deskill complex prepress tasks including object replacement, trapping and marks creation
*Comply – providing AI-assisted artwork reviews inside WebCenter and WebCenter Go to verify approved copy, formatting, barcode data and required symbols
“We are also delighted to introduce our new Packaging Artwork Suite at Esko World,” said Jan. “Available soon as a plugin for Adobe® Illustrator®, the Packaging Artwork Suite leverages the power of agentic AI to boost productivity for the packaging artist – reading supplied information to build a consolidated brief, and transforming this into artwork updates, while keeping the artist in control every step along the way.
“Packaging teams are under constant pressure to deliver more, faster and at exceptional accuracy,” he said. “These factors often compete against each other, and prioritizing speed above all risks a back-slide in quality. By combining packaging-specific intelligence with connected workflows and automation, we are enabling organizations to reduce manual effort, improve operational efficiency, and accelerate speed-to-market, without any compromise in quality.”
New Packaging Hub revealed
A major focus at this year’s Esko World is the introduction of the Packaging Hub, a new asset-and-specification-driven intelligence capability, built on the S2 platform. “The Packaging Hub combines our asset and packaging expertise to address critical parts of the packaging lifecycle that have traditionally been managed separately, delivering clear advantages to customers,” said Jan. “It enables teams to understand complex packaging relationships, manage changes, and confidently reuse components by creating a connected system of record for packaging that makes assets contextual, connected, and ready to use across the Esko ecosystem.
“The Packaging Hub provides a deep understanding of packaging components, variants, and dependencies, as well as visibility into relationships across assets, specifications, and packaging workflows. It enables AI-driven discovery and recommendations for reuse and optimization, while delivering faster adaption, native integration, and scalable portfolio management – and all this with reduced manual tracking, rework, and risk.”
The Packaging Hub delivers both asset and specification management, at a reasonable price point and with a low barrier to entry. “Bringing these crucial elements together in this way helps minimize risks, reduces errors, and give users the transparency they need to ultimately accelerate the packaging lifecycle from spec-to-shelf,” said Jan.
“Built specifically for the realities of packaging production, the Packaging Hub helps both brands and packaging suppliers search, reuse and manage packaging assets with greater speed, confidence and control while providing earlier visibility into change impact, compliance, feasibility, cost and delivery implications.”
Esko also used the opening day of Esko World to formally announce the commercial availability of the new XPS Spark 4835, a purpose-built digital LED plate exposure system developed for label converters, tradeshops and flexible packaging producers. The XPS Spark replaces traditional UV tube bank exposure systems with next-generation LED exposure technology that delivers highly consistent plate quality, simplified operation and improved sustainability performance.
“The launch of the XPS Spark underlines our commitment to helping flexo customers modernize plate production with solutions that combine quality, simplicity, sustainability and operational efficiency,” said Jan. “The compact, plug-and-play system delivers homogeneous exposure across the entire plate surface using patented Esko optics technology, eliminating uneven exposure artefacts commonly associated with aging, tube-based systems.
“Importantly, the new XPS Spark delivers consistent, repeatable plate quality while also reducing environmental impact through up to 80% lower energy consumption and the elimination of mercury-based UV lamps,” said Jan.
Featuring an open exposure parameter system supporting all major flexo plate vendors, the XPS Spark gives users the flexibility to optimize settings according to their own workflows and production requirements. “The XPS Spark was developed specifically to address the growing market need for a future-ready alternative to aging UV exposure systems that is easier to maintain, more sustainable and capable of delivering premium print consistency without unnecessary complexity,” said Jan.
