The paper aims to study the evolution path and R & D hotspots of flexographic printing technology. The patent data was measured and visualized by CiteSpace with patents related to flexographic printing technology collected in Derwent Innovation Index (DII) as data sources. This paper drew a map of research and development hotspots and frontiers of flexographic printing technology, and identified the hotspots and frontiers of flexographic printing technology with word frequency detection technology provided by CiteSpace software. Through clustering, it can be found that the patent literature mainly focused on the production of printing plate, printing ink, printing equipment and flexible printing electronics and other fields. The research initially focused the field of ink and inkjet printing for flexible printing, followed by plate-making. In the next few years, new research hotspots emerged, such as control systems, touch screens, sheet feeding and binding, around various parts of the printing equipment. The flexographic printing technology based on patent knowledge map analysis can be applied to the knowledge management process, providing decision-making basis and technical support for flexographic industry to explore the frontiers of disciplines and provide knowledge services.