Things to know about making labels

So you have decided to put a sticker on your product or work and need to know what you can and can’t do with its design. While modern printing technology means that printing adhesive labels is no more difficult than printing a conventual flier or business card, there are a few tricks you need to know to make sure you get the best results every time. Also, you need to be aware of what you can and can’t do with adhesive labels, so we will cover that too.

Margins and bleeds are doubly important

Most adhesive labels are die-cut in one form or another, and, because of this, you have to make allowance for the cutting to not be perfect on every label. This is especially true where we are using sheets of paper which have been pre die-cut and we are just printing over them, and we have no control how the sheets have been cut so there is a chance that individual sheets will have been cut slightly differently to the rest, putting your artwork out of alignment. Properly setup bleeds and margins will help counteract that effect.

Allow for the shape you are attaching the label to

Are you wanting a label to go on to a bottle, jar, over the corner of a box, or any other non flat surface? If that’s the case then allow the fact that people won’t see all of the label at once. For example, if you are wanting a beer bottle label (which we have printed a few) then the outer edges will curve around the sides of the bottle out of view. In this case you would put the key information in the center of the label where it catches people’s eyes and the other boring stuff to the outer edges. Another example is a takeaway coffee cup that needs a promo label put on to it. Putting a rectangular label on a conical shapes results in the label bending up at both ends in a curve. We can get around it by printing on a round label where the curving is no longer as obvious when it is attached to the cup.

Want a shape other than a rectangle?

If you wanted a label more like the wine bottle style or a nice oval, while we can’t cut them ourselves, we can get die-cut sheets of labels for a lot of common sizes and shapes in a variety of materials. However, because these are classed as a custom product, you’ll have to pay for a pack of sheets even if you only want a small number of them. If you want a unique shape then we can get a custom cutting die made with a specialist on your behalf. Again, this has a minimum run size and a much higher overhead, and you may have to pay for the die to be made again if you don’t use it every year.

Is it going near food or drink?

There’s a whole set of regulations relating to food packaging that are far too complex to cover in a short article like this. In a nutshell, the label must not have any form of contact with the food and if there is a risk of that happening it must be make using food safe inks and/or sealed to prevent contamination. Now, in small run situations, the labels we print in house at Copy Express are fine for most food packaging needs because people will putting the labels on the outside of a container that holds the food. If you are looking to do bigger runs, then we can work with specialists on your behalf to get labels that conform all appropriate regulations.

Do you need it to be weatherproof for outdoor use?

We have done bumper stickers and branding labels for tradies to put on their work. Depending on the situation, just a standard glossy paper label will work fine as that will survive getting cold and wet for a period of time before it starts to deteriorate. Where you need a longer lasting label then we can print on a plastic that is weather safe and is designed for such situations. The one thing we can’t stop, however, is fading. The toner printed labels that we produce in house do have some sensitivity to uv light, so here in New Zealand they do tend to fade faster than in other countries. If this is a concern to you we can put a UV protective lacquer over the labels to slow down the fading process.

This is just the start of what you should know when you are looking at creating an adhesive label. In fact, there’s enough material for several more articles on the subject. But to avoid bogging you down in the technical details, if you want to make a sticker, call us and we will help you find the right solution to your needs with the best return to your investment. That’s what we do here at Copy Express, so contact us today to learn more.