Product Labels

Product label printing is very much a two sided story; as a label manufacturer we can, of course, only custom print labels that we have been given in your artwork. If we are sent great quality artwork, as AU’s online label printer, we are certain we can produce fantastic quality printed labels on rolls using it. Where artwork isn’t quite up to scratch … issues with quality and consistency can and do arise – and that goes for any label printing company! Here are a couple of things to consider:

Bleed/Safety Zones – We utilise a number of machines to print custom printed labels on rolls. As your printed labels are running through our cutting machines, the material can wobble up to 1.5mm from top to bottom; not bad considering the size of the machines are the length of a production hall. This effect is sadly unavoidable for any roll label printing company; however, here’s how we get around it. By using a print bleed. This basically means continuing your printed labels background or design an extra 2.5mm around the entire perimeter of your label. For example, if you are looking for a label that measures 100mm in diameter, you should provide artwork that is 105mm in diameter, allowing for the print bleed. For the same reasoning, no information or important design elements should be within 2mm of the edge of your label artwork.

Set up Colours using CMYK – The screen you are using to read this webpage is using RGB (Red, green and blue). Any print materials, whether they be magazines, flyers or printed labels on rolls use the CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key, Black) colour space. Ensure that your label artwork is set up in CMYK otherwise the colours could be very different!

Invest in a Professional Designer – As an online, product label printing company we see hundreds of designs of custom product labels each each an every day. It’s safe to say that the labels that we print again and again are the professionally designed product labels; the products that they have been applied to aren’t just selling, they’re selling well!

We can appreciate that professional design is an additional cost, however, from experience we see it as an investment that repays itself tenfold over time. At this stage we do not offer any design services, we see it best that the creative people out there look after the label design and we’ll look after the production side of things. Read More about artwork requirements here. ** For the record, there is nothing cooler to a label manufacturer than receiving print ready artwork. It makes it easier to discuss, advise on and ultimately produce awesome packaging labels.

As well as the product label printing side of things, it’s also important to understand how your printed labels will be used once they have been delivered. Will the roll labels be used in a label application machine? If so then it is important that you have explored winding directions and roll core-sizes; we’re pretty sure that you’ll want the labels to fit in tour machine. Read more about roll labels and configurations here.Another note on machine-use and bottling lines in particular. Do you know if your bottler is to apply your bottle labels while the bottles are being filled or still wet? Are the bottles to be  then washed down again? This is important to know where you are looking to use paper-based materials for your custom printed product labels. Paper labels like to absorb water. Condensation in’t normally too much of a problem where a UV varnish has been applied. This being said, some bottling lines use far more water in some filling processes – in this case we would always recommend using polymeric based material such as polypropylene as it will not absorb any water, no matter how wet the environment. If the labels are not to be used in a machine then it is well worth thinking about how the labels on rolls will be handled manually by you or your team.

Are you looking to overprint your product labels with best before dates or other forms of post production information? Have you considered the print technology you will be using? Industry standard is generally thermal transfer printing and all of our materials and varnishes are compatible. Things to look out for are inkjet printing, direct thermal printing and of course any roll configurations that are required so they will fit correctly in your on-site printer.