A helpful guide for sending label artwork to printers

Design

Crisp, clear artwork is key if a label is to do its job and look how you want it to look.

• If it’s your logo on a label it should be recognisable and words should be easy to read and a sensible size and not so small that it is difficult to see.
• The more idea a customer has about what they want will make the whole process a simple one.
• Think about typefaces as a starting point.
• Do you have a house style typeface in your company? Will it look right on a small label?
• At Ching we suggest steering clear of Roman style ones as they tend to lose definition when used on smaller sized labels.
• Borders too are important and have to be considered and they can disappear on labels when they are trimmed.

Sending files for print

Ensuring the right artwork is sent to a print house saves time for both the customer and the printer, no going back and forth resending different forms of artwork.

• Digital artwork comes in many forms but not all are suitable for all printing needs.
• The universal vector system is perfect for logos and can be sized up and down so effectively can be used on something the size of a business card or a large billboard.
• This approach, however, cannot be said of a bitmap image, which is one of the images known as a raster image, as when it is scaled up it can break up, leaving you with a blurred, unrecognisable image. A full list of unsuitable raster image files would also include bmp, jpeg, tiff, gif, png and svg files.
• Sending a compressed file containing your artwork is not advisable as most cannot print from Microsoft files such as Excel or Word as they are not valid design packages.

Collaborating with your printers

Of course, if this all seems a bit of a minefield to you then expert advice is on hand to help.

• It is best to thrash out detail at the beginning of a project rather than muddle through and send artwork which is incorrect for the job in hand.
• A phone call or meeting to discuss your exact requirements and in what format they need to be sent will save time and mean your job is completed and labels printed in a quicker timescale.

Click here to read our artwork requirements.

 

For the ideal label. Call us now on 01473 820060 or contact us.

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