Are you in the market for custom stickers? I want to share with you how to get the best possible quality for the best price – saving you money & time in the process.
So, let’s get straight into it.
1. Pick the best material
It’s important not to ‘over-engineer’ it. Picking a material that is too durable means you’re paying for extras you don’t need.
If your application is short term, say a few hours, or even minutes (as is the case in takeaway food), go for a paper sticker that reduces costs.
On the other hand, if you have a high-end brand, or need your label to last months, go for a durable plastic sticker with a plastic over-laminate. A laminate will protect the ink. It also makes the sticker waterproof & scratch-resistant.
2. Find the best print company
They, of course, need to supply the material you’ve chosen from point 1.
However, there are other important factors to consider, outside of the usual points.
The usual points are; ensuring they ship to you before you need the stickers and being happy with the price and confident they can deliver.
More specific to the printing, we suggest you check if they can print the colours you require. If your chosen print supplier can print more than just CMYK, get a wide colour gamut, which will help them print the colours you want.
Pure CMYK (cyan, yellow, magenta & black (key)), colours are limiting. Find suppliers that print violet, orange, green and white to hit your required colours.
3. Supply high-res. designs
The higher the resolution of your design, the better the final print will be.
You get two types of artwork format; bitmap & vector. Try to use vector artwork if feasible.
Vectors are mathematical equations, so can be scaled and not lose any quality. However, hundreds of tiny pixels make up a bitmap image. When these pixels are scaled, they can become visible, making the image look blurry.
Bitmap images should be 300 DPI (dots per inch) resolution and the same size as the final label you want making.
4. Go for a simple shape
We often see an overly complicated cutline on a sticker – this does not create the best finish. The edges get picked up over time, making the sticker less durable. A smooth, simple cutline gives a clean edge and a superior final finish.
Transparent stickers, where you want the background to be invisible, really benefit from a simple cutline.
5. Consider the best size, carefully!
This point sounds very simple, but we see a lot of people getting it wrong. Customers zoom right in on their computer and view their label.
Ensure you view it at 100% scale. It’s essential for little stickers (sub-3cm) due to small text.
I hope the five ideas above can ensure you get better custom stickers. For more help, please comment below.