Sticker Design Mistakes to avoid

Here are the biggest, most common sticker and label design mistakes we encounter:

1. Combining colour modes - Designing stickers and labels in CMYK, RGB and spot color combinations. Please pick a design mode and stick with it - either RGB or CMYK. At the time of writing, Adobe RGB (aRGB) is the best for digital sticker printing because the colour gamut is wider. No sticker printer can print simultaneously in all modes, so your sticker colors will be converted to aRGB, standard RGB or CMYK if the modes are mixed. Remember, spot or Pantone colors are for offset sticker printing only. CMYK is not recommended for digital sticker printing as the colours appear less vibrant and drained of life.

2. Checking your label design on your computer screen - Designing labels in magnified mode on screen and producing text that is so small it is illegible in reality - this is a common sticker and label design mistake and bedevils both new and sometimes even experienced graphic designers. Yes, it looks good on screen, but how does the actual, finished size translate in reality? I have sometimes had label artwork so small that the text is impossible to read in reality! Checking your artwork and text size is very simple - just print a copy on your laser or inkjet printer to original size. Its a simple and effective way to get a good idea of the actual size of your sticker and text.

3. Tiny text - the minimum size of text on your stickers should be 6 points. While some people can read a 3 point font, many can't. If you want people to actually read something on your label, make the font / text size as big as possible. The other issue is that digital printing makes use of a matrix of dots, so if your "dots" are too close together you will get "font fill." This is when the curls and strokes of your text are so close together the character becomes a blob. 

4. Unconverted text - Not converting raw text to curves / paths / outlines. The biggest problem with "print-ready" label artwork is getting a file with raw fonts. Please convert them. Believe it or not,  but your PC or Mac may just have a font we don't. 

5. Not grouping - Not grouping graphics (when applicable for your design program - notably Freehand, which is an old program but still in use).

6. Not flattening image / layers / artwork (when applicable for your graphic design program).

7. No bleed - Designing stickers without 2mm bleed. We need some fat to ensure we don't cut into important label graphics. 2 or 3mm isn't a lot of fat, so please give it to us. 

8. No gutters - Designing stickers without a minimum 2mm inside gutter (always applicable - the standard is actually a 3mm gutter). See Point 2 about magnified screen mode. Your text or logo may look 100 miles away from the edge of the label on screen, but in reality it could just be a hairbreadth away. Our presses are not designed to split atoms so please make sure your gutter and bleeds are reasonably forgiving of Classical physics. 

9. No cut contour - Designing a complicated custom-shaped sticker without the Cut Contour. The sticker design is only finished when the Cut Contour (die line) is in its comfortable place between the label gutter and the label bleed. Cut Contours do not touch or cross over each other.