Before you hire a label printing company, it is good first to look at their sample labels and see if those prints are indeed good enough for you. Printing labels is of course no joke and you will want to spend your money on the best printing firm that will give you the best labels that you want.
Below is the standard criteria by which you should judge custom labels. If the sample label printing does not pass these criteria, then you might want to look elsewhere for your label printing. It is best to really be accurate with this so that you do not have to waste time and money. So remember these criteria carefully.
1. Label image quality.
Initially you may want to look at the image quality of the sample labels that you may be viewing. The image or graphic is of course the defining element of a custom label, communicating a lot of information in a small amount of space. That is why it is important that the label is clean and sharp. There must not be any distortions, fuzziness or obvious pixels present in the image. The colors should be vivid and real looking while the whole image must not have any noise, dots or odd cuts. So look at the images of the sample labels closely and see if they are crystal clear or not.
2. Label ink quality.
You should also check the label ink quality. A good quality custom label will have inks that are water resistant, with no apparent spots, spills or blots. Beyond that, the colors of the inks must be mixed well even if it is printed in RGB or CMYK. So look at the accuracy of the inks carefully in those sample labels and see if they are indeed printed with extreme precision with the best ink materials possible.
3. Label printing accuracy.
Next, you should also check out if the labels are printed accuracy. Any subtle misalignments in the design, or maybe a misalignment with the design and the shape of the label itself is a bad sign. When you see that kind of printing, it means that the machines used for those color labels are not really accurate and produce alignment errors. This means that your custom label printing might turn awry with some labels looking far different and misaligned than others. It is best that you switch label printing companies if you see gross inaccuracies and misalignments.
4. Label paper materials.
The materials for label printing must also be checked. Typically the sample label must have very thick paper materials with a good outer coating for moisture and dirt resistance. If the sample labels you are looking at does not have at least these characteristics then you might expect low quality labels that easily deteriorate from that label printing company. So make sure that you scope out the materials before committing to any label printing order.
5. Additional label elements.
Lastly, try to check if the sample labels have other unique elements. Embedded materials, metallic inks and even customized shaping of labels are a great signs of a good label printer. This means that you can actually be more creative with your label designs that usual with that particular label printing company. Otherwise, if your sample labels do not have these additional elements you might want to rethink and find a printing company that does offer that kind of printing.
So that is how you judge custom labels. Make sure that you review the list above while you analyze an example label print. This should really help you figure out what type of color label you want, and of course, the right type of label printing company that you need.
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