How To Get The Best Quality Printed Labels At An Affordable Price

_{Ian Renton  | 01/10/2019 | Digital Label Printing,Label Printing - Miscellaneous}

The common goal that most of our clients are trying to achieve is how to get the best quality printed labels at an affordable price. A third and fourth request from our clients is to have the labels printed in Australia and in a timely manner.

The first step is to get the labels printed on the right machine. Last week, we received a visit from a supplier of nuts who was looking to solve this exact problem. He had 54 different labels so offset printing, whilst it would have produced great quality labels, would not been cost effective as preparation costs would have run into several thousand dollars before a label was even printed.

Digital label printing technology has come a long way in ten years. In fact, there are many digital label printing machines available.

Most machines will produce high quality printed labels but surprisingly, it is not always the most expensive machine that produces the best labels. Many of our labels are printed on the Epson Surepress L-4533AW which is less expensive than many other digital label printing options. The advantage of this inkjet machine is that it prints in multiple passes.

To imagine this, think of a painter engaged to paint your house. The painter that just uses one coat of paint will be finished faster than the painter that uses two or three coats of paint. However, the painter that uses two to three layers of paint will produce a better quality paint job. This is exactly what happens with the Epson Surepress.

It is slower than other digital label printers but produces very high quality labels because it prints over the label multiple times. The result is that the colours are very crisp and exactly as they should be. We had one customer recently ask us about the quality of our black printing. When we sent her samples of our printed labels, she was suitably impressed.

When it comes to label printing, there is black and then there is black. It means that the multiple passes of the Epson Surepress can actually produce the colour black more crisper and darker than what other digital label printing machines can provide. The same applies for other colours printed.

Improve The Quality Of Your Printed Labels With The Right Design And The Right Stock

You can also improve the quality of your printed labels with the right design and the right stock. One thing that expensive label printing machines cant do is produce great quality printed labels from inferior artwork. If the label artwork is provided in a low resolution then the printed label will also be in a low resolution, i.e. in a low quality.

It is important to get the right design for your printed labels. This means engaging the services of a skilled graphic designer. You can also contact our graphic designers to help you in getting the best artwork. The stock you use for your printed labels also can impact the final quality of these labels. However, it is expensive to pay for embossing and foiling especially if your runs are not large. When you use a higher quality stock, this will not impact the cost of your printed labels significantly if your print run is fairly short.

One thing we often do is print on silver PP stock, add white ink and then print four colours, i.e. CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) on top of that. This enables the label to look shiny and give the impression it is foiled. It means you can effectively add foil to your product labels without paying for it.

In summary, this is how to get the best quality printed labels at an affordable price.

1. Your labels should be printed on the right machine.
2. Get the right design.
3. Choose the best stock.