Leave Your Mark: How to Print Labels for Products and Packaging

A popular choice for products of all kinds is custom roll labels. Durable and moisture-resistant, roll labels feature BOPP plastic and permanent adhesive to keep your branding and messaging vibrant (and effective) at all times. 

No matter where you display your products, roll label printing with Smartpress keeps them in the spotlight. How exactly? With gloss and matte coating options that suit your sell. Have luxe makeup products that need serious shine? Go with gloss. Creating a vintage vibe with handmade jewelry? Stick with matte.

On a roll with a 3” diameter core, roll labels are available in four different shapes and standard sizes. And while they can be interchangeable, some product packaging just looks better with a specific shape. We suggest:

• Circle Roll Labels: Mason jar labels for jam, honey, pickles… basically anything with a lid!
• Rectangle Roll Labels: For homemade candles and wine, beer and water bottles.
• Square Roll Labels: For coffee bags, nutrition labels and ingredients, lip balms and other beauty packaging. 
• Oval Roll Labels: For handmade soaps and lotions that call for a more refined, unique look.

As a customer-focused online printer, Smartpress makes it possible to create and print packaging Labels on traditional sheets, too. Simple to store in a stack just about anywhere, these labels can be designed with custom dimensions – no shape or size is off limits!

And speaking of shapes, with digital laser cutting, you can print your own labels in nearly any shape you can think of. Whether you need hundreds of labels in the same shape or want to vary your label design across products, we make it easy with these laser cutting options:

• Die Cut Single: This cut is a single label cut on the dieline.
• Kiss Cut Single: A single label cut on the dieline with an additional die cut about 1/4” around to allow for easier removal from the label liner.
• Kiss Cut Sheet: This cut gives you multiple labels per sheet with one cutting design.
• Combo Sheet: This cut results in multiple designs with a kiss cut on one sheet.

Hint: Die… what? A dieline is basically a template of your label that shows where your design will be cut.

As you design, there’s one important question to keep in mind before you print product labels: Do you use permanent labels or removable labels? Well, if you need to reposition or remove labels altogether, go with a removable stock. If you want to apply your labels once and keep them there for good, choose a permanent stock.

While roll labels are available on permanent stock only, our sheet labels are a bit more flexible. With those, you’ll find permanent, removable and the fan-favorite crack ‘n’ peel stock, which features a liner that’s scored for you to easily crack and peel off.

Schmidt, who used crack ‘n’ peel for her candles, found our adhesion to be the answer to her previous label woes.

“We adhere our labels to both glass and metal. Compared to the many other labels we tested, Smartpress delivered the highest print quality and consistent product,” she said. “We struggled with other labels bubbling on glass jars, but that has never been a problem since switching to Smartpress!”

Hint: Want to learn more about label stocks? Check out our Label Printing FAQ.

Whether you’re a small business owner with a handful of products or a corporation with hundreds, chances are you need more than one label design. That’s where online printing with Smartpress really pays off. With our Versions feature, you can print multiple custom labels with different content in the same order. (Note: Versions is available on sheet labels only, not roll labels.)

Just think of how many different types of one product you can have. Different scents, different flavors, different colors. And how tedious and expensive it would be to print each design separately. 

Versions takes that process and simplifies it (while keeping you on-budget, too). As long as your labels are the same size, on the same stock and have the same finish, you can change the content and artwork all you like.

Used on her candle labels, Schmidt can attest to the convenience of Versions. “[It] has allowed us to order in bulk easily, while ensuring a consistent product for different labels,” she said. “We don’t have to worry about re-entering dimensions or other settings multiple times – they’re all attached to the same item. It really makes ordering a breeze.”

No matter your level of design experience, Smartpress’ online printing services make creating labels for your business seamless. From concept to final product, the collaboration continues through it all.

Caitlin Pace, sales, marketing and materials manager for Minnesota Women’s Care, was most impressed with “how vivid the colors were and how crisp even the smallest details printed” on her dietary supplement labels. “The sheet label format is great, it is easy to use and straight to the point. The labels went on with ease.” 

For Arnold, proficient processes made an impact. “Reordering is easy, PDF proofs are quick, and there are humans behind each label review, so mistakes are caught!”

Ultimately, it’s personalized service from start to finish.

“There are so many reasons we’ve loved working with Smartpress,” said Schmidt. “The labels are affordable, print quality is amazing and the customer service is above and beyond! Any time we’ve run into a question or needed a quick turnaround, the team has replied promptly and gone above and beyond to get us what’s needed.”

Hint: Dive even deeper into product label printing and branding here: Custom Branding: Printing Labels, Stickers & Decals for Products & Packaging.