Welcome to our new series, where we share quick technical tips for better label design! This post will walk you through creating a simple rectangular or circular label template in Adobe Illustrator, including bleed and safety margins. Check out the embedded video below for a step-by-step demonstration or read below for a quick tutorial.
Key Steps and Tips
Document Size and Bleed
Create a new document (e.g., 4″ wide × 3″ tall).
Set bleed to 1/16 inch (0.0625″).
This 1/16″ bleed applies no matter the overall label size.
Inside Safety Margin
Create a guide 1/16″ inside the label to mark your “type limit” or “die safety margin.”
In Illustrator, you can do this by drawing a box the same size as the label and then using an Offset Path at –1/16″. Convert it to a guide so it won’t print.
Shape Options
Rectangles: Use the desired dimensions (e.g., 4″ × 3″).
Circles: Set your artboard to the size of the circle (e.g., 1″ × 1″).
Tell your CSR (Customer Service Representative at Rose City Label) the shape and size so it’s clear whether you’re printing a circle, rectangle, or any other shape.
Background and Bleed
Extend your background color or imagerybeyond the bleed line.
The red line (or outer border) marks where the label will be cut. Make sure your background or any non-critical design elements continue past this line.
Safe Zone for Text and Critical Graphics
Keep all important text and imageswithin the 1/16″ safety margin inside the label.
This ensures important elements won’t be trimmed off or look misaligned if the label shifts slightly during cutting.
Why This Matters
Prevents Trimming Errors: Setting up bleed and safety margins ensures your label designs come out crisp and professional without unwanted white edges.
Maintains Legibility: Keeping text within the safe zone avoids accidentally cutting off important info.
Simplifies Production: Printers have consistent guidelines to follow, reducing back-and-forth corrections.
That’s all there is to it! Embedding a proper bleed, creating clear safe zones, and specifying the correct shape upfront will help your labels print perfectly every time.
If you have any questions or need assistance with your label designs, feel free to contact our team. We’re here to help you get the best results possible!
Have you ever wondered how your label order goes from a mere idea to a tangible, beautifully printed label? If you’re considering ordering custom labels for your product, this post is for you. Let’s take a delightful journey together through the order flow at Rose City Label.
1. Get a Current Price Quote – Your First Step!
Before anything else happens, you need to get current pricing. For some of our regular customers, the pricing stays consistent, but if you only order occasionally, it is good to get a current, complete quotation:
Decide on Specifications: Think about the size, color, design, material, and quantity of the labels you need.
Submit Details: Using our online quote form or through direct consultation, provide all your label details and any special instructions.
Receive Quote: We’ll then give you a price quote based on your requirements.
2. Submit Your PO – this is where the fun begins.
Submit your written PO (if you use them), current Credit Card information (if not on N30 terms), and artwork.
If it is a NEW or Changed order, please submit a high-resolution PDF or Adobe Illustrator files. If there are any edits to the artwork, please list those edits clearly.
Pro-tip!Even if the artwork was submitted with the quote, it is very helpful to resubmit the most current, final artwork with your order.
Once the order is entered, a workspace is created for any artwork needed, press time is reserved, and material is checked and ordered as needed.
3. New or changed item? Enter the Magical World of PDF Proofs
Once you’ve placed your order and handed over your design, you might wonder, “How will I know it will print the way I envisioned it?” Enter the world of PDF proofs!
Proof Creation: Our amazing design team will prepare a PDF proof. This is a digital representation of how your label will look once printed.
Your Approval: Review the proof thoroughly. Check every detail – colors, fonts, positions, and more. If something doesn’t look right or you change your mind about a detail, this your chance to let us know! Our priority is to get it just right for you!
We can provide digital (Adobe-Sign) proofs for online approval, or you can print, sign, and return your proofs manually. It is critical that we get a signature on the proof itself, rather than just an email reply. We want to have the exact proof approved for you.
If your order is DIGITAL, you may request a physical printed proof. This will be on your exact label stock, printed on our production press. This is nearly identical to the final label, but it isn’t varnished or die-cut. This is the final and most accurate way to approve your final label. This press proof adds time and cost but avoids big mistakes.
If your order is TRADITIONAL, we can schedule an on-site press check to view the job on press, sign it off, and begin production right away. This is a great way to see the final product and protect yourself from problems.
Finalization: Once you give the thumbs up, the design is locked in. We will now move forward with the actual printing process.
4. Processing & Printing – The Exciting Part!
This is where the magic really happens!
Preparation: Rose City Label’s design team ensures your label is print-ready, considering factors like bleed, resolution, and color accuracy. Digital orders are sent directly to the press print for printing, die cutting, and any other embellishments. Traditional orders are sent to our in-house plate making department.
Printing: Using top-notch machines and quality materials, your labels are printed with precision and care.
Quality Check: Before anything gets sent out, a quality control team ensures everything looks as it should. We’re talking color, clarity, and overall awesomeness!
5. Your Beautiful Labels are on the Way!
With everything printed and checked, your labels are packaged and shipped to you. Before you know it, a package arrives at your office, filled with your gorgeous, custom-designed labels.
Only after the labels are printed, checked and shipped will you be invoiced. At that point, if you are paying by Credit Card, your card will be charged and an electronic receipt will be sent.
Ordering custom labels isn’t just about slapping a design on some material and hoping for the best. It’s a meticulous process that ensures your vision comes to life just as you imagined it. Next time you receive a custom label, take a moment to appreciate the journey it’s been on. And if you’re ready to start your own label journey, now you know just what to expect!
Recently Rose City Label upgraded our print quality standards to match the most stringent G7 quality standard in the printing world. With a multi-day onsite audit, we were able to demonstrate our ability to precisely match print targets. This is a true mathematical proof that our print quality meets or exceeds the highest international standards. Check the certificate by clicking here.
Why Get Certified?
The Idealiance website says it best, and we couldn’t agree more. Print is competitive, and to be successful, you have to be VERY GOOD at your craft. We are raising the bar so we can keep meeting your needs. Measuring ourselves against high standards means we always produce certified world class quality. Learn more about G7 quality here.
Print service providers of all types know that a measurable, predictable, and uniform color management process provides significant business advantages. For printers to make money, orders must be turned around quickly, they must be consistent and they must predictable.
Investing in People, too!
Besides recognizing our facility, the auditors also look at the technical quality of our people. Both of our graphics people – Lisa and Amy – were awarded a separate certification for their expertise. We have high standards. We invest in our people and they do their best to meet our customer needs every day. It is a team effort and we all enjoy working together to make outstanding labels.
And, WE ARE HIRING! We always need a ready supply of highly trained peole to keep up with our workload. If being a part of a team like this sounds good, please contact us today.
Beautiful, repeatable labels
Printing is an art – and it always will be. But, there is a massive amount of science built into the art of printing. For repeatable, high quality labels, we need measurable standards and targets. Our production team is using more technology and automation everyday to ensure that our quality keeps rising over time. ‘Eye ball color’ isn’t good enough today. With this certification we are demonstrating to ourselves and our customers that we are committed to measurable quality.
Continuous Improvement – Forever and Always!
This certification is just one of many ways we challenge ourselves to get better over time. Today we print more labels, with better quality, than we ever have before. We measure and we improve over time in our print quality, our business performance, and in our environmental stewardship. This is a long game. As a 94 year old family business we have a unique perspective. We are here for the future to keep meeting all our customers’ needs. Call us today if you want to partner with a leader that is always getting better.
This Fall Rose City Label is again investing in new technology to serve more customers. This new servo driven press will provide the fastest, most economical option for mid and long run labels. Our digital business is booming with the small to mid length runs, and this press will round out our capabilities.
Fastest Speed and Precise Registration
As wonderful as our HP Indigo Digital Press is, it still has limitations. This new press is designed to run up to 4x (400%) faster than the HP press. On longer runs, that massive speed increase means faster deliveries and lower cost to you, our customer. And, the quality is unmatched in the traditional press arena. The full 8 color capabilities mean that we can print a beautiful 4C (CMYK) image, along with a specific pantone color for a logo element, and keep all the colors in precise register tolerance. This is a whole new level of long run quality. New Press for Faster Labels – for you!
Computer Controlled Technology
Even though we have done traditional printing for over 50 years, this takes the game to a new level. This is computer controlled, servo driven quality. This means faster learning for our press operators, more reliable operation, and the ability for factory service with remote diagnostics. This machine has all the modern features of a 21st century digital press, with the speed of a traditional press. This is the perfect combination to serve more customers in the coming years. This technology will keep the press running reliably for years to come – New Press for Faster Labels.
Embellish Inline!
Currently, we have to emboss and foil stamp labels on a second machine. Not anymore. With precision in-line foil stamping, we can run a mid to long run job with foil stamping on one press at full press speed. We can also emboss on that same single run. Things that took days will now take hours. We have massive new capabilities and we need your creativity to make the most of them.
This press is built by Mark Andy, the world wide leader in production label presses. They have a huge lead on every other press company, and they are based in St. Louis, MO to provide local, US-based service into the future. Check out more details by clicking here.
Sheets and Rolls – total flexibility
With all these options, we are better positioned than ever to serve all your label needs. Rolls and sheets, backside printing, complex die cutting. All the options you have enjoyed at Rose City Label are getting even better. Faster run speeds and lower waste make us even more environmentally friendly. Call us today. We are ready to serve all your label needs.
In our business, many of or new label print jobs are considered ‘RRWC’ – Re-Run With Change. This is not a NEW item (something we have never printed) and not an exact reprint – it is somewhere in the middle. The most common example in our business is wine labels. If we printed 2018 Chardonnay last year, and then this year you want another run – 2019 Chardonnay – then this item is RRWC. We have printed Chardonnay before, but we are updating (changing) to the new vintage and often a new alcohol percentage.
Revising the Current File – Best Option
When we get an order for Rerun with Change, the BEST option is for Rose City Label to revise our current file and send a proof for approval. This is the best way to ensure a color match with the existing item. This is the best way to have consistent color printing. Providing a new file is not required – and can be detrimental – on RRWC jobs. Letting us make the file changes per your specification is the best option for the most consistent color printing.
Fine Tuning After the File is Submitted
Part of the difficulty with the submission of new files on RRWC jobs is that internally we do several additional processes to your submitted files after the proof is signed. There is considerable calibration, setup for die cutting and potential foil stamping, and several other steps before the file is ready to print. And, then we color correct the output to match the desired end sample. All of this work has to be redone from scratch when you submit a new file. This is a huge additional task that adds no value to your label production and actually slows down delivery of your labels.
Unintentional Changes = Big Time Wasters
Finally, sometimes when a new file is submitted for a RRWC job, there can be very small, unintended changes that throw off the color match to the previous label. One small change in how a logo was built, one small change in a background image… Any of these changes can make a big difference and add hours to the label production. Because we don’t generally know what has been changed, we end up spending extra time playing detective to find the correct formula to match the prior label. This is wasteful in time and material, and adds no value to the final label.
RRWC – Don’t Submit a File, Just Submit your Edits
For best results, trust the experts at Rose City Label to make your edits and send corrected proofs for approval. Don’t waste time and energy sending new files unless you want a different look! If you want consistent color printing, let us use the existing file as the base to work from, and edit from there. Together, this will allow us to get the best results with the fastest turn around time.
Thank you for partnering with us and trusting our 94 years of label experience work for you. Questions? Call us today!
Our printing plates have been made with a water wash system since 2016. We were recognized for our eco friendly business practices for this move. Recently, the machine that makes these plates had an electrical issue. Thankfully, we were able to buy a backup machine from a friend in California. The timing couldn’t have worked out better, and it is a reminder of why the label industry is so special – people really pull together to help each other.
Since we were upgrading to a newer version of the machine, we took this time to clean up the room that houses the machine. Having a clean, bright environment is vital to getting the highest quality printing plates on press.
Quick Delivery — Minimal Downtime
Because our friends already had the machine ready for sale, they were able to get it on a truck within 24 hours. What started out as a plea to borrow a few parts turned into a full upgrade of our system. The timing couldn’t have been better. And, since our production manager, Jim, had worked with the California company in the past and has a very solid reputation, they shipped the unit to us immediately. It pays to have a solid reputation in the printing industry. You never know when you will need help from your friends.
APR to the Rescue
Even with the machine here in our building, we still needed the factory technician to come in from Chicago to help install it. All Print Resources (APR) came to our rescue and helped us get back up and running in record time. What a comforting feeling to have a partner like APR. Check this recent case study in an industry magazine to learn more about our partnership with APR.
Thank You Team
This was a stressful time at Rose City Label, but our team worked together and got the job done – with no disruption to our customers. We have a newer, fully calibrated and optimized plate maker and we are ready to help more customers with amazing labels. Thank your team!
