Lightning Labels Blog

The Cost of Printing Labels Yourself

Many Lightning Labels customers started out printing labels on their home ink-jet printer. This is a great place to start because it is relatively inexpensive and you can print very small quantities of labels as you need them. Of course, you want your labels to look great so you print them in photo quality mode. Then you start to notice how quickly you are going through ink.

Ink for home ink-jet printers is one of the most expensive liquids in the world. For colored ink you can pay around $20 for a cartridge containing just 11ml of ink. That equates to around $7,000 for a gallon of ink. Certainly makes gasoline prices look cheap. But a more important question is how many labels can you print from a cartridge of ink? The answer is, of course, it depends. It depends on the size of your labels and how much ink coverage is needed.

You can get some idea by looking at the cost to print 4x6 photos. A couple of old studies pegged ink costs somewhere around 20c a label to produce a 4x6 photo. I don't think ink has gone down that much in recent years so that is probably still accurate. The costs vary widely from brand of printer and where you buy your ink. Then you need to take into consideration wear and tear on the printer and the cost of your time while printing the labels (and removing the inevitable paper jams). And you will need to factor in the cost of blank labels.

Printing labels yourself is an excellent way to get started if you need product labels. What we have found is that as time goes on, it is not just the cost but also the hassle of printing labels in-house that drives people to look for a professional label printer. Best of all, as your volume increases you may be surprised to find that it is actually less expensive to outsource this very important part of your business.

Photo courtesy of justinbaeder.

How to Personalize Weddings with Custom Labels : Five Ideas to Get You Started

Custom printed labels are one of the most economical yet professional ways to add a personal touch to a wedding event. If you are currently involved in wedding preparations — for yourself, clients, or loved ones — incorporating custom labels into wedding invitations, favors, and decorations might be the perfect solution you are seeking to tie your event together without blowing your budget. Here are five great ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

   

1. Personalized CD Wedding Favors

Make a wedding favor the guests will enjoy listening to again and again, a CD with the happy couple’s favorite songs. Add custom labels to the CD cover, insert, and CD itself that reflect the wedding theme. Incorporating photos of the couple in the label design ensures the CD will be a keepsake guests will treasure forever.

2. Save the Date Stickers

With today’s hectic lifestyles, it is crucial for engaged couples to send out “save the date” notices as  soon as they set their wedding date. These notices, which are sent well in advance of the actual wedding invitations, are often fun and casual. Impress invited guests — and up the chances of them attending attend your event — by sending them “save the date” stickers they can affix to their calendars.

3. Envelope Wrappers

Instead of having custom envelopes printed for the wedding invitations, save money and add a touch of class by designing your own envelope wrapper labels and having them professionally printed. With variable label printing, you can even have the guests’ mailing addresses printed right on the labels. If you don’t want to start from scratch, the Fussy Designer’s blog has some beautiful damask envelope templates to get you going.

4. Private Label Beverages

Many wine and beer makers are offering private labeling for their customers. If you are a wine or beer maker, this is definitely something you want to offer your customers as it has become quite trendy for today’s brides and grooms to feature personalized labels on bottled beverages served at their weddings. Or if the bride and groom enjoy micro brewing as a hobby, they could delight their guests while infusing their wedding with a very personal touch by serving their homemade ales to their guests in bottles adorned with professionally printed labels. Bottles of wine customized in this way also make ideal thank you gifts for members of the wedding party.

5. Candy and Mint Favors

Give a fresh twist to a traditional wedding event favor, candies and mints, by presenting them to guests in miniature tins decorated with custom stickers.

What if chocolate is more fitting for your event and tins won’t do? Chocolates, or just about any treat,  make a classy favor when presented in little boxes wrapped with custom printed labels.

We here at Lightning Labels would love to help you personalize your special event with custom labels. Have a question about ordering labels? Don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and give us a call at 888-68-LABEL. We’re here to help!

Related Resources

Bridal Shower Favor Ideas from Broadway Wedding

Free Label Design Templates from Tres Chic Event Planning

Soap and Candlemaking Resources from the Lightning Labels Blog

Label Design Tips & Artwork Specifications from Lighting Labels

Digital Printing - Better for the Earth

In celebration of Earth Day, today I am sharing some of the environmental benefits of digital label printing with the HP-Indigo technology. I have written before about how digital label printing creates less waste. Today I will share some of the other benefits of this great technology. Here are five ways the HP-Indigo label printing technology helps the earth:

1. No printing plates need to be manufactured
2. No toxic chemicals involved in the printing process
3. Inks are deinkable and recyclable
4. Uses less ink than other printing methods
5. Allows customers to order small quantities of labels economically

I believe the bottom line is this: digital label printing is better for the earth than traditional label printing. Many traditional printing presses use toxic chemicals in the manufacture of printing plates and in the printing process. And they produce far more material waste than digital.

As we celebrate Earth Day I am proud that we have HP as our printing technology partner. HP has been recognized as an industry leader when it comes to environmental stewardship and they are one of the 100 most sustainable corporations on the planet.

Happy Earth Day.

Making Cents of Press Proofs

If you are like most people — and especially if you are a business person — you appreciate any opportunity to save time and money. When placing a print order for the first time, requesting press proofs is one measure you can take to ensure you save as much of these precious commodities as possible.

Press Proofs are ...

• Printed on the same equipment and material used in the final press run.
• The ONLY type of proof that allows you to see the true color of the final product. Because most inks are somewhat transparent, their final color is affected by the color and opaqueness of the material they are printed on, as well as any applicable lamination.
• Not usually needed when placing an identical re-order.
• May not be beneficial if placing a re-order involving a minor change from the original order.

Press Proofs are not ...

• Simulated proofs. Any proof not produced on the actual press your print job will run on is a simulated proof, because this type of proof can only simulate what your final product will look like. A press proof, on the other hand, is in fact the final product.
• Pre-press proofs.
• Inkjet or laser printed proofs.
• Velox proofs.
• Epson color proofs.
• Matchprints.
• Digital proofs such as pdfs.

How Press Proofs Can Keep Your Sanity Intact & Your Money in the Bank

Because press proofs are the only way to see what your final product will look like when placing an order for the first time, they have the potential to save you added expenses, as well as needless headaches. If you do not request press proofs when ordering new labels or designs, you run the risk of purchasing an entire order that may not turn out exactly as you expected. When this happens, you either have to live with a product that is below your standards — and in some cases completely unacceptable — or place the order all over again. And you know what that means: More time. More money.

Here at Lightning Labels, we strongly encourage new customers placing an order for the first time to request a set of press proofs. This is especially important when using unusual materials (such as clear labels) that can produce unexpected results when applied to colored products. Unlike any other label printer we know of, we even offer the first set of proofs for free with every new order. That's right, I said free. (Other printers typically charge from $75 to $150 per set.) Yes, we do require the customer to pay for the shipping and incur a minor delay while the proofs are printed and shipped; however, we believe these minor investments are well worth it.

So if you are placing a label order for the first time, you might want to consider requesting a set of press proofs. Knowing exactly what to expect when your final order arrives will give you peace of mind, and might just end up saving you time and money as well.

Related Posts

http://blog.lightninglabels.com/blog/2008/02/the-dangers-of.html
http://blog.lightninglabels.com/blog/2006/06/the_label_print.html

Proctor & Gamble Focusing on Digital Printing

At the recent Digital Label Summit in Barcelona, global consumer products giant Proctor & Gamble (P&G) affirmed their commitment to using digital printing technology to create innovative and personalized packaging. In this article from Packaging News, P&G's global head of printing innovation stated very fast turn printing and creating personalized packaging as major reasons they are committed to digital printing.

Proctor & Gamble owns such well known brands as Gillette, Pampers, Tide, Duracell and Pringles. These are all brand leaders in their category with millions of people buying these products every day. P&G plans on using digital printing technology to create more innovative packaging for some of these brands. I wrote about the personalized Pringles can last year and I am looking forward to discovering what else they have planned. If it is new, innovative and relates to digitally printed labels or packaging you can be sure it will be written about here.

How 'Critters' Help Sell Wine and Beer

Introducing a new author for the Lightning Labels blog: Christy Correll. Christy is our online marketing specialist and has been with Lightning Labels since the start of the year. She has a background in journalism and online marketing, and will be a regular contributor here.

Animals help sell alcoholic beverages. This is not news. AC Nielsen released a report three years ago about this wine label phenomenon.

What is news is we now have an idea of why using images of kangaroos, penguins, frogs, dogs, and other animals to peddle our products from store shelves has been so successful.

A new study by University of Chicago Booth School of Business professor Aparna Labroo, Ravi Dhar of Yale University, and Norbert Schwartz of the University of Michigan suggests consumers buy products with labels that reflect the consumer, not the product. The findings of the report go against the traditional branding strategy of designing labels based on what the product is about.

The next time you walk down a wine or beer aisle, look closely at the bottle labels. In a wine aisle, you will find many labels depicting grapes, vineyards, and the countries where the wines are produced in. In a beer aisle, you will see many product labels featuring different types of grains and words describing beer. These images give the consumer information about the product behind the label, i.e., what the product is made from, how it tastes, and where it was produced. The makers of these beverages are following the traditional branding strategy of designing product labels based on the product itself. During that same stroll down the wine or beer aisle, will also notice a number of bottle labels featuring all kinds of animals -- and not just cute, fuzzy things such as the black lab on Spanish Peaks Black Dog Ale or the perky penguin on the Little Penguin Shiraz.

Some of the critters on these beverage labels are ugly, if not downright menacing. Take the frog on Bad Frog Beer’s product label, for example. Draped over the lettering of the product logo, he stares the consumer straight in the eye and shoots him the middle finger. Why would anyone pick that beer over one of comparable quality and taste?

In an article for Chicago Booth Magazine about the new study, Vanessa Sumo explains how putting an animal on their product label could help a wine maker build a better brand. Sumo gives the example of how a woman who frequently sees and hears great things about Kermit the Frog from her son is likely to purchase a bottle of wine with a frog on the label if she has minimal time to make a purchasing decision.

Familiarity with Kermit the Frog actually makes it easier for a consumer to visually process the image on the label. This enhances the label’s appeal and as a result makes the "frog wine" more desirable relative to its competitors.

The point is that familiarity with a particular animal on a product label causes a harried shopper to buy that product. The consumer already has a pre-established relationship with a specific animal, and transfers it to the product because of the label. If the same woman featured in Labroo, Dhar, and Schwartz’s study had been shopping for beer, would she have ended up choosing a case of Bad Frog Beer over Spanish Peaks Black Dog Ale? What if she didn’t have a son who adored Kermit the Frog, but a loyal black Labrador retriever instead?

Even if you are not in the wine and beer industry, it might be a good idea to take the findings of this study to heart the next time you re-evaluate your product label design. When was the last time you did that, by the way? I would love to hear if your product packaging design is currently working for you, as well as what -- if any -- changes you have made to your label designs over the years and how they have affected your sales.

Related Posts

Critter Labels Taking Over Wine Industry

The New Wine Label Phenomenon

You Can Be Good at Graphic Design

We know that over 50% of Lightning Labels customers do their own label design. This is why I write so much about design here. While I have said that getting professional help with your product label design will most likely help the success of your product, I acknowledge that not everyone can afford to do this.

For those people there was good news last week from my favorite blogger, Seth Godin. He claims that everyone can be good at design. He didn't say great, mind you, but Godin believes that being a decent designer is no more difficult than learning to drive a car. Like many other business skills graphic design can be learned. You may never become good enough to make your living at it, but by devoting some time to developing this skill you can design better looking product labels.

Here is one place where you can get started: 50 Free Lessons in Graphic Design Theory. Just do one lesson a week and by this time next year, whatever your natural ability in this area, you will be at least a good graphic designer. You can even skip some of the lessons because they apply more to web site design than product label design.

If you want to design your own labels, devote some time to learning about graphic design. Do this and you will produce better looking labels. Then, when your budget allows, you can hire a great designer. Armed with your newfound knowledge you will be better able to appreciate the difference a great designer can make.

Mixing Fonts in Your Design

Here is an interesting post from last year about mixing fonts from the Webdesigner Depot blog. The focus of the article is making two fonts work with logos but the same principles apply to any design project, including product labels.

What I like about this article is that the author gives many examples of logos with multiple fonts and explains why some work and others don't. The one point to keep in mind when designing product labels is that you will likely have a font that is part of your logo so you want to make sure the fonts you use in the rest of the label design work with the font in your logo.

If you are struggling with fonts then the best idea is to hire a professional designer. As I have said on this blog many times, a well designed product label can go a long way towards helping ensure the success of your product. Unless you have a special talent in this area it is better to hire a professional.

Hat tip to J.D. Iles from the Signs Never Sleep blog for sharing this information.

Invisible Labels Now Available

We are pleased to announce a major breakthrough in digital label printing technology today. Lightning Labels in conjunction with several of our vendors announce a brand new product: invisible labels. Not only will these labels be printed with invisible ink, the material itself will be invisible also.

Perfect for customers seeking the "no label look", when applied to a container these labels are completely invisible. Thanks to several years of research and development from some of the leading names in the label industry these labels are now a reality. Recent advances in nanotechnology has made it possible to embed millions of tiny mirrors into label material to render it invisible.

We are predicting these invisible labels will be a huge success in industries such as pharmaceutical, wine, beer, bottled water, bath and body, and promotional products.