Lightning Labels Blog

PDF vs Press Proof - Which Should You Choose?

When you place a custom label order with Lightning Labels you have a choice. You can request a PDF proof of your artwork or a press proof (also called a hard copy proof). Here is a quick guide to help you decide which proofing method you should choose.

PDF Proofs

The biggest advantage of PDF proofs is speed. Our prepress department usually turns a proof around within 24 hours, sometimes it happens the same day. With a PDF proof you can receive and approve your proof immediately after prepress has emailed it to you. It is always going to be the quickest proofing method.

If your artwork is fairly simple, with just text and some basic graphics then a PDF proof may be right for you. You can view your proof on your screen or print it out on your inkjet or laser printer. Keep in mind, the colors will be subtly different from your finished labels. If color is critical then you should request a press proof.

Press Proofs

With press proofs you get to see exactly what how your labels will look. Your proof is printed on the same press that will print your finished labels so the color will be exactly the same. You can even cut out your label from the proof sheet and stick it on your jar or container to see how it looks there. This way there will no surprises.

If you are ordering chrome or clear material we strongly recommend you order a press proof. Color can look very different when printed on these kinds of materials, so it is always best to see the final result.

Best of all, at Lightning Labels press proofs are free, you just pay for shipping. If you can wait just an extra day (assuming you request overnight shipping) you can have the piece of mind in knowing exactly how your labels will look.

The Last Word

Whichever proofing method you choose, always proofread your label artwork carefully. It is good to have someone else proofread it as well. It is a lot less expensive to fix a problem before we go to press than after you receive your labels. When you think your art is fine, just proof it one more time. We have learned from experience that the more time you spend studying your proof the less likely a mistake will make it through to press.

Gatorade Labels Tampered with in Colorado

In my four years of blogging I don't think I have ever mentioned any celebrity gossip news. Until now. But for anyone interested in product labels this is a fascinating story.

Over this past weekend unique Gatorade bottles started appearing on the shelves of Denver area grocery stores. The labels on these bottles were not regular Gatorade labels, they had images of Tiger Woods and his wife along with the word "Unfaithful" in Gatorade's distinctive font.

Investigators have already discovered the man behind the label tampering. He claims he did it as a "pop art" project with the goal of creating a conversation. I expect he will end up being charged with a crime.

What is interesting here is that a Gatorade label is not an easy label to duplicate. It is a thin film that would be very challenging to print on a home printer. The perpetrator has admitted that this project did cost him a lot of money, which indicates to me that a professional label print shop printed these labels. I wouldn't like to be the owner of that label printer when federal investigators come knocking.

When you order product labels you need to own the copyright for the artwork that is being printed. Now, a label printer can't possibly check the copyright of every label they print, that is why we have to have a legal disclaimer. But we have rejected label jobs where someone has taken a well known trademark and used it for their own purposes. We would have rejected printing these fake Gatorade labels, too.

The other interesting story here is once the labels were printed, how did they manage to get these obviously fake labels onto store shelves? I am sure we will find out these details in coming days.

Photo courtesy of 9News.

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Five Label Industry Predictions for the New Decade

Over the last couple of weeks, as we end one decade and begin another, I have spent some time thinking about where the label industry is headed. So here are my top five label industry predictions for the coming decade.

1. Digital printing becomes the dominant technology

This is really not a difficult prediction. We started the last decade with digital technology in its infancy in the label industry with just a few installations around the world and top speeds of 24 ft/min. Today there are more than a thousand digital label presses installed worldwide and speed has gone to 100 ft/min. HP-Indigo had become one of the top three label press manufacturers at the end of the decade, something that would have been unheard of 10 years ago. In 10 years time I expect HP-Indigo to be the leading press manufacturer in the label industry and the number two and three positions will also belong to digital manufacturers, probably Xeikon and an inkjet press manufacturer. Flexo label printing will still be alive, but it will be a niche in the label industry suitable only for the very long runs.

2. Video product labels become a reality

Last year I wrote about Entertainment Weekly and the video screen that was embedded in their magazine. This was a window into technology that will become widespread in the coming decade. I expect that a high end cosmetics or pharmaceutical company will take the plunge some time later this decade and you will see a running video on their product label. The technology is already available to do this, we just have to wait until the pricing becomes more reasonable.

3. Labels will become more personal

Personalized product labels have been around now for many years. There is an entire category on this blog dedicated to product personalization. Even so, personalization hasn't hit the mainstream yet. This will change in the coming decade. The youth of today are used to personalization and they will become the driving force in this movement as they become the consumers of tomorrow. Now, I don't expect we will go to the grocery store and see product labels with our name on them any time soon. Instead, what will happen is that most products will come with a personalization option. You could buy the generic labeled product in the store or you could order online and create your own personalized label. As digital printing becomes faster and more widespread the cost to offer this option will continue to fall.

4. UPC barcodes will be phased out

By the end of the decade the good old UPC barcodes that we have come to know on every retail product will be phased out. Many people have predicted that RFID will replace the barcode, but it hasn't happened yet and I don't see it happening in this coming decade. Instead, I expect we will move from the one dimensional UPC barcode to a two dimensional barcode such as a QR code. Scanning software could be easily upgraded to read this type of barcode and these codes have the additional benefit of being a marketing tool. Soon all phones will come standard with the software necessary to scan these QR codes, it is already a downloadable application for smartphones now. Initially these QR codes will be printed side by side with regular UPC codes until scanners and their software are upgraded later this decade.

5. Recycling will become a huge issue

It is interesting to me that recycling has not become a huge issue yet in the label industry, particularly in this country. As an industry we produce a lot of waste with spent liner and matrix currently all going to the landfill. Small steps are being made to address this huge problem and by the end of the decade I expect there will be a national recycling program due in large part to the efforts of Calvin Frost, the leading label industry environmentalist. Label buyers and consumers will demand we become more environmentally friendly as an industry, it is starting to happen in Europe already.

Holiday Shipping Sale at Lightning Labels - This Month Only

1/2 Shipping on All Orders Placed in December

As our special gift to you, you will receive 50 percent off of the shipping charges for all the custom label and sticker orders you place with Lightning Labels December 1st through 31st.

If you are interested in taking advantage of this special holiday sale, you can get a quote for your custom label order now with our Online Instant Quoter.

Have Questions? Call Us Toll-Free at 1-888-685-2235 ... or send us an email.

* Please note that this special offer does not apply to shipping charges for free press proofs.

Happy Holidays From Lightning Labels!

New Book on Digital Label Printing

Michael Fairley, known the world over as one of the most knowledgeable people in the label industry, has just written a new book about digital label printing. Wow. I wish I had this information when I started Lightning Labels back in 2002. Of course, back then most of the information and products mentioned in this book didn't exist.

The book is called Digital Label Printing - A 'How to' guide to technology, materials and performance for the label converter. It is jam packed full of useful content. If you are considering buying a digital label press, you have to read Chapter 2 which contains probably the most comprehensive review of digital label presses ever written. Even though I follow developments in digital label printing closely, there were presses that Fairley reviewed that I had never heard of. It is very up to date, including new developments that occured just earlier this year.

Like most of Fairley's books, the text is combined with many photos, charts and graphics that make the content easier to read. He even provides screen shots of software packages as well as plenty of label samples.

Now, in the interests of full disclosure, my partner Steve Smith has chatted with Mike Fairley several times about Lightning Labels at industry conferences and some information from their conversations has made it into his book. Check out Chapter 8 (page 74) for a brief description of our business model that Fairley used as an example of a label company using the internet in innovative ways. Regardless of that, I would still give this book a glowing review. It is the most thorough review ever undertaken of this narrow niche of the business world we call digital label printing.

Product Labels: Still the Best Technology

I was brushing my teeth this morning and looking at all the products on our bathroom countertop. My wife had been cleaning out our cabinets so everything was on the counter. I was struck by how many product labels I could see. When I counted them all there were 56 different products with product labels - above is a photo of about half of them.

Now, not every product has a physical label on it - several products such as toothpaste are screen printed with all the product details printed directly on to the container. But the vast majority of products use physical labels adhered to bottles. Even major consumer products like Listerine that probably print millions of labels at a time have decided that a paper label is the best way to identify their product.

Despite all the technological advances of the last few years, the best way to identify and market your product at the point of sale is with a colorful product label. And with today's high quality digital label printing, that is perfect for short runs, tiny companies can compete with the likes of Johnson & Johnson. You might not have the marketing clout of the big companies but your product can have a label that is every bit as good. 

The World's Biggest Label Printing Show

LabelExpo is the largest trade show for the label printing industry. Every September it alternates between Chicago and Brussels, this year was the European edition (which is far bigger than the US version) that ended a couple of days ago. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it over to the show but I followed updates from Label & Narrow Web magazine, Converting Magazine and live on Twitter.

Fellow label industry blogger, Adrian Steele of Mercian Labels in the UK, has an excellent roundup of the show posted on his blog today. It sounds like it was a good show with several new developments in digital label printing but nothing that looks like it would threaten the dominance of the HP-Indigo technology. Although to be fair, as Adrian points out on his blog, the Xeikon 3300 that was released last year is an excellent competitor to the HP. None of the new would be competitors that launched at LabelExpo can match the quality of either machine.

Natureflex Material Withdrawn

We screwed up. Earlier this year, with great fanfare, we launched the Natureflex material as a more sustainable and environmentally friendly label material. At the same time we announced that we were phasing out the corn-based EarthFirst PLA material.

Unfortunately a number of quality issues have surfaced with Natureflex, and we have decided that the best course of action is to withdraw it from our list of available materials. At the same time we have reinstated EarthFirst PLA as our environmentally friendly alternative.

We have notified the manufacturers of Natureflex about the problems and we hope they will get resolved soon. But in the meantime we want to offer some kind of green material. While EarthFirst PLA certainly isn’t the perfect environmentally friendly solution, it is currently the most reliable material available. So you can now order EarthFirst PLA again. We do have some stock of Natureflex still, but we will not be reordering it when our current inventory is exhausted.

We are truly sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you. While we are committed to providing environmentally friendly label alternatives, we are also committed to maintaining the highest quality standards. When and if the manufacturers of Natureflex can resolve their quality issues, we will be happy to consider it once again.

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.

A Law Blog About Beverage Labels

I stumbled across this interesting blog yesterday. Bevlog is the blog of Lehrman Beverage Law, a law firm specializing in beverage law, specifically alcoholic beverages. According to their web site, there are more than 100,000 applications for wine, beer and spirits labels approved by the TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) every year and the people at Lehrman Beverage law review almost all of them. The most interesting labels make it on to the blog.

It is necessary for every alcoholic beverage maker to obtain a certificate of label approval (COLA) before they can sell their products. This is all public record - you can search the database here. Somehow this law firm obtains pictures of the labels and includes the most noteworthy ones on their blog together with some commentary about the label or the product. For anyone interested in wine, beer of spirits labels you really should check it out.