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.

Pantone's Fall 2009 Fashion Color Report Useful for Designers Across All Industries

Color authority Pantone has released its quarterly Fashion Color Report for Fall 2009. While the report is aimed primarily at fashion designers and retailers, one would do well to keep its predictions for what colors will be hot this autumn in mind when choosing colors for any marketing materials, packaging designs, Websites and, of course, custom labels you are designing.

What Will Be Hot

Based on a survey of New York Fashion Week designers, Pantone has created a palette of the 10 most directional colors for Fall 2009 (pictured above). According to the report, subtle contrasts make up the diverse palette for Fall 2009. Like a painter's palette, Fall 2009 offers choice and diversity, but the unexpected integration of colors is what makes it so appealing, the report says. Here are the top 10 most fashionable colors for this autumn:

• PANTONE 19-1759 American Beauty is a true red with connotations of patriotism and cohesiveness.
• PANTONE 18-3520 Purple Heart is a refined and sensuous color that adds creativity and excitement to any design, especially when paired with American Beauty.
• PANTONE 16-1143 Honey Yellow is a golden version of the Pantone 2009 Color of the Year, 14-0848 Mimosa. For contrast, pair it with Purple Heart, its color wheel opposite; or create a more subdued, earthy look by combining it with Burnt Sienna and Iron.
• PANTONE 18-1306 Iron is Pantone’s “new black” for Autumn. Neither black nor brown, it is a true neutral.
• PANTONE 13-1006 Crème Brûlée is a grayed-down beige. Like Iron, it goes with everything and is a true neutral.
• PANTONE 16-1212 Nomad is somewhere between beige and light gray. Like Iron and Brulee, it is another timeless neutral.
• PANTONE 17-1544 Burnt Sienna is a deep, earthy shade of orange that looks great with Nomad and Rapture Rose.
• PANTONE 17-1929 Rapture Rose is a nurturing, feminine tone that captures both the vibrancy of fuchsia and the softness of pink.
• PANTONE 15-0646 Warm Olive is a rich-green yellow. Use it when you need to add a touch of sophistication or make other colors in your design “pop.”
• PANTONE 19-4125 Majolica Blue is a deep teal blue that looks like a black on its own and like a an exotic navy when paired with brighter colors such as Burnt Sienna or Purple Heart.

Implications for Print and Web Designers

These Pantone colors are a useful starting point for adding on-trend fall color to your design projects. When designing for the Web, you will probably want to work directly with RGB colors, and with CMYK or Pantone colors when designing for print applications. The colors pictured in the illustration above are actually RGB representations of the Pantone colors listed in the Fall 2009 Fashion Color Report. Pantone numbers are listed next to the name of each color, followed by corresponding CMYK and RGB color codes. Please note that when converting from one color format to another, there is always a shift in color. The RGB and CMYK colors listed in the illustration are therefore approximations (not true matches) of the corresponding Pantone colors.

It is also worth noting that our digital printing presses here at Lightning Labels handle design files in CMYK mode only. Therefore, it is always best to send us your custom label design files in CMYK mode.

About Pantone

Pantone, Inc. is a subsidiary of X-Rite, Inc. and is best known for creating the Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used by designers in a variety of industries.

Related Resources

How to Convert Pantone to CMYK gives simple instructions for converting Pantone to CMYK in Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, and Quark Xpress
Label Design Tips & Art Specs tells you what you need to know before submitting your label design files to Lightning Labels
Color Psychology : What It Is, & How It Can Boost Your Sales is a related Lightning Labels Blog post

Adding Color to Your Logo Design

In my last post, I wrote about the benefits of creating your company logo in black and white before adding color to it. In this post, I am going to give you information that will help you effectively add color to your logo design. This information can also be used to help choose colors for your product labels, website, and print marketing materials.

Let’s take a look at how some of the world’s most recognizable brands effectively utilize color in their logo designs.

Red and Yellow

The colors red and yellow are known to induce hunger; therefore, they are often used in the logos of fast food chains such as McDonald’s. Red is also known to elevate heart rate, which may explains why countless numbers of young children get overly excited at the thought of consuming a Happy Meal. The color red is also associated with energy, strength, aggressiveness, and adventure – making it a very appropriate color choice for the energy drink Red Bull – as well as love and passion. Yellow can represent positive elements such as sunshine and happiness, as well as negative ones such as danger, caution and cowardice. Yellow, like red, is a primary color, which makes it particularly appealing to young children.

Orange

Although orange has been a trendy design color for the last two years, the orange Nickelodeon logo has been around for more than two decades. This color is traditionally associated with fun, creativity, vibrancy and youthfulness – making it an effective logo color choice for this children’s television channel. A combination of red and yellow, orange is also known for stimulating the appetite.

Green

Green is most closely associated with nature, which makes it a good logo color choice for natural grocer Whole Foods and British Petroleum Company (BP) alike. Although BP is best-known in the US for its automobile gasoline stations, it is a global energy company that markets itself as a pioneer in alternative energy exploration. Green also induces relaxation in many people.

Blue   

Blue is an excellent color choice for IBM’s logo for many reasons. First of all, if you stop a North American on the street and ask them what their favorite color is, they are most likely to say blue. Secondly, this color is associated with authority, loyalty, security, dignity, confidence, success, and trustworthiness – qualities any business would like to  be associated with. For these reasons, blue can be seen in the logos of all types of organization. It is especially popular, however, among Fortune 500 companies, government organizations, and medical establishments. A prominent color in nature, blue also has a calming effect.

Purple

Hallmark, which is best known for its greeting cards and gift collections, capitalizes on the color purple’s associations with sophistication and royalty in the design of its logo. This color is also commonly associated with spirituality, wealth, and mystery; and is most likely to be named as a favorite color by a North American teenaged girl.

Pink

Pink is often used in logos to give them a feminine touch, appropriate for entities whose target audience is women such as the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Mary Kay, and Barbie. Pink is associated with the feminine qualities of gentleness, innocence, romance, softness, and fragility. This color can also represent gratitude, appreciation, and tranquility.

Brown

Brown’s association with reliability and conservatism makes it appropriate for the National Park Service and UPS logos. Brown’s associations with the earth and comfort make it an ideal color choice for the herbal tea company Celestial Seasonings. Brown can also be perceived as being utilitarian or boring, so use this color with caution.

Black & White

Black, the absence of color, brings to mind boldness, distinction and determination. It also has connotations of elegance, tradition, formality, and mystery. For many, the simplicity of black gives it a sophisticated quality.

If you do not currently have a logo, you might want to keep the information I have presented in this post in mind when designing one. If you already have a logo, I’d love to hear what colors you use, why you chose them, and what you feel they communicate about your company and its products.

Color Psychology Resources

Color Psychology in Logo Design

How to Use Colour in Logo Design

Design Your Logo in Black & White Now, Save Yourself a Headache Later

The logo is one of the most important design elements of your product labels. It immediately and clearly associates your products with your company’s brand. Perhaps you are thinking about designing or redesigning a new logo for your company or one of its product lines. If so, I highly recommend that you create your logo in black and white before adding color to it. And if you are hiring a graphic designer to create a logo for you, make sure that they provide you with a black and white version.

Now you may be asking yourself why I would recommend such a thing, being as I work for Lightning Labels. If you are familiar with our company, you probably know that our state-of-the-art digital printing technology enables us to produce custom labels with as many different colors as you can think of for the same price as a single color (or black and white). So why am I recommending that you create a black and white version of your logo upfront?

Because although you will most likely use a color logo for your product label designs, website, and printed marketing materials, there is going to come a time when your logo will be reproduced in black and white or a single color, whether or not you want it to be:

• A potential customer will open your email on their mobile phone in black and white, or look up your website on a monochrome screen.
• Your company will be bestowed a great honor, and the awards committee will present you with a huge trophy engraved with the company logo.
• You will realize that printing in-house documents in color is waste of money.
• You will need to send a fax. (Yes, they still exist.)
• You will want to advertise in a publication that only offers black and white.
• You will want to advertise in a publication that offers color ads but purchase black and white ones to save money.

I could go on, but I’m sure you get the idea by now.

If you, like many of our customers, do your own graphic design work, creating your logo in black and white first will allow you focus on the “bones” of the design, especially its typography. This will ensure that your logo will work with a greater number of different colors when you do add color to it or tweak its graphic elements. And a logo that works equally well in black and white is the mark of a quality logo. Think Apple. IBM. Volkswagen. Google.

So they next time your company designs a new logo or revamps an existing one, consider creating a black and white version first, and adding color at the end of the design process. It will at least save you a major headache down the road, and might end up saving you a lot of money as well.

Color Psychology: What it Is, and How it Can Boost Your Sales

Have you ever noticed that clear blue skies put you in a good mood? Or that meetings held in plain white rooms make you sleepy? If so, you have experienced firsthand how color influences emotions. Color psychology is the study of this phenomenon, and is becoming increasingly recognized as an important factor in consumer purchasing behavior.

A recent color psychology study exposed 98 college students to a wide range of colors and evaluated their emotional responses to individual colors. The study found the color green to most consistently evoke positive emotions such as relaxation and comfort in the students because it reminded them of nature. Walking through a green forest in the summertime is a peaceful experience for many people, and so the color green often triggers similar emotions in people who have had such experiences. Yellow-green elicited the lowest number of positive responses. The researchers attributed this to the fact that many students associated this color with vomit, and it therefore produced feelings of sickness and disgust.

Here is a list of colors and the emotional and physiological responses commonly associated with them. As you read this list, I encourage you to ask yourself what emotions you hope to produce in the target market for the products you sell, and what colors are associated with these emotions. Are you currently incorporating these colors into your packaging and marketing materials? I’d love to hear what colors you are currently using in your designs, why you chose them, and in what ways (if any) you believe they are influencing your sales.

• WHITE – Relaxation, security, and complacency. Feelings of lightness.
• PINK – Tranquility, relaxation, and in some cases, fatigue.
• GREEN – Peacefulness, happiness, and relaxation. Has been known to reduce blood pressure.
• LIGHT BLUE – Comfort, spirituality, and relaxation.
• BLUE – Creativity and happiness. Safety.
• DARK BLUE & GREY-BLUE – Sadness OR security.
• RED – Everything from energy, warmth, and sensuality to danger, mistakes, and failure. This color can actually increase one’s heart rate.
• LIGHT YELLOW – Cheerfulness, optimism, spontaneity, and hunger.
• BRIGHT YELLOW – Irritability. Danger.
• YELLOW-GREEN – Nausea.
• PURPLE – Introspection, sensitivity, and security.
• ORANGE – Clarity, vitality, and hunger.
• BROWN – Relaxation, passivity, security, vitality, and in some cases, depression.
• BLACK – Virility, rationality, and stability; as well as hopelessness and sorrow.

Additional Resources

The Subliminal Effects of Color in Marketing

How Come?: Do colors influence the way we feel?

Choose & Use the Best Colors, The Psychology of Color

Sure-Fire Tips for Pairing Text & Background Colors

Choosing legible combinations for your text and background colors can be daunting if done haphazardly. If you follow a few basic principles of color theory, however, you can be confident the text you incorporate into your designs will be easy on the eyes in more ways than one.

The key to successfully pairing text and background colors is contrast: contrast between lightness and darkness, also known as value; and contrast between hues. The greater the contrast, the greater the legibility of your text. Increased contrast also minimizes eye strain and results in a more aesthetically pleasing design. The most successful designs pair text and background colors that have a large amount of contrast in both hue and value. Complementary hues provide the greatest amount of contrast, and are located directly across from each other on a color wheel.

A super-easy method for selecting text and background colors is to pair a dark color from the bottom half of a color wheel with a light one from the top. Try it and see for yourself!

What if you are considering pairing black and white together, or black or white with a color? How do you decide which combinations are the most successful, and which ones should be avoided? One solution is to simply choose a pairing from the top of this list compiled by Ganador Management Solutions. (Pairings are listed from most to least legible combinations of text and background colors.)

• Black on Yellow (most legible)

• Black on White

• Yellow on Black

• White on Black

• Blue on White

• White on Blue

• Green on White

• White on Green

• Red on White

• White on Red (least legible)

Several tools also exist to make choosing text and background colors both easy and fail-proof. ColorSelector is a free desktop application from Fujitsu that judges the legibility of background and text colors for the general population, as well as those with different types of vision impairments. If you are specifically concerned that people with color blindness may not be able to read your text, check out the online tool Color Accessibility Wheel. This tool will show you how your chosen colors will look to those with three different types of color blindness.

Additional Resources:

Pantone

Effective Color Contrast: Designing for People with Partial Sight and Color Deficiencies

Making Text Legible: Designing for People with Partial Sight

Is Magenta a Color?

I stumbled across this interesting article on color yesterday. The main point put forward here is that if a color is not part of the visible light spectrum (seen above) such as magenta or pink, then the color does not actually exist, our brain makes up the color. Now, I am not a scientist or a neurologist, so I have no idea whether what this article says is true, but it made logical sense.

One thing I found fascinating was the experiment they had on there. Take 30 seconds and stare at the magenta circle above and then look at the white space right next to it. You will see a green afterimage circle. According to the article your eye will see the complementary (or opposite) color to the circle, which in this case is green. Fascinating stuff.

We work with color every day here but I must admit I have very little knowledge about the science behind how we perceive color. But for product label designers color is very important and some study of color science can only be helpful when it comes to designing visually appealing labels.

What Color is That?

Adam Dewitz, the managing editor over at the PrintCEO blog had an interesting post earlier this week. He reported on research done by Dolores Labs where they showed thousands of random color samples to people and asked them to describe the color they saw. They then mapped these colors on to a color wheel that you see above. 

This research is most interesting when viewed through the little application they created. Here you can really get an insight into the different ways people describe color. For example, type in a color such as "turquoise" and look at all the different colors you get back. There is a large variety of colors that different people describe as turquoise.

Now anyone in the printing business knows that people describe color in different ways. Your red might be someone else's maroon, but the research done here really hammered home to me the very different ways people will describe color. It is a good reminder for us all, both print buyers and printers. We can't assume when someone says turquoise that we all are on the same page.

The great thing about digital printing is that we can produce a press proof, so our customers will see exactly what colors are going to print. This way we can deal with these different expectations before the job is run.

Some Help Choosing Colors

Choosing colors for your custom labels doesn't have to be a tedious process. There are plenty of online tools out there today that can help you choose just the right look. When creating your labels there is often a base color that you want to include - it might be the color of your logo, or a color that fits with the product you are selling. The question is what colors should you put with this base color? Take advantage of the rich color of digital label printing and choose something other than black or white.

Here is a brief review of some of the online tools that can help you choose color schemes for your products:

Kuler - developed by Adobe, Kuler allows you to create your own color schemes or you can see what other people are doing. Like many of these tools, Kuler will show you what are the most popular color schemes that have been created. When you register, you can vote on different people themes and the most popular ones rise to the top. I created the color scheme at the top of this post with Kuler using the color of the left hand column of this blog as the base color. Kuler then suggested some colors that match well with it.

COLOURlovers - this site describes itself as a resource that monitors and influences color trends. As the site suggests it is for people who are really passionate about color, in fact it calls the registered users of its site "lovers". COLOURlovers has a very useful search feature when you can type in keywords to search for color palettes. For example, if you have a lime flavored product you could type in "lime" and you will see all the color palettes that have been created with lime as part of the theme. Like Kuler, they feature the most popular colors as voted on by the sites "lovers", and they also feature new color trends that they see emerging.

ColorBlender - this site is a little different in that it lets you make tweaks to your color palette on the fly by just dragging a button across one of the Red, Green or Blue channels. ColorBlender does not make you register to use any of its features, and it does not focus on a community like Kuler and COLOURlovers. It is a simple, easy to use web site that will blend matching colors for you. You can even save your own blends for future use like the other sites. If you want a site that is very quick to master, ColorBlender is the site for you.

The beautiful thing about working with color these days is that there are so many tools available for you. These three web sites are all free and they provide a useful resource for anyone working with color. You can easily use these tool to help you match color for your products labels, your web site, or anywhere color is important.

What Does "K" Stand for in CMYK?

CMYK, also known as four color process, is the standard in the printing industry for reproducing full color images. CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, the colors used in four color process printing. So this begs the question - why is it not called CMYB?

Well the answer is two-fold. Back in the old days of printing when all printing was done using plates the black plate was actually called the Key plate. This was because it contained the artistic detail or "key" information. Look at the pictures below and to the left  (courtesy of Wikipedia) that show the breakdown of a photo into the components of CMYK. You can see that the most detail is in the black color - hence the name for the black plate being the Key plate.

The second reason has to do with avoiding confusion with another very popular color model - RGB. RGB stands for Red-Green-Blue and this is how computer monitors and televisions represent color. Even though no one refers to the Black plate as the Key plate anymore, to avoid confusion with the RGB model, the four color process model has remained as CMYK.