Label Planet
Our top tips for designing label templates for ROUND LABELS & OVAL LABELS.
Their curved and ever-changing edges can make these labels a bit more difficult to design (and print) accurately, especially if you need to rely on software (and hardware) that isn’t really geared up for pin-point accuracy when it comes to creating the perfect label design on circular labels and oval labels. HOWEVER, our top tips should help to give you a head start in designing your own round labels and oval labels with as little stress as possible!
TOP TIP NUMBER ONE: always centralise your design.
One of the easiest ways to create beautiful looking labels with a minimal amount of fuss is to centralise your design; this means that your design will be positioned in the centre of each label, which helps to prevent parts of your design getting cut off at the edges and can stop white edging appearing on your labels (this occurs with coloured backgrounds, where the printer doesn’t quite line up your design perfectly, leaving part of the label unprinted – as most labels tend to be white in colour, this is referred to as “white edging” although “blank edging” would probably be more accurate).
At Label Planet, ALL of our label templates are set up with a central alignment so you don’t have to remember to set this up before you start designing.
TOP TIP NUMBER TWO: use a bleed area if you want to add a coloured background and/or border.
A bleed area is basically a blank space outside of the actual area being printed that is used to overlap a design in order to avoid white edging.
Bleed is used for all kinds of printed materials, including labels where the blank spaces between labels can be used as a bleed area. This technique is ideal for designing round labels and oval labels, which always have at least some blank space between and around each label.
Even if there is only a few millimetres between two labels, you can still use this space to avoid white edging. Basically, all you need to do is to very slightly oversize your label design so that its edges overlap each label; when you come to peel your printed labels off their backing sheet, you shouldn’t get any blank unprinted areas at all.
You must make sure that you don’t include any important design elements at the very edges of your labels – if they fall into the bleed area, they will be left behind when you remove your labels from their backing sheet.
TOP TIP NUMBER THREE: use a thick border if you have to use a border at all.
While we’d generally say that borders can be more trouble than they’re worth, if you do absolutely HAVE to have a border on your labels you should make the border as thick as possible so that you can still make use of the bleed technique described above.
It is unlikely that a standard printer would be able to reproduce a very narrow border accurately enough to line up that border perfectly all the way around an oval or circular label – which will probably lead to some white edging. It will also emphasise the fact that your labels are (very slightly) misaligned, which can spoil the overall look and finish of your labels.
To overcome this, you can increase the size of your border so that it will overlap the edges of your labels all the way around – leaving behind a (more or less) even border with no blank unprinted gaps when you remove your labels from their backing sheet.
TOP TIP NUMBER FOUR: accept the limitations of the software you are using.
While some people will make their own labels using graphics software that is designed specifically for creating complex and detailed graphics, other people will be “making do” with software that isn’t really designed for this purpose.
While most software has tools that can be used when designing a label template, they simply won’t be as sophisticated and accurate as those provided in graphics software – and you may need to simplify your design to make sure that it can be replicated by your software.
For example, many people use Word to design labels and, while it is perfectly possible to create decorative AND professional looking round labels and oval labels in Word, you do need to adapt the tools that are available in Word to the task of adding a design to a label template (and have a bit of patience with their limitations).
It is also worth noting that Word is NOT sophisticated enough to create templates that show the outlines of round labels and oval labels. Instead, Word templates are made up of tables that replicate the layout of a sheet of labels; the square or rectangular cells in the table represent the spaces in which each round label or oval label sits (so that the outermost points of each label touches the four sides of the corresponding square or rectangle). This means that you may need to use a bit of trial and error to make sure that your design aligns correctly with your labels (by performing a few test prints onto paper).