Label Planet
While most of our labels get printed, sometimes a handwritten label provides the perfect finishing touch.
While most labels do end up being printed, it’s important to remember that they can also be a wonderful way to add a personal touch to postal items, invitations, gifts, or goods that you are despatching.
If you’ve got hundreds and thousands of things to label, then clearly handwriting labels is going to take too much time, but if you’ve only got a few labels to create (or even if you’ve simply got time to spare) taking the time to write your labels yourself is a brilliant way to personalise whatever it is you need to label and to send your items off with that extra bit of care and thought.
Handwritten labels are perfect for all kinds of labelling applications. The most obvious might be handwritten address labels – particularly for correspondence that is especially important or personal. For example, you might be sending a special birthday or anniversary card and/or present, or perhaps you need to create extra special invitations to an extra special event such as a wedding or a “big” birthday. Usually, there will be a limit to the number of these items that you need to label, which means you should be able to take your time over them and add the perfect finishing touch by handwriting the address or even adding a personal message to each recipient.
Handwritten labels are also brilliant for businesses, companies, and organisations (e.g. charities and membership groups) who want to create and maintain a personal connection with customers and/or members. While you may not have time to handwrite labels for everyone that you correspond with or send items to, simple handwritten labels can be used to let the recipient know they are important and that care has been taken to contact them or to ensure their items arrive safely. This could be a signature from the owner of a business, the person who packed an order, or the designer or creator of a bespoke or handmade item; you could also create a set of simple “Thank You” labels to apply to letters or packages to let your customers or members know that you value their support and/or custom. Handwriting labels is a simple but extremely effective way to add value to your postal items and to promote a personalised service or to let customers know that your company cares about its customers.
Of course, you can always opt to have the best of both worlds and print your labels with a personal or company design and then finish it off with a handwritten message.
Whether you’re a calligraphy expert or a bit of a scrawler, taking the time to handwrite or sign your labels is the perfect way to personalise items and let the recipient know that their items have been sent with care.
So What Do You Need To Handwrite Your Labels?
The simple answer is labels and a pen (or the writing implement of your choice!).
The slightly longer answer is labels and a particular kind of pen.
All of our label products can be written on, although you might find that the synthetic materials (polyester and polyethylene) and label products with a gloss finish might be slightly trickier depending on the kind of pen you use. For our synthetic materials and gloss labels, it’s usually best to use marker pens rather than standard biros, which may struggle to lay ink down properly.
Of course, with our paper products, you can go wild and write with pretty much any writing implement you want to!
If you’ve got a creative side and you want to add a touch of calligraphy to your labels, our inkjet materials are an excellent option. Labels designed for inkjet printers will usually be made with materials that are slightly absorbent – so that the inks used in these printers will be accepted by the material and the print will come out crisp and vivid in colour. If you’re a calligraphy fan, our inkjet materials are ideal and they feature in many of our product ranges (Paper Labels, Removable Paper Labels, Gloss White Photo Quality Labels, Coloured Labels, Polyethylene Labels, Clear Labels, High Tack Labels – although we’d definitely put our Premium Quality Paper Labels forward as the star product to choose).
If you need your handwritten messages to be as durable as possible (e.g. in outdoor conditions, for long term use, or in conditions where they may be exposed to water), then you should try to make sure that the pen or marker you use is waterproof. Generally speaking, “permanent” markers are waterproof and many pens designed for creative (rather than practical) purposes will also be designed to be waterproof. The thing to look out for is pens and markers that are made with alcohol-based inks rather than water-based inks – when water-based inks come into contact with water, they will run and smudge BUT alcohol-based inks will not. Pens and markers tend to use dyes or pigments to create the colour of the ink; either can be used BUT pigment inks tend to be longer lasting and more durable than dye inks (even in water-based inks, pigment inks are usually “water-resistant” and will be damaged less by exposure to water than dye inks would be). You will need to choose carefully if you want to use a fountain pen; most inks made for use with fountain pens are not waterproof, although there are some inks that are waterproof or, at the very least, water-resistant.
So why not take a look through our List Of Materials and see if there’s something that might just be the perfect background for a personal, handwritten message from “Me to You”.