Label Planet
It's time to champion the humble rectangular label and give you a few tips to printing this label shape perfectly.
While you’ll often hear that using a different label shape is a quick and easy way to create a more “decorative” design, there’s a lot to be said for rectangular labels, which have a lot of benefits that you might not have considered.
EASY TO DESIGN
While you might dismiss rectangular labels as too basic, don’t forget that the simplicity of this shape makes it much easier to design than other shapes (especially circles and ovals).
This holds especially true if you aren’t using design software to create your labels; for example, many people use Microsoft Word, which was created specifically for inserting and editing text (NOT for designing labels). Word templates are basically tables that replicate the layout of a sheet of labels, which is fine if your labels are square or rectangular in shape but less so if you have a more complicated shape (such as those pesky circles and ovals).
With the clearly defined and straightforward edges of a rectangle, you simply need to make sure your design fits inside the four sides of your labels – and you don’t need to spend time thinking about how you’ll get your design to fit inside a curved or fluctuating shape.
EASY TO PRINT
The regularity and simplicity of the rectangular shape also makes it easier to print your labels accurately. Sheets of rectangular labels are made by simply dividing a sheet into equal shapes (with perhaps some spacing between and around the labels), making it is much easier to print your design accurately across each row and column of labels.
In fact, the only time rectangles tend to cause printing problems is when your labels fall inside the “unprintable area” of your printer; standard desktop printers cannot print all the way to the edge of an A4 sheet and the area that they cannot print is called the “unprintable area”. If your labels fall into this area then you may need to choose a different label size OR adapt your design so that it doesn’t occupy this area on your label sheets. This tends to happen more often with square cut corner rectangles that tend to go all the way to the edges of a sheet (although some label layouts use “selvedges” or blank strips at the edges of the sheet to avoid this problem).
MORE CHOICE & BETTER AVAILABILITY
As a basic shape, rectangular labels are available in a lot more sizes AND material options than other shapes because they are popular with both manufacturers AND customers.
Manufacturers like rectangular labels because they produce less waste than other shapes (making them more cost effective) and because they are extremely versatile labels that can be used for hundreds and thousands of different applications – making them a popularly requested size. This means that manufacturers tend to view rectangular labels as “standard sizes”, which they therefore produce in large volumes, on a frequent basis, and in a range of material options.
This means that customers get a better choice of label materials AND rectangular labels are often available at better prices than other shapes.
For example, if you really want round labels in a particular size and a particular material, you may find that you can’t buy those labels as a standard product, which means you either have to pay extra to have them made for you (usually at a higher order quantity and price than you’d like) or you have to compromise by choosing a different size or material.
If you choose a rectangular size, however, it is more than likely that you’ll be able to find that size in a range of materials as a stocked item (with a lower minimum order quantity and price).
It’s also more likely that it will be a size offered by other label manufacturers, which means that there may be a compatible template already available in the software you want to use to design your labels.
Plus rectangular labels can be printed in a portrait orientation OR a landscape orientation, giving you twice as many label sizes to choose from!
We supply both portrait and landscape templates for all of our rectangular label sizes so you don’t have to crane your neck as you try to fill a portrait template with a landscape design.
LABEL PLANET’S RANGE OF RECTANGULAR LABELS
At Label Planet, our rectangular labels fall into one of two shape categories; those with rounded corners and those with square cut corners. We have 70 label sizes that are rectangular in shape (39 with round corners and 31 with square corners) – compared to 19 round label sizes, 8 oval label sizes, and 5 square label sizes.
While some of our rectangular labels are “special” sizes that are only available as standard paper labels, most of our rectangular labels are “standard” sizes that are available across our range of more than 30 different label materials and adhesives. We stock as many of these different options as we can so that customers can order their labels knowing that they will be despatched same day.
In fact, we have more than 350 different rectangular label products available for same day despatch from stock!
Less popular combinations are not kept in stock but are available as made to order items (sold in 500 sheet bulk boxes), which are made and despatched within five working days.
So, if you think that a good old reliable rectangle might just be the shape for you after all, why not head over to our website to view all of our Rectangular Labels – including our Rounded Corner Rectangles and our Square Cut Corner Rectangles.