Whether you’re just getting started selling your food product and your budget is tight or you’re making food labels for your famous homemade hot sauce, our short-run printing is what you need. With an online design studio and small print quantities, many business owners and foodies utilize our services. However, your food expertise may not translate to good label design so here are the three most common mistakes seen on customer created food labels.
#1 – BLURRY LOGO
Before you start designing your label make sure your logo is print-ready. For a logo to print clearly it must be the correct resolution. Many people copy and past their logo from a web page. A web page is only 72 pixels per inch resolution, but printing requirements call for 300 pixels per inch resolution. A low resolution logo will appear pixelated. If you don’t know how to create a logo there are websites that offer that service; Logomaker and Freelogodesign to name a couple.
Look at these two logos, the one on the left is 72 ppi and the one on the right is 300 ppi resolution. The 300 ppi logo is sharp while the 72 ppi logo makes your eyes feel like they aren’t quite focused.
If you’re making homemade food labels you might consider using one of our pre-made food label templates. The templates are set up for you to edit the information to make it your own.
TIP: FILE FORMATS COUNT
When using the online designer to make your own label art, the best file format for uploading logos is PNG. Why? Because a logo in PNG format has a transparent background. This means you can add it to a label without a white box around it. A JPEG or PDF will upload brilliantly, but if you want to add a background color be prepared to see the dreaded white box framing your image if you use those file types.
Above: JPG logo VS PNG logo
#2 – ILLEGIBLE TEXT
Legibility means the reader can recognize and figure out words to understand them. Make sure you choose a font style and a font size that are easy to read. Font is a name for the character style of letters, numbers, and punctuation. Fonts are measured in points. A font size smaller than 5 pts is generally going to be too small for most people to read. It doesn’t matter how good your product is if no one can read the words on the label!
Legibility is a result of the chosen typeface and font, its size, spacing, and the contrast between text and background.”
Jurek Breuninger
TIP: FONT STYLE & FONT SIZE MATTERS
Above: The font on this label is way too small!
TIP: CONTRAST IS KEY
Choose colors with contrast. That means the text and background colors should not be the same color value. Black letters on a red background sound good, but if the two colors are dark the text will disappear when printed. Pick colors for your text that have a high contrast from the background color. What looks good on a bright screen won’t always translate the same to print.
Above: Low contrast colors vs. high contrast colors
#3 – CLUTTERED LAYOUT
Layout is the process of arranging graphics and text in a way that they’re visually appealing. Good layout is important and should make it simple to find out what’s inside the package. Too much information can be a bad thing if it means your label is crammed with words and images in a random way. Think grids; grids organize the various elements of the label like text and images in a way that makes it easy for the eyes to process.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Leonardo da Vinci
This is an example of a food label layout that uses a grid. It’s easy on the eyes and simple to read.
Have Questions?
If you take into consideration these three things when creating your own food label you’ll have a great jump start on design. If you have questions please feel free to ask us either using our live chat weekdays 9 am to 3 pm Pacific time or email us at info at bottle your brand dot com.
