Printing Custom Foil Labels

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CUSTOM FOIL LABELS 101

Luxe and fanciful, custom foil labels are a popular choice when it comes to making your product packaging pop. Compared to regular paper and plastic film labels, this stock material is very conspicuous, for an elegant and classy presentation that will certainly grab more attention with careful artwork planning.

INKABLE TIP: If you’d like to upgrade your labels to make them more high-end

For a rebranding or a big event that requires elegant and premium labels, you can use the same artwork shapes and print them on foil substrate, instead using paper substrate and a hot foil stamp. This is a unique aesthetic or “special effect” that you can only achieve with foil stock.

Can you keep your budget but get similar “foil stamped” results at a fraction of the cost? Yep, possible!

Witness, the “Foil Stamped” special effect created by using white ink underprinting. Stunning, classy labels that won’t burn a hole in your pocket.

HOW TO: Print these in “reverse”.

We’ll keep the areas on which you would like the foil stamp effect without any print.
Then we apply a layer of white ink (a “white wash”) on the areas that would otherwise be the background. This is called white ink underprinting, and the purpose of this is to have that support layer for full opacity (since foil is a bit transparent).
We print over the white ink, this time the color of your background (can be a solid color, or can be a pattern, image, illustration) to finish the label print.
OPTIONAL: Since the stock is silver, the foil effect would be silver. However, other foil colors can be created, no problem.
A fine varnish of coating/laminate of either gloss (high shine) or matte (low shine, similar to uncoated paper) finished the look of your custom foil labels.

Shiny foil would shine through on the unprinted areas, giving you that foil-stamped effect. The important thing here is to place a white ink area underneath all areas that shouldn’t have the foil stamp effect to give the illusion of an opaque label material to make the foil more apparent. That is, if you want silver foil. For different “foil” colors, we can simply apply your chosen ink color on these unprinted areas WITHOUT white ink to change the “foiling” for you.

Really cool, especially since foiling is super expensive and requires more time and effort. Plus you get to choose any foil color that you want (granted it’s in the CMYK gamut so that we can churn it out on our HP Indigo). Pretty neat, huh?

Imagine if these were printed on standard paper or plastic stock… Foil makes a huge difference in presentation and increasing your product’s visual premium, no doubt.

Our foil label stock comes in two variants: one with a paper base (metalized paper), and one with a plastic film base (PET material). Both types of tinsel stock give a lustrous sheen that instantly changes the look of your labels, for eye-catching visual effects. Here is how these labels are built:

Usually, another layer, called the “Top Coat”, would be found on top of labels. This coating is a laminate that makes the prints shinier (gloss laminate) or keeps them low shine, closer to an uncoated paper’s finish (matte laminate).

All foil labels can have this additional coating applied to increase life span in terms of ink rubbing off and labels getting damaged with moisture. However, keep in mind that metalized paper labels, as this has a paper base, will get damaged even with coating or laminate if the surface on which these will be applied is subject to condensation/moisture (as in water bottle labels). Protection only applies on the right side of the label, and only if you had applied labels properly, on a well prepared (cleaned) surface.

FOIL BASE MATERIAL

If you need foil labels that are more hardy against moisture, water, and frequent handling, of utmost importance is the consideration of your foil label base material. Let’s look at a quick rundown of each type.

FOIL LABELS WITH PAPER BASE LAYER/ METALIZED PAPER

Gold Foil Stamp Effect

Metalized paper labels, or foil labels that use paper as a base layer, are the less durable of the two options due to the nature of the material. Our silver metalized paper labels are great for printing classy labels, with more toned down color prints. The metallic, semi-gloss finish still creates foil labels with visual depth compared to standard paper labels.

NOTE: Foil labels using metalized paper are more prone to water damage, due to the porous paper base.

FOIL LABELS WITH PLASTIC FILM (PET) BASE LAYER

The addition of matte laminate creates softer, more subdued colors.

The plastic film base layer affords a slightly shinier finish due to the reflective property of plastic material. This also gives your foil labels better wear-and-tear protection for your prints against moisture. Rich and vibrant colors are more apparent with the high gloss finish.

IMPORTANT NOTE WHEN DESIGNING ARTWORK FOR YOUR CUSTOM FOIL LABELS

Your artwork previously printed on regular stock will translate differently on this stock. Playing with negative space, you can create a new look for your labels, because even the unprinted areas will have a depth to them due of the foil.

If you want best visibility, choose intense colors rather than pastel in your labels’ artwork to achieve high-contrast foil labels.

Aiming to create an interesting, artisan look? Since the labels have a foil base, the areas that you leave unprinted will truly pop–this opens up a whole array of creative possibilities!

If you want to keep it clean and understated, using a monochromatic palette of highly-saturated colors for foil labels will produce simple and vibrant designs.

Foil is also great for framing–the brilliance of the tin is a useful factor in drawing the eye in for important messaging.

Overall, foil also works as the go-to label stock to support grandeur, distinction, and, style for your product packaging

Custom silver foil labels for Collection by M’s candle products. This is a sample of our signature Silver Metalized Paper with Gloss Laminate.

HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR FOIL LABELS WHEN NOT IN USE

Remember to store your foil labels in a dry place, not exposed to sunlight, to keep printed colors vibrant as well as to keep your foil labels’ adhesive viable. If you’re set on using foil labels for your labeling needs, make sure you consider the above characteristics. Once you are ready to move forward, and you find yourself in the designing stage, you also need to be aware of print considerations so that you get exactly what you need for your product labels.

Whether you are using foil for your cosmetic labels, bath and beauty labels, wine labels, or promotional labels, remember to list down the requirements of your print project, prepare your design correctly and be sure to have your designer perform a Prepress Check so that you receive perfect custom foil labels, every time. Remember also to thoroughly clean the surface of your containers with alcohol and letting this dry before you apply your labels to ensure excellent tack.

INTERESTED IN PRINTING YOUR LABELS WITH US?

Take advantage of our quantity discounts when you are ready to order in larger quantities.

GET A SAMPLE SHEET OF YOUR FOIL LABELS NOW (INCLUDES FREE PREPRESS CHECK) FOR AS LOW AS $50.

CLICK TO GET A CUSTOM QUOTE.

Printing Custom Foil Labels

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