How Water Labels are Made: Digital Water Sticker Printing from Design to Finished Product
Have you ever wondered how your water stickers are printed? Each sticker goes through a specific water sticker printing process to produce an eye-catching finished product, whether it’s a minimalist design or an ornate construction. Here’s how to turn a water sticker design into a completed sticker.
Step 1: Prepress and Sticker Quotes
Gathering information and putting together a quote is the first step in the digital water sticker printing process. The size of your water label, the material you want your labels printed on, and some quantities of your total label order are the first things we’ll need as a digital water sticker printing company. We’ll respond with a project quote based on that information. If everything looks good, we’ll need your artwork so we can send you a digital proof before printing.
After all of the approvals are received, your artwork is sent to our prepress department for review. Before anything goes to the printer, the prepress process serves as a last line of defense. This group examines various aspects of your art file to ensure that it is ready for printing. Before we print your water stickers, we make sure the fonts are outlined, spot colors and Pantones are correctly labeled, images are embedded, and any other important details are addressed.
The prepress team will also look for any elements of the water sticker that could be improved. If your water sticker has a barcode, for example, they may print a test copy to see how well the barcode scans. They’ll double-check with you if you want to change the barcode or surrounding areas to improve the scan-grade.
The prepress team will notify your account manager and send back your file if they find any opportunities for improvement or issues with the art file, ensuring that your water sticker is perfectly prepared for the printers. It’s now time to move on to the next phase.
2: Printing
When the art file is ready, it is transferred to our cutting-edge HP Indigo digital printing presses. Digital water sticker printing, unlike traditional printing methods, does not require the use of plates to transfer images onto labels. Instead, the HP Indigos read digital files and apply designs directly to label material using electronically charged particles in the inks. Digital water sticker printing saves you money on plate costs and setup fees by eliminating the need for plates, and it also provides faster turnaround times, saving you time.
During the printing phase, the procedure is straightforward: print. The sticker material is supplied in long rolls that are fed through the printer, which prints your design onto your chosen material. After the rolls have been printed, they must undergo any necessary finishing treatments and be cut for use.
Step 3: Finishing and Die Cutting
After printing, the stickers are fed through a finishing machine. This machine can give a sticker a variety of treatments, from embossing or hot foil stamping to protective top layers like laminates and UV varnishes.
The finishing process also includes die cutting each sticker and slitting the large roll into manageable multiple rolls. We’ll print the stickers side by side to cut down on waste and printing costs. The stickers roll through a slitting section of the finishing machine after being die cut, where the rolls are slit by little razors into two or three rolls at the end of the press. This gets them ready for the final stage of sticker creation.
Step 4: Winding and Shipping
It’s time to rewind each roll now that they’ve been finished and slit to a manageable size. The stickers roll out of the finishing machines in large quantities, which can be a problem for some applicators. That’s why rewind machines re-roll your labels with precise quantities to make them more manageable for your company.
Following rewinding, the packaging department performs a final quality check to ensure that your stickers are in good working order. Your stickers are packed and shipped out once everything is clear so you can use them for your products.
Ease Your Business’s Sticker Process
Although it takes several steps to create a high-quality product label, the process does not have to be difficult. Label Gurus Designs will walk you through the entire process from beginning to end. We can better understand what you and your stickers require because of this collaborative approach. To discuss your next sticker project, contact Label Gurus Designs today.