Learn the essentials of setting up artwork files for stickers and labels to ensure a fast turnaround, top quality, and smooth production.

Setting up the perfect artwork file for labels and stickers is the key to achieving high-quality results and a speedy turnaround. Whether you’re designing custom shapes or sticking to standard shapes like rectangles, circles, or ovals, following a few essential guidelines can streamline the proofing process and help your order move smoothly from design to print. In this guide, we’ll show you how to prepare your art file to ensure quality and efficiency, saving you time and making your designs shine.

Evaluate Your Size Needs

Why Proper Sizing Matters

Before diving into your design, ensure your artwork is sized appropriately for your product. Precise dimensions guarantee that your labels or stickers fit perfectly on your product or packaging.

1. Measure Your Product: Determine the size that will work best for your needs.
2. Set Up a Design Template: Use a template or create one with the dimensions you need. Reach out to our team if you need a pre-made template for your desired size.

Pro Tip: Use the exact measurements of your product to avoid resizing errors during production.

Incorporate Safety Margins and Bleed

Keep Important Elements Safe

To avoid cropping issues, adhere to these rules:

• Safety Margins: Keep all essential content (text, logos, barcodes, etc.) at least 1/16” inside the cutline.
• Bleed: Extend background colors, images, or patterns 1/8” past the cutline to avoid unintentional white borders.

This ensures that all critical details remain intact and your designs look polished.

Center Your Artwork for Balance

Achieving Perfect Alignment

Centered artwork ensures symmetry and a professional appearance. Here’s how:

1. Group Your Design: Select all elements in your artwork and group them.
2. Align It to the Canvas: Use the Align Tool in your design software to center your grouped artwork both horizontally and vertically.

This step is crucial to avoid misaligned prints.

Remove Cutlines for Standard Shapes

Simplify the Proofing Process

If your artwork is for standard shapes like rectangles, squares, circles, or ovals, remove cutlines before submitting your file. This prevents the cutline from being accidentally printed on your final product.

For custom shapes, include clear guidelines or notes about your intended cutline to assist our Art Team.

Use High-Resolution or Vector Files

Ensuring Quality

Submit artwork files in vector format for the sharpest results. If vector files are unavailable, ensure your raster images are 300 dpi or higher at the size you ordered.

• Preferred Formats: Vector files such as AI, EPS, or PDF.
• Raster Files: Export high-resolution files in formats like PNG or JPEG for best results.

Proper resolution eliminates the risk of blurry or pixelated designs.

Apply the Correct Color Mode

Ensure Precise Color representation

We print all stickers and labels using CMYK colors, so if color is important for your design, make sure it is set up ahead of time in CMYK. Files in RGB will be auto-converted and may vary from your expected outcome. Using a CMYK color mode from the get-go and providing your specific CMYK values will give our Art Team the tools needed to keep your colors beautiful! 

Final Check

• Proofread Your Design: Review all elements for alignment, quality, and proper margins. Don't forget to read over your text to ensure no typos are present!
• Save the File Correctly: Use high-resolution or vector formats and double-check that your file matches the print size.
• Include Special Instructions (Optional): Add notes for effects like glitter, holographic, or custom shapes, if applicable.

Perfectly set up artwork speeds up the production process, ensures quality, and minimizes errors. By following these steps—sizing correctly, adding margins and bleed, centering your design, removing cutlines for standard shapes, and submitting high-quality files—you can achieve professional results with ease.

Need help? Our Art Team is here to guide you. Submit your artwork today and let us bring your designs to life!