What Size Should My Label Be?

When it comes to picking the right size for your bottle labels there are three levels. The first level are rules you must stick to, next comes the guidance that you would be well minded to listen to and thirdly the choices that are yours to make. Lets take a look at the them in more detail.

The Rules

Put simply these are to make sure that your label sticks to the bottle. Every bottle, jar or container has a prescribed area designed for the label to fit in to. Your label should not be any higher than the height of this labelling area, as marked on the diagram below as A. In fact your bottle label should be 3mm smaller than this height, This will allow a tolerance for the person who has got to apply the labels to the bottle. The width of the label is often dictated by the circumference of the bottle. This can be calculated by measuring the diameter and multiplying it by pi, which is 3.14mm. You should either increase this by 3 mm if you wish the label to overlap or reduce it by 3mm if you wish to leave a gap. Labels do not like butting up against each other and this can look really ugly. This is due to bottles not being exactly round and/or the applicator not being exactly square.

The Guidance

On a round bottle the viewable surface is about a one third of the circumference. Make sure you get all the important branding in that third of the bottle. People trust what they can see. Aim to show off the contents as much as you can, this will build trust and create a sense of quality. Know which edge is going to be going on to the bottle first (the leading edge). This will be left, right, head or foot leading. If your label has corners decide what you want them to look like, do they need to be dead square or are you going to soften them by rounding them off the rounding is referred to as the corner radius and the higher the number the smoother the curve.

The Choices

If you are having square or rectangular labels then your options are pretty straight forward. What about shaped labels, they are arresting to the eye and can become a significant part of the design which will help to sell your products in even greater quantities. we can do round labels, triangle labels, flag labels and irregular shaped labels. Why not take a look at some examples of shaped labels. Also worth consideration are internal die cuts they make a huge impact.