Introduction

Shrink sleeve label wraps containers 360° from top to bottom, combining high quality graphics with distinctive styling and providing more packaging surface area. Shrink sleeve label is often printed by Reverse Side Printing, and the graphics are able to maintain their appearance in environments such as humidity and more.

Shrink sleeve labels are becoming more and more popular in the market and are widely used as packaging labels in food, beverage, daily chemical, and other industries.

Shrink Sleeve Label Advantages

• Shrink sleeve label is easy to process and can provide a sealed, anti-pollution and good protection for commodities;
• Film sleeve labels can closely adhere to the goods, provide compact packaging, show the shape of the goods. So, it offers great labeling solutions for irregular containers that are difficult to pack;
• Shrink sleeve labels can be applied without the use of adhesives, and can be obtained with the same transparency as glass;
• Shrink sleeve labels can provide containers with 360° all-round decoration packaging. And the product description and other commodity information can be printed on the label, so that consumers do not have to open the package to understand the performance of the product;
• Shrink sleeve label printing belongs to reverse side printing (graphics in the film sleeve inside), which can play a role in the protection of the imprint, and the label wear resistance is better.

Shrink Sleeve Label Design Essentials

The commonly used materials for shrink sleeve labels are PVC, PETG and OPS and other plastic film types. Shrink film is contracted and deformed at high temperatures to produce different degrees of contraction in the horizontal and vertical directions. And the contraction enables shrink film to fit the container, but it also causes the deformation of the graphic.

In order to minimize the effect of distortion on shrink sleeve labels, it is necessary to fully consider the airtightness of shrink films and the shape of the container when designing the graphic of shrink sleeve labels before printing.

Below we will introduce some of the key points about shrink sleeve label designs, if you have any questions about it, just contact us directly.

Size Determination

The first step is to measure the maximum circumference of the container and the height of the wrapping position. The obtained data is then the actual dimensions, which are also equivalent to the dimensions after shrink forming of shrink film. From this dimension data and the transverse and longitudinal shrinkage dimensions of the shrink film, the dimensions of shrink sleeve label before heat shrinking are determined.

Generally, A takes 3mm, B takes 2-3mm and C takes 1.5-2mm.

Image Design

• Spot Colors as Large as Possible for the Bottom Color

The bottom color design of shrink sleeve label should try to focus on spot colors, which can not only effectively avoid the deformation of the pattern brought about by shrinkage deformation, but also avoid the appearance of overprinting brought about by the deformation of the dot and shrinkage of the color distortion.

• Designing Correct Image Orientation

For inside printing, the image on the printing plate is upright; For outside printing, the image on the printing plate is reversed.

• Image Should Avoid on Position of High Shrinkage

The surface of the container is uneven, with some textures and different concave-convex structures, which also leads to different label shrinkage in different positions. Horizontal and vertical direction cannot be completely contracted, which will inevitably bring about deformation of the pattern, resulting in the pattern cannot be accurately restored.

Therefore, the main picture should be avoided to design on the position with high shrinkage and try to design on the position with low shrinkage and relatively smooth transition of the bottle body.

• Pre-denaturation Processing

When designing the pattern, attention should also be paid to communicating with the container manufacturer. Combined with the dimensional drawings of the bottle for pattern pre-denaturation processing, which can effectively avoid the distortion of the pattern brought about by heat shrinking.

• Graphic Gradation Should Fully Consider Printing Method

The shrink sleeve label printing is generally done by gravure printing since it is featured with high print resistance and is suitable for high-volume printing. The ink of gravure printing is solid, offering a stronger sense of concavity and convexity, and the colors of the label products are more vibrant and richer in level. If adopting gravure printing, the label design can adopt relatively complex graphics to enhance the visual impact, but its line performance is general.

However, if flexographic printing is applied for shrink sleeve label production, the dot expansion rate is relatively large compared to gravure printing. And, the image level is not easy to be too delicate, or else it is easy to paste the plate. There are also some other problems, like small dot loss and more.

• Overall Layout of The Pattern Should Be Appropriate

In general, the main pattern should be in the center of the label unfolding size, and the non-regular pattern should be in the visual center. The longest point should not be close to the edge of the individual label, so that it is located exactly in the main display position of the bottle after shrink molding.

In addition, it is necessary to consider the precision of labeling machine to avoid that the bottle pattern is pulled to the side after shrinking due to due to misalignment, affecting the aesthetics of the product.

Text Design

• Text Size Must Meet Requirements of Standards

Considering the shrinkage of heat shrink labels, the size of the text needs to be taken into account in the pre-press design. The correct size of the text is calculated by combining with its shrinkage rate, so as to satisfy the relevant legal and regulatory requirements.

• Text Direction Prioritized Longitudinal Placement

Generally, the transverse shrinkage of shrink film material is much greater than the longitudinal, so text direction along the longitudinal placement can reduce the deformation brought about by heat shrinkage.

• Deformation treatment of text pattern

The text part, especially when the main logo is text, should also be treated as an image. Try to place it in a position with low shrinkage to avoid damage to the brand image brought about by excessive deformation.

Regular Graphics Designs

• Design of Barcode

The outer contour of the bar code is rectangular, which belongs to the regular graphics, and its design must be to consider the situation after the label shrinks, and it should be in line with the industry national standard.

• Design of QR code and Nutritional Content Table

The QR code and nutrition facts table are generally regular square or rectangle in the outer periphery. In order to get a good shrinkage effect, the design effect must be combined with the packaged bottle type for pre-deformation processing.