What Is A Custom Label?

Other than that, both can be used to brand your products, enhance your packaging, or be handed out to people and customers.

What is the difference between custom labels and sticker sheets?

There is no difference between custom labels and sticker sheets.

When you order custom labels, they are usually printed onto sheets (or rolls). The sheet your labels are printed onto is often referred to as a sticker sheet.

In essence, you could say that a sticker sheet contains custom labels.

So if you are looking for labels, you can order custom labels or sticker sheets and will receive the same product. You can find out more about what sheet labels are in our article. 

When to use custom labels over stickers

We always recommend using custom labels, either on sheets or on rolls, when you are applying the label yourself. For example, if you are applying labels to your own packaging or your own products.

Why? Because custom labels on sheets or rolls can be a real time saver.

To help explain how important this is, we did a test of applying 1,000 stickers that were 3cm circles. It took 2 hours and 17 minutes when individually cut, but only 48 minutes when on a sticker sheet. That’s a massive saving of 1hr 29 minutes. Custom labels are 65% faster to apply!

But when should you choose custom labels printed onto sheets? And when are roll labels your best option?

Generally, getting a label on a sheet is better when you are applying the label yourself because they’re easy to store and transport.

However, if a machine is applying the label, such as in a bottling plant, then the best option is to get your labels on rolls.

This is easily the fastest way of applying labels because machines can work way quicker than humans and can do it all day and all night. This makes it the best if you’ve got hundreds of thousands of labels to apply. 

When to go for stickers

The best time to choose custom stickers instead of custom labels is if you are handing them out or selling them and therefore, someone else is going to be applying the sticker. 

Getting them cut individually means they’re easy to sell one by one and having them cut professionally by machine makes them look clean, crisp and pretty awesome.

There are different types of cuts you can have for stickers. You can get your sticker either kiss-cut or die-cut. 

How do I create custom labels?

The process of creating your own custom labels is an easy one. There are a few key steps.

1. Create a design
2. Find a supplier
3. Choose your material 

1. Create a design

This first stage is probably the most important because if you get this right, your end label will look awesome.

You do not have to be a design expert to create a professional product label. Instead, use our free-to-use online design tool Graphic, where you can create a design without any design experience.

There are thousands of pre-made designs you can choose from and customise to get your desired look. Or you can start from scratch.

Graphic looks like this:

If you don’t want to do it yourself or don’t have an eye for design, then it’s well worth paying a professional to create something for you. Fiverr is a great source of freelance designers. You can get some pretty awesome designs for a very low cost.

2. Find a supplier

Your next step is to find the right person to print your design for you.

The most important points to think about when choosing a supplier are:

• Will they arrive in time
• Is the print quality world-class

There are of course, many other points that you can consider, but we won’t cover them all here to avoid this article becoming too long!

Will they arrive in time

This is a pretty simple one to understand. Just look at how long they take to ship, and if it arrives before you need them, then they’re in the running. 

The reason we mention this point is that it's easy to get caught out. When buying custom products, it can take longer than you think to make them, as the product has to be essentially made from scratch. So try to order with some time to spare. 

Is the print quality world-class

As with anything, there are many different ways to print and many different printers to print with. 

Some are better and more expensive than others and can print incredible quality. So before you choose your supplier, have a look at how they print stickers and labels to make sure that the quality is good enough. 

At Sticker it, we print using an HP indigo 6K. This is the world's best digital printer for stickers and labels, which means you’re guaranteed to get the best quality available anywhere in the world.

Choose your material

The surface and product you will stick your custom labels to will influence the material your labels should be made from.

For example, if you have a very short-term application, such as a label for an event, you’ll probably want to opt for an environmentally friendly, compostable option such as our eco-friendly white labels. 

These are plastic free and will completely compost in just a few months, which means that they have much less of an impact on the environment.

However, if you need a label for sticking to a shampoo bottle or something that will either get wet or needs to last a long time, plastic labels are really your only, and best, option.

There are many different colours to choose from, such as; white labels, clear labels, holographic labels, glitter labels, and others. Each of these different coloured materials can be used to create stunning effects that will make your product stand out.

Here are some cool examples to show you just what can be achieved using these different coloured materials:

How to order custom labels

Now that you have a design and we’ve chosen a supplier (hopefully us 😉) this is the easy bit. We've worked hard over many years to make the ordering process super easy.

To order your custom labels, simply go to the correct product page.