When you make labels with your printer at home, you will need sheets of labels in the correct size, and a good ink supply in your printer. If you are going to make very colorful, professional-looking labels like those made by printing services, you are going to need much more than ink, a printer, and labels. This is especially true if you need to make hundreds or thousands of very colorful labels. Here is a list of the extra supplies you will need and why.
Inkjet Printer
When you want lots of vivid colors on the same label, you need an inkjet printer. If you have a laser printer, you can still make labels, but the color choices are limited and the colors are definitely not as vibrant either. If you want more than four or five different colors on your labels with contrasting font colors, the inkjet printer is an absolute necessity.
LOTS of Refill Cartridges
Your inkjet printer will produce some beautiful labels, to be sure. There is just one catch—inkjet printers run out of ink very quickly. When the cartridges say that they will produce "x" number of pages of printed material, that is a basic, or average, estimate. With all of the colors you want to use, it means that the printer will have to use its ink to produce the specific colors you want, placing a demand on certain color cartridges. To avoid frequent trips to the store, stock up before you start your label-printing project.
Pages and Pages of Pre-Glued Labels
You want your printer to run through pages of labels in the same way you would expect any printer to run through sheets of paper. You do not want to feed ten or fifteen pages of labels at a time. You want to place a stack of label pages in the feed tray of your printer and let the machine go. In order to do that, you need to buy packs and packs of pre-glued/pre-gummed labels that are ready to go.
Label-Making Software
Buy the best label-making software money can buy. You do not think that the professionals skimp on their software, do you? On the contrary, they spend plenty of money on their software, updating it often to give customers more design options. If you are going to continue making hundreds or thousands of labels from home, you too need to buy excellent label design software.
Extras of Everything to Which You Are Adhering the Labels
Are you putting labels on bottles, cans, boxes, etc.? Whatever your intentions for your labels, you need to have plenty of these items as well. If you are just making colorful mailing labels for an envelope stuffing business, then you will need plenty of envelopes for all of those labels.
Now You Know
When you order labels from a printing company, you pay a pretty big penny. That is because the printing service is doing the same thing you are doing now. They buy industrial inkjet printers, tons of ink cartridges, sheets and sheets of labels, and label-making software. Sometimes they utilize the built-in software that comes with their industrial printers, but that is not enough software to give customers what the customers are looking for. What you are buying and paying for when you order labels from these companies is not just your labels, but the supplies they need to produce your labels.
The reason why you get a fat discount on larger orders of labels is because the company does not have to stop printing at a certain number. The cost of operation decreases as the order number increases. When you print at home, it does not exactly work out that way.
To learn more about printed labels, contact a company like Dixie Labels & Systems Inc.
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