How to Check your Design for Sticker Printing

Before you send your design for sticker printing it is a good idea to check a few of its properties. A lot of mistakes and delays happen in printing stickers because some property of the sticker design is off or in the wrong format causing the sticker printing service to return the design for adjustment. Well, to avoid this from happening to you, here is a quick step by step checklist on how to check your design for sticker printing.

1. Determine the proper dimensions – The initial step should be about your dimensions. Some people just make designs in their imaging or desktop publishing software without really setting the proper dimensions for their sticker designs. Sometimes people set things in inches, while they actually mean centimeters. Others just use default canvass settings which is not really suited for their sticker designs. That is why you always need to set your design dimensions first before actually starting your sticker design. Just look at the image size or image properties of your file in your publishing software to check if you design is indeed in the exact measurements that you want.

Also, as a minor note, some sticker printers might want to add a design bleed in your dimensions so that cutting can be done with some leeway. So if you want try to add in an extra quarter of an inch to your dimensions on all sides so that the printers have some space to cut your color stickers. Of course add in some guidelines and specify your dimensions to the sticker printer so that they know the exact dimensions that you want for your stickers.

2. Check your images – Next, always check your images before printing. You may see a nice clear picture in your computer screen but once you print it, it might come off as fuzzy or pixelated. You can test this easily by printing a sample print on normal paper for yourself. If your design comes off fuzzy then your images are not ideal for the printer. Remember that you will always want a high resolution picture for your images in sticker printing. Since the quality of your digital picture will always reflect (each and every dot of it) in the prints themselves. So make sure you use high resolution pictures in all your sticker designs.

3. Analyze your text – Of course, try to proof read your sticker text as well (If applicable). Sometimes people design their stickers so fast that that it is actually possible for them to overlook a very serious spelling or grammar error. So always have a proof read and review time for your designs before sending them off to the printers. If you can try to have another person check the text so that they are unbiased and precise with the editing.

4. Save in different file formats – Lastly, always save your sticker printing designs in several file formats. Try to have one file that comes from the application you are using itself (such as an Adobe Photoshop document or Microsoft Publisher file). Also try to save your sticker designs on other formats like image files like JPG and PNG as well. Saving in different file formats should give you a nice spread that can cover the various needs of the sticker printer. If any one file that you sent over is corrupted or cannot be opened, your other files should be a nice backup for that. So always prepare for everything and send it in different file formats.

Once you have followed these steps, your color sticker design should be ready for any kind of sticker printing. You should have little or no trouble at all once you send that design to your printer, or even if you print it out yourself. Being prepared and being ready will always give you the best results in anything, even in sticker printing. So remember these steps well and save yourself the worry and hassle of typical printing jobs. You will have an easier time because of it.