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Guide · Metallic labels

Metallic labels: how they print, and how to design one.

A metallic label is not printed with metallic ink. It is ordinary colour printed on a silver, gold or holographic film, with a layer of white ink underneath everything that should look normal. Wherever we leave the white out, the film shows through. Once you know that, designing one is a matter of deciding what stays white-backed and what goes metallic — and our designer does the rest.

What the press actually does

Our inks are translucent. On white paper that is invisible; on silver PP every colour takes on the metal behind it. So the press lays down four things, in this order:

1 · Silver PP film — the material 2 · White ink — under everything that must look "as designed" gap = metallic 3 · Colour (CMYK) — yellow with no white under it reads as gold 4 · Lamination or varnish — gloss or matte what the shopper sees, from above → green label with a gold-foil letter where the white was left out
Where the white ink is missing, the colour on top sits straight on the foil: no colour = bare silver; yellow = gold; pink = rose gold; black = gunmetal. Everything with white under it prints exactly as it would on paper.

What looks good metallic

Make these metallic

  • Your brand name and the product name — bold type from about 6 pt (2 mm) up
  • Rules, frames, badges and seals — one clean shape reads as foil-stamped
  • Patterns — honeycomb on honey, waves on sea salt, stripes on a can
  • Silhouettes — a coffee bean, a leaf, a hop cone, a sunburst
  • A whole background — leave the white out under the ground and print white-backed type on top

Keep these white-backed

  • Photographs and soft gradients — they go muddy on foil
  • Small print — ingredients, addresses, barcodes
  • Hairlines under 0.25 mm — the white and the colour register to about 0.15 mm, so very fine metallic detail loses its edge
  • Pale colours you want to stay pale — pastel over silver turns grey
Colour on foil Think of the colour as a tint over metal. White (no colour) is bare foil. Yellow becomes gold, warm pink becomes rose gold, cyan becomes a blue chrome, a dark colour becomes gunmetal. A dark, white-backed background makes the metallic parts jump — most of our metallic templates use one.

Do it yourself in the designer

  1. Pick the material. Open the Metallic panel and choose Silver, Gold, Rose gold, Holographic or Clear. The artboard shows the foil, so you see what an unprinted area will look like.
  2. Mark what goes metallic. Select any text, shape or ornament and press Metallic — no white ink. Its colour becomes the tint: leave it white for bare foil, make it yellow for gold. Press again to put the white back.
  3. Add ornaments and patterns. The panel carries vector shapes drawn for foil — badges, frames, botanical and food silhouettes, honeycomb and wave patterns. They arrive metallic on a metallic material and take the scheme's accent on white.
  4. Check the preview. Foil preview paints the metallic parts with the real material; the checks pill warns you about metallic type under 6 pt.
  5. Save. That is all. The designer writes two plates for us: the colour artwork and a white-ink map with every metallic element knocked out. Our press file carries it as a separation named White — the same thing our prepress reads from agency artwork — and your approval form shows the label simulated on the material.
Or start from a metallic template The Metallic labels category in the designer has honey with a gold honeycomb, a bare-silver cold-brew bean, a gold-framed lambanog, a silver hop for craft beer, a matcha can, a candle sunburst, a serum, sea salt and a holographic sticker. Every one of them is already split into white-backed and metallic parts — swap the words and the colours and it stays right.
Wild Honey — gold honeycomb on silver template Wild Honey — gold honeycomb on silver 60 × 45 mm · Silver PP Cold Brew — bare silver bean template Cold Brew — bare silver bean 60 × 95 mm · Silver PP Craft beer — silver hop template Craft beer — silver hop 83 × 102 mm · Silver PP Lambanog Reserve — gold frame template Lambanog Reserve — gold frame 90 × 120 mm · Gold PP Matcha Latte — silver on green can template Matcha Latte — silver on green can 178 × 115 mm · Silver PP Candle — gold sunburst template Candle — gold sunburst 50 × 50 mm · Gold PP Serum — silver type on black template Serum — silver type on black 30 × 70 mm · Silver PP Sea Salt — silver waves template Sea Salt — silver waves 70 × 55 mm · Holographic PP Limited edition — holographic template Limited edition — holographic ⌀ 50 mm · Holographic PP Chevron — bare silver on black template Chevron — bare silver on black 76 × 76 mm · Silver PP Deco Fans — gold perfume template Deco Fans — gold perfume 40 × 50 mm · Gold PP Terrazzo — rose gold lid template Terrazzo — rose gold lid ⌀ 55 mm · Rose_gold PP Checkerboard — holographic template Checkerboard — holographic 50 × 50 mm · Holographic PP Diamond Grid — gold chocolate template Diamond Grid — gold chocolate 100 × 75 mm · Gold PP Arches — silver candle template Arches — silver candle 60 × 60 mm · Silver PP Sun Rays — gold hot sauce template Sun Rays — gold hot sauce 60 × 90 mm · Gold PP Lipstick — bare gold monogram template Lipstick — bare gold monogram 15 × 40 mm · Gold PP Compact — rose-gold frame template Compact — rose-gold frame ⌀ 50 mm · Rose_gold PP Herringbone — silver gin template Herringbone — silver gin 89 × 102 mm · Silver PP Greek key — gold band template Greek key — gold band 70 × 55 mm · Gold PP Moroccan tile — rose gold template Moroccan tile — rose gold ⌀ 55 mm · Rose_gold PP Argyle — silver spirits template Argyle — silver spirits 89 × 102 mm · Rose_gold PP Clouds — holographic sticker template Clouds — holographic sticker ⌀ 50 mm · Holographic PP Star lattice — silver perfume template Star lattice — silver perfume 30 × 40 mm · Silver PP Drip coffee — silver foil template Drip coffee — silver foil 130 × 100 mm · Silver PP

The materials

WhitePaper or white PP. Inks print as designed; nothing is metallic.
Metallic silverSilver PP. Anything you mark metallic prints with no white under it, so the silver shows — bare, or tinted by the colour you give it.
Metallic goldGold PP. Metallic elements show the gold; white-backed elements print as on paper.
Rose goldRose-gold PP. Metallic elements show the rose gold; everything else sits on white ink.
HolographicRainbow holographic PP. Keep metallic areas simple — big shapes, bold type — so the effect reads.
ClearTransparent PP. Metallic-marked areas print with no white and stay see-through; the rest is backed with white ink.

All metallic stocks are polypropylene film with a permanent adhesive, laminated gloss or matte after printing. They resist water and oil, which is why they carry so many spirits, cosmetics and premium food labels. The label goes on the outside of the pack; it is not a food-contact material.

Try a metallic label.

Start from a metallic template or turn any design metallic in one click. We quote silver, gold, rose gold and holographic PP for the same low minimums as white.

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