How Custom Labels Are Actually Made (From Roll to Ready)

If you've seen our process clips showing a blank roll turn into finished labels, you already know this is one of our favourite things to show people — there's something genuinely satisfying about watching it happen. Here's the same process, written out.

1. Artwork and prepress

It starts with your design file. Before anything gets printed, we check it for the basics that actually matter — resolution, colour mode, bleed, and sizing — so what prints matches what you approved. This is also where we catch the small stuff that causes problems later, like text sitting too close to a cut line.

2. Imposition

Your design gets arranged across the printable area as efficiently as possible — as many labels as will fit cleanly, with the right spacing between them. This step is mostly invisible to the customer, but it's a big part of what keeps label pricing reasonable, since a tighter, smarter layout means less waste.

3. Printing

This is the part people actually picture — the press lays down full colour, roll after roll, in one continuous run on our Konica Minolta AccurioLabel press. Material choice shows up here too: plastic and paper behave differently under the press, which is part of why the material decision happens before you get here, not after.

4. Laminating (if applicable)

If your label needs a protective finish — gloss, matte, or something more durable for a product that'll get handled or wet — a laminate layer gets applied over the printed material. Optional, and dependent on where the label's going to live.

5. Die-cutting

Now the individual label shapes get cut out of the printed roll using a die matched to your label's exact outline, whether that's a simple circle or a more complex custom shape. This is the step in our process videos where a plain printed roll suddenly becomes a roll of finished, separated labels.

6. Rewinding, slitting, and quality check

The finished roll gets slit to width and rewound cleanly so it feeds properly into an applicator later. This is also where we do a final check — making sure colour, cut lines, and quantity are all correct before anything ships.

7. Packing and shipping

Finished rolls get packed to survive transit — rolls especially need to arrive without getting crushed or unwound — and shipped out.

Why this matters to you

None of this is trivia for its own sake — every step above is part of what determines your price, your turnaround time, and how your finished label will actually hold up. Curious what your own labels would look like coming off the press? Get a real price in a couple of clicks.