Guides · updated 8 August 2026

The words we use, in one sentence each

The short answer: label production has its own vocabulary, and most of it is never explained to the person buying. Here are 43 terms grouped by what they belong to — the label itself, printing, finishing, adhesives, specialist materials and artwork — each defined in a sentence, with a link where a whole page exists behind it.

Glossary

The label itself

Face material: The visible layer of the label — the paper or film your design is printed on. When we say « material » on this site, this is it. The other two layers are the adhesive and the liner.
Liner (backing): The silicone-coated paper the labels sit on until they are applied. It is not waste to be ignored: a clear liner makes hand-positioning far easier, and the liner is what an applicator machine pulls on.
Web: The continuous strip of material running through the press. Its width and how your label sits across it decide how much material a run consumes — which is why an unusual shape sometimes costs nothing and a slightly wider one costs more.
Matrix: The waste skeleton of material left between labels once they have been cut, and stripped away on the press. If two labels sit very close together the matrix becomes fragile and can break — one reason we keep a small gap between them.
Core: The cardboard tube a roll is wound on, usually 40 or 76 mm across. Your printer or applicator expects one size; tell us which if the roll is going into a machine.
Wind direction: Which way up the labels come off the roll — outside or inside, head first or foot first. Eight possibilities, and a perfectly printed roll wound the wrong way is unusable on an automatic applicator.

Glossary

Printing

Four-colour (CMYK): Printing built from cyan, magenta, yellow and black. It reproduces photographs and gradients, and it is the default across the catalogue — from £146 per 100 on coated paper.
Spot colour: A single named ink printed on its own rather than built from four. Sharper on small text, closer to a brand colour, and 22 to 25 % cheaper where it is available.
Hot foil: Real metal leaf pressed onto the label with a heated die. It has physical shine that no ink reproduces. Around + £167 on a run of 100 — except on deep black paper, where foil replaces the printing and costs less than four colours.
Foil effect: Not foil at all: four-colour printing on a metallised paper, so the metal shines through the lighter areas of the design. Flat to the touch, and it needs no stamping die.
White underprint: A layer of white ink printed beneath the design on a transparent film. Without it, white artwork is simply the bottle showing through — on a clear sticker it can triple the price, so decide it at artwork stage.
Variable data: Printing something different on every label — a number, a barcode, a unique QR. Charged as a supplement per run, from + £96, not per label.
Direct thermal: A printer with no ribbon: the paper darkens under a heated head. Cheap and simple, and the print fades over months. Only papers with a heat-sensitive coating work this way — never a film.
Thermal transfer: A printer that melts ink from a ribbon onto the label. It prints on papers and films alike, and it is what you need for blank polyester.
Ribbon (wax, resin): The ink carrier in a thermal transfer printer. Wax is made for paper and smears on film; resin bonds into a film and survives water and abrasion. On any film, use resin.
Overprinting: Adding your own data to a label we have already printed, through a panel deliberately left bare and unvarnished — see overprintable rolls.

Glossary

Finishing

Varnish: A coating printed in the same pass as the ink. It stops the print marking under a thumb and deepens the colours — about £4 on a run of 100. It protects the printed face, not the paper underneath.
Lamination: A thin film applied over the label, gloss or matt, at around + £22 per 100. More protective than a varnish, and it does not waterproof the label: the edges and the paper still absorb water.
Soft touch: A matt lamination with a velvety, almost rubbery surface. Purely tactile, and it changes how a product feels in the hand more than how it looks.
Selective varnish: Gloss varnish applied only where you want the eye to go — a logo, a name — usually over a matt lamination for contrast. Supplied as a separate layer in your artwork.
Doming: A clear polyurethane resin poured onto the label, forming a thick lens. Used for badges and equipment marking; from £282 per 100, and simple outlines only.
Die cut: Cutting the label to shape. On our labels the shape is free — you choose a maximum size and any outline within it. On die-cut stickers, which use standing dies, the shape is charged.
Kiss cut: Cutting through the face material and the adhesive but not the liner, so the label peels off a continuous backing. It is how every self-adhesive label on a roll is made.

Glossary

Adhesives

Permanent: The default, available on almost every stock we carry. It reaches full strength in about 24 hours and is not meant to come off intact.
High-tack (reinforced): More adhesive, for surfaces a standard one only touches at the high points: recycled board, textured plastic, powder-coated metal. Free on the 14 stocks that carry it.
Removable: Lifts by hand within days or weeks without leaving a mark. It ages towards permanent, so « removable after a year » is a different product — ask for semi-permanent.
Ultra-removable: For glass, screens and books, where a faint residue matters more than the label. Available on two stocks, from £157 per 100.
Repositionable: Can be lifted and stuck again during application. Useful when labels are applied by hand at speed and mistakes are frequent.
Freezer adhesive: Formulated to bond onto a surface that is already cold or damp. The usual cause of labels failing in a cold chain is not the material but a standard adhesive applied at 2 °C.
Wash-off: Designed to leave the container in warm water so the bottle can be refilled. The opposite of a washable label, which survives the wash — the two are constantly confused.

Glossary

Specialist materials

VOID: A security film that leaves a repeated « VOID » pattern on the surface when it is peeled. The evidence stays where an inspector looks — see VOID labels.
Destructible: A brittle film that fragments when lifted and cannot be reassembled or reapplied. Used for property marking, from £139 per 100.
Blockout (opaque): A label opaque enough to cover what is printed underneath — a wrong date, an old price — without the previous text ghosting through.
Greaseproof: A stock that resists oil migrating from the product into the paper, which otherwise turns the label translucent and blotchy. Cheese, soap, charcuterie.
Wet-strength: A paper that keeps its structure when soaked — the reason a wet-strength label survives an ice bucket where an ordinary one turns to pulp.
Cryogenic: Rated for liquid nitrogen, down to −196 °C. Supplied blank for laboratory printers, at £56 per 100.

Glossary

Artwork and ordering

Bleed: Background extended 3 mm beyond the cut line, so a cut landing slightly outside still finds ink rather than white paper.
Safety margin: The 3 mm inside the cut where nothing important may sit. Text or a barcode placed there risks being trimmed.
Cut line: The vector path defining your final shape, supplied on its own layer in a spot colour named « cut ».
Quiet zone: The empty margin either side of a barcode. It is part of the code: text pushed against it stops the scanner reading.
x-height: The height of a lower-case « x » — the measurement European food law uses. Mandatory particulars need at least 1.2 mm, which is not the same as a point size.
Proof: Your artwork at final size, on the material and finish you ordered, sent before anything is printed. The 2 to 10 working days of production start when you approve it.
Minimum order: 100 labels across the catalogue, 250 on die-cut stickers. There is no smaller run: below a hundred, the setup is the whole price.

FAQ

Vocabulary — what customers ask us

What is the difference between a die cut and a kiss cut?

A kiss cut goes through the label and its adhesive but not the liner, so the labels stay on a continuous backing — that is how every roll of self-adhesive labels is made. A die cut, in everyday use, means cutting the label to a shape rather than a rectangle. On our labels that shape costs nothing extra; on die-cut stickers it does.

Is a lamination the same as a varnish?

No. A varnish is a coating printed in the same pass as the ink, at about £4 per 100, and it stops the print marking. A lamination is a film applied over the label, at about + £22 per 100, and it resists more. Neither makes the label waterproof — for that you change the material.

What do you need to know about my roll?

The core diameter, usually 40 or 76 mm, and the wind direction — which way the labels come off. There are eight combinations, and a perfectly printed roll wound the wrong way cannot feed an automatic applicator. If you are unsure, send a photograph of the roll you use today.

Why does my label need a “quiet zone”?

Because the empty margin either side of a barcode is part of the code itself. A scanner uses it to find where the bars start and stop. Text, a frame or another element pushed against the code is one of the most common reasons a barcode fails on an otherwise perfect label.

A term is missing from this list. Can you add it?

Yes — send it to us. This glossary is written from the questions we actually get, so a word you had to look up is exactly the kind of entry it needs.

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