How Should I Select My Label "Finish"?

The majority of our labels come with a thin surface layer of transparent polypropylene film (called an “over-laminate”) to provide robust protection from the elements and other external influences.

Which over-laminate you choose is up to you – Gloss provides a beautiful glossy sheen to your labels and shows the underlying design in all its crisp glory, whereas Matte provides a dull, non-shiny finish and can assist in creating a quaint antique look, or perhaps just to prevent any glare from surrounding lights, etc. Both provide excellent protection from abrasion and weathering, so the choice just comes down to your preferred visual appearance.

We also offer a special over-laminate called Thermal Transfer, specifically designed to allow for over-printing using a thermal transfer printer (which uses ribbons to print small amounts of data like batch numbers, expiry dates etc. onto your labels). Please note – not all printers and/or ribbons are guaranteed to work with this laminate, so some testing is strongly advised – we can arrange for some raw samples for this purpose on request. If you need more information about Thermal Transfer, see our FAQs page for a more detailed explanation.

The exception to over-laminates is if you choose the Estate #8 or Estate #9 material. In order to preserve the “textured paper” look and feel, we leave the labels in their natural “unfinished” state.  Given that this material is primarily targeted at the wine and beverage industry, the labels typically don’t need the same level of long-term protection that many other products do – and the textured paper allows the inks to be absorbed more than most other materials.