Free design proof on every custom order: no templates, no stock SKUs
A barcode label's whole job is to scan reliably, which puts different demands on it than a decorative sticker. Contrast, print resolution and material all affect whether a scanner reads it cleanly the first time. They range from simple 1D codes, the familiar black-and-white bars used at retail checkout, to 2D formats like QR or Data Matrix codes that pack more information into a smaller space. Material and adhesive choice usually follow the surface the label will be applied to: a shipping carton, a retail product, or a piece of equipment.
A barcode label is judged by one practical standard that other labels aren't: whether a scanner can read it cleanly on the first pass. That changes some of the usual design and material decisions. Contrast matters more than color choice. Black bars on a white or light background scan far more reliably than color combinations that look fine to a human eye but confuse an optical scanner. Print resolution matters too, since barcodes rely on precise bar widths and spacing; a code printed too small or at low resolution can blur bars together and cause misreads at the register or on a warehouse scanner.
There are two broad families of barcode. One-dimensional codes. The familiar vertical bars used on retail packaging (UPC, EAN) and in most point-of-sale systems. Are simple, cheap to print and universally supported, but only hold a limited amount of data, usually just a product or item number that looks up the rest in a database. Two-dimensional codes, like QR codes or Data Matrix, pack significantly more information into a smaller footprint and can be read by a phone camera as well as a dedicated scanner, which is why they've become common on shipping labels, tickets and marketing materials as well as inventory tags.
Material follows the environment the label will live in. Standard paper works fine for retail shelf labels and short-term use indoors. Thermal-printed labels are common in shipping and logistics because they print quickly without ink or ribbon, though they can fade with heat or sunlight over time unless a thermal-transfer process with a more stable ribbon is used. For equipment tags, outdoor assets or anything exposed to moisture, oil or abrasion, a synthetic or polyester stock with a protective laminate holds up considerably longer than paper and keeps the code scannable after months of handling.
Sizing is driven by both the barcode format's minimum readable dimensions and the space available on the product or package. A code shrunk below its minimum bar width to fit a small package will start producing unreliable scans, so it's worth confirming the target size against the barcode symbology's specifications before finalizing artwork.
Labels divide first into paper and film, and the dividing question is whether the label will ever get wet. Coated paper takes ink beautifully and costs the least, but moisture ends it. A paper label on a chilled bottle wrinkles within an hour. Film faces such as BOPP shrug off condensation, refrigeration and handling. Clear and metallised films are chosen for a specific visual effect rather than for durability alone.
Paper or film? If the labeled item is ever chilled, refrigerated or handled with wet hands, film. Everything else, paper does the job for less.
Full color covers most label work. Three cases need more: a brand color that must match across every reorder runs as a Pantone spot rather than being approximated from process inks; anything printed on clear or metallised film needs a white underbase or the colors go translucent; and labels carrying serial numbers, addresses or codes are printed as variable data, where every label in the run is different.
Can every label be different? Yes. Sequential numbers, names, addresses and codes are all variable data. Send a spreadsheet and the field mapping.
A protective layer over the print, in two grades. Varnish is a coating applied inline. Cheap, thin, enough to stop ink scuffing in normal handling. Laminate is a bonded film: thicker, tougher, and the only real answer where a label meets moisture, abrasion or chemicals. On anything that gets wiped, refrigerated or squeezed, the difference between the two shows within weeks.
Varnish or laminate? Varnish for a dry indoor label. Laminate for anything wet, chilled, handled constantly, or wiped down.
Chosen against the surface, the temperature and the intended life. General-purpose permanent covers most rigid, room-temperature surfaces. Removable releases cleanly within a reasonable window. Freezer-grade stays flexible and keeps bonding at temperatures where a standard adhesive turns brittle and lets go. High-tack exists for textured plastics, recycled board and anything that resists adhesion.
It is going on something cold. Does that matter? Considerably. Applying a standard adhesive to an already-cold surface is the single most common cause of labels falling off in the chiller.
A barcode is not artwork; it is a machine-readable pattern with tolerances. Three things decide whether it scans: sufficient contrast between bars and background. Dark on light, never light on dark; enough print resolution that the narrow bars stay crisp; and an unprinted quiet zone either side of the symbol. Get any of the three wrong and the label looks perfect and scans nowhere.
Why does my barcode fail to scan? Usually gloss glare, insufficient contrast, or artwork encroaching on the quiet zone. Matte finish and a clear margin fix most scanning problems.
Ask for samples of any face on this list before committing to a run. How a stock takes ink and handles moisture is impossible to judge on screen.
An inline coating that stops ink scuffing in normal handling. It is thin and inexpensive, and it is the right answer for a dry indoor label that will not be wiped, chilled or gripped.
A bonded film rather than a coating. Thicker, tougher, and the only real protection where a label meets moisture, abrasion or cleaning chemicals. On chilled and handled products the difference from varnish shows within weeks.
Metallic foil pressed into the label under heat, applied to selected elements. Against an uncoated or matte ground a single small foil element does more visual work than any amount of additional color.
Relief pressed into the material, or a clear resin lens poured over the face. Both add a physical dimension a flat label cannot have: emboss for texture, dome for depth and abrasion resistance.
Same family, genuinely different jobs. Your current selection is highlighted.
| Label | From | Build | Order it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom Labels | $175 | Every layer specified | Nothing standard fits the job |
| Product Labels | $145 | Brand panel plus mandatory content | It sells the product and carries the details |
| Food Label | $175 | Regulatory panel, food-safe adhesive | Ingredients and nutrition are required |
| Bottle Labels | $169 | Film face, wraparound, laminated | It gets cold, wet and gripped |
| Clear Labels | $180 | Clear film, white underbase | The container should show through |
| Die Cut Labels | $179 | Custom outline die | A rectangle or circle will not do |
| Domed Labels | $210 | Cut to a custom outline | The shape is the artwork, not a rectangle |
| Metallic Foil Labels | $180 | Metallised film beneath the ink | Large metallic areas or metallic color |
| Embossed Foil Labels | $190 | Emboss registered to foil | Seals and authenticity marks |
| Bar Code Labels | $150 | Contrast, resolution, quiet zone | It has to scan every time |
| QR Code Labels | $150 | Module size to scan distance | A phone camera has to read it |
| Shipping Labels | $165 | Thermal face, carrier format | It moves through a carrier network |
| Mailing Labels | $140 | Sheet or roll, high volume | Hundreds or thousands of addresses |
| Address Labels | $145 | Sheeted, uncoated, writable | Envelopes, by printer or by hand |
| General Purpose Labels | $140 | Standard shapes and stock | Dates, contents, internal marking |
| Business Labels | $160 | Standard commercial format | Everyday branded commercial use |
| CD Labels | $170 | Concentric annular die | It spins, so it must be balanced |
Usually one of three things: gloss glare bouncing into the scanner, insufficient contrast between bars and background, or artwork encroaching on the quiet zone either side of the symbol. A matte finish and a clear margin fix most scanning problems.
Almost never successfully. Scanners read contrast, and most brand colors do not provide enough of it against a light ground. Dark bars (ideally black) on a light background is the only reliable combination.
Each symbology has a minimum size below which the narrow bars stop resolving. Shrinking a barcode to fit a layout is the most common cause of an unscannable label. If space is tight, change the symbology rather than the scale.
Matte laminate, if anything. It protects the label without adding glare. Gloss laminate can actively cause scan failures under certain lighting, which makes it the wrong protective choice here.
Pricing for barcode labels starts at $150 and moves with quantity, size, material and finish rather than sitting on a fixed list. Setup is shared across the run, so the per-unit price drops steeply as the quantity rises: the gap between a few hundred and a few thousand is usually the significant one. Send the size, quantity and what it has to do and you get a firm figure back, not a range.
There is a practical minimum rather than a hard one. Every run carries artwork checks, a proof and a press setup, so a very small quantity of barcode labels prices poorly per unit even though we will still make it. If you are ordering a small batch, ask for pricing at two or three quantities at once: the curve usually shows that a modest increase costs very little more in total.
The clock starts when you approve the proof, not when the order is placed, which is the part most people are surprised by. You get a proof first: a digital proof showing artwork against the dieline, and on clear or metallised faces exactly where white ink sits. Nothing is printed until you approve it, and on a shaped label the proof is where you first see the real outline. Turnaround after approval depends on the finish: anything laminated, foiled or die-cut adds a stage that cannot be compressed without causing problems later. Tell us the date you actually need them and we will work backwards from it rather than quoting a generic lead time.
Print-ready artwork with bleed and a safe margin, supplied as a PDF, AI or EPS. Photographic elements should be supplied at the resolution the finished size needs, not the resolution that looks sharp on screen. If your file is not print-ready, say so when you order. We would rather fix it before the proof than after the run.
Yes. Scan contrast and quiet zone is the standard build, and the dimensions around it are yours to set. A size that sits efficiently on the press sheet often costs no more than a standard one, while an awkward proportion that wastes half the sheet does. Ask before you commit and we will tell you whether a small change to the dimensions saves a disproportionate amount.
In most cases they are the same product under a different name: the trade uses several terms for it depending on the region and the supplier. What actually defines this one is the build: contrast, resolution, quiet zone. Order it when it has to scan every time. If you have seen it called sku labels elsewhere, describe what it has to do rather than which name you found, and we will match the specification.
Yes. We provide free samples, and on barcode labels it is worth asking for one, because the difference between semi-gloss paper and uncoated paper is obvious in the hand and invisible on a screen. Most orders run on semi-gloss paper, but ask for whichever you are weighing up. You also get a free design proof before anything goes to press, so nothing is printed that you have not seen.
The usual choices are varnish, lamination, foil stamping. Finish is not decoration on this product so much as a decision about how long it survives and how it reads in the hand, so it is worth choosing against the job rather than the budget. Tell us where the finished piece ends up and we will say which finish is doing real work and which is only adding cost.
Yes, and that is what almost every order here is. Nothing in this catalogue is a stock item: barcode labels are manufactured to the specification you give us, with your artwork on them. Send your logo as vector artwork where you have it, since that scales to any size without softening. If all you have is a low-resolution file, tell us and we will say what it needs before it reaches the press.
Yes, and a repeat run is simpler than the first one. We keep your approved specification on file, so a reorder skips the setup decisions and goes straight to production. If nothing about the artwork or the specification has changed, there is nothing to re-approve. Tell us the previous order and we will match it rather than starting the specification again.
Yes. Regalo Print has been producing custom commercial print for businesses across the USA and Canada since 2008, and every order ships tracked. The tracking number reaches you the day the job leaves, not the day it arrives. If you are working to a fixed date, say so when you order so the production schedule is built around the delivery date rather than the other way round.
