Barcode & Shipping Stickers for Garments & Apparel

Where this sits in the pack

Fotoset has been printing since 1983 and is run by Santanu Roy. Work for garments and apparel is a standing part of the plant's output, and barcode and shipping stickers is produced as a repeat item rather than a one-off. That matters when the second and third runs have to sit next to the first without a visible difference.

In garments and apparel, barcode and shipping stickers is used for work of this kind:

• Retail unit barcodes applied to polybags, header cards and boxes
• Inner and outer carton identification for export shipments
• Size and article stickers applied at the packing table
• Shelf-ready and warehouse location labels

In this sector the printed set around the product usually includes the following, and Fotoset can supply all of it on one order rather than leaving the buyer to co-ordinate three suppliers:

• Swing tags in the buyer's format, punched and strung or fitted with a loop lock
• Sewn satin and taffeta labels for neck, side seam and pocket positions
• Care and composition labels in the languages the destination requires
• Size stickers and cube stickers for polybags and inner cartons

The usual build

Size and format range: From 20 x 10 mm article stickers to 210 x 148 mm carton labels, supplied in sheets or on rolls with a stated core and winding direction. Swing tags are usually 300 to 350 GSM art or kraft board; sewn labels are satin, taffeta or coated polyester.

Printing is by sheet-fed offset for process and spot colours, with silkscreen used where an opaque white, a metallic or a fluorescent is specified. Both processes are in the same building, so a combination job runs without moving the sheet.

• Offset and silkscreen printing for the printed field
• High-resolution barcode imaging with bar width reduction set for the chosen substrate
• Verification against the print quality grade agreed with the buyer

Substrates and finishes commonly chosen

• White semi-gloss self-adhesive paper with permanent acrylic adhesive
• Matt paper for thermal transfer overprint at the packer's end
• White and clear polyester and polypropylene for damp or oily handling
• Removable adhesive stock where the label must lift cleanly from a finished product

Every finishing operation this item needs happens in-house: lamination, coating, die-cutting, creasing, punching, eyeletting and packing. Sheets are not sent out between operations, which removes the most common cause of delay and of damage on a barcode and shipping stickers job.

• Kiss-cut on sheets or rolls, sprocketed or plain
• Gloss or matt varnish over the printed area, barcode field left free of high-gloss varnish
• Sequential numbering and variable data
• Roll winding to a specified core size and unwind direction

What has to be printed by law or by standard

Fotoset prints the marks and declarations supplied by the customer and does not alter them. Artwork is checked before plate-making and any mark that will not reproduce cleanly is queried in writing. For garments and apparel, the content that commonly appears on this item includes:

• Fibre composition declaration in the required languages
• Care symbols to the ISO 3758 set, reproduced as vector
• Country of origin marking
• Importer identification for European and UK retail
• Recycling and packaging waste marks

Languages

Care and composition text is commonly supplied in five to twelve European languages. Indian domestic supply adds Hindi and Bengali.

Ordering pattern

• Orders peak ahead of European autumn and spring deliveries, with tight windows either side
• Size and colour assortment changes generate late repeat runs of stickers and tickets
• Festive and gifting seasons in India create short high-volume runs

What we need from your studio

• Press-ready PDF, version 1.4 or later, with 3 mm bleed on all four sides and crop marks outside the trim.
• Native Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW files accepted, with fonts converted to outlines and linked images embedded.
• Images at 300 dpi at final printed size. Line art and barcode artwork supplied as vector wherever possible.
• Colour built in CMYK. Spot colours called out by Pantone reference in the file and in the purchase order.
• Die line supplied on a separate named layer, in a spot colour set to overprint, not on the artwork layer.