Label printing - quantities?

Just putting out a feeler. If you were to order labels online, how many would you order?

Also, how would you want to submit it? Would you know what it meant to submit a PDF with embedded test and pictures? Would you be able to at least submit high res (300 ppi) files?

The company I work for just got a UV inknet press. I'm trying to see the feasibility of printing labels for homebrewers. Im suspecting small microbreweries would be a better target for this.

FYI, I'm not a salesperson. I do color management for a label printer. Our salespeople don't seem to know how to sell digital printing.

I'd look for quantities around 1000 (maybe even less) personally. I'd expect to be able to submit high res (>300 dpi) raster image of just about any filetype, or common vector formats such as EMF or AI. Sound reasonable?

As a small-time homebrewer I'm running batches of 100 bottles max and change my recipes pretty regularly. So, it would be unlikely that I'd order more than 100 or so. If it were something that I make very, very regularly I could see doing maybe 500 or so, but again that's unlikely.

I checked out a few places for printing custom labels, and the economies of scale just weren't there for me. It's just so much more economical to run my own print jobs at home.

Edcculus said:

...The company I work for just got a UV inknet press. I'm trying to see the feasibility of printing labels for homebrewers. Im suspecting small microbreweries would be a better target for this.

FYI, I'm not a salesperson. I do color management for a label printer. Our salespeople don't seem to know how to sell digital printing.

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Nice, would love to have a play with a UV inkjet.

I'm an apprentice printer, working mostly in screen but do some time on a small digital printer, Roland SP300V haha.

I know what you mean about the sales department, we've just got that small roland and they expect it to do everything we can do screened.

Anywaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy....... sorry for getting off topic.

denimglen said:

Nice, would love to have a play with a UV inkjet.

I'm an apprentice printer, working mostly in screen but do some time on a small digital printer, Roland SP300V haha.

I know what you mean about the sales department, we've just got that small roland and they expect it to do everything we can do screened.

Anywaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy....... sorry for getting off topic.

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Hey, no problem. Its pretty sweet, but it has its own problems. Everyone here is looking for flexo printing, and its not.

I wish we did more screen printing here. I did a project with G7 for screen printing in college. It was a lot of fun.

Yeah, I'm with weirdboy. I anticipate reusing labels for my Belgian Wit, my Christmas Ale, and my Apricot Pale Ale, but until I get a more stable cadre of beers, I'll need new labels for everything else pretty regularly. Given that I can't rely on professionally printed labels for everything, I'd prefer to keep the system uniform, and use the color laser at work. That said, yes, I would understand your submission requirements.

I think you're right that microbrews would be a great market though; relatively stable lines, high demand, but always looking for lower overhead.

Thanks for the input guys. I'll have to do more research on the prices, but I'm thinking it might be a little cost prohibitive for very short runs. I think it would be a very cost effective venture for small Micros who are ordering less than 10,000 at a time. Since it is digital, there are almost no prep charges involved.

<--- in the printing business also.. we have a supplier that does labels with their gigantic digital printed. min. quantity is 1000..

just for what it is worth.. 1000 3 x 5 labels are 200 bucks. so yeah .20 each can be costly.