Table of contents - open
1. Blank labels: applications
Immediately after being produced in the factory, blank labels of the same kind are identical and only become unique upon printing. Did you happen to look at the label on your most recent order from Amazon? That was an an individually printed blank label, of course. Whether in the office, in the IT sector, health care, or at the ticket office, blank labels and mobile label printers are used in many industries and at home and fulfil the need to provide information.
Everyone's familiar with two typical applications where the ability to custom print blank labels is helpful:
- Blank labels in the supermarket
Large retail chains depend on rolls of unprinted labels. Without blank, white labels, supermarkets could not function at the high volumes that they do. Individually printable blank labels record the time, date, product, weight, and price at meat, seafood, and cheese counters, for example. The same applies to the produce departments many supermarkets where customers are expected to weigh and label their own fruit and veg.
- Blank labels used in storage and logistics
The second major application for blank labels is in warehousing and logistics. Shippers, moving companies, and massive goods and spare parts warehouses could not function without blank labels to print their barcodes for tracking, shipping labels, delivery instructions, shelf labels, and postal labels.
Blank labels can be differentiated according to many criteria:
- Materials
Among the materials used for the production of self-adhesive blank labels are facestocks (surface materials) made of normal label paper, plastics such as PP, PE and PVC, as well as thermal papers with and without protective coatings.
- Printing process
The printers needed to print the data onto the blank labels primarily function on the direct thermal and thermal transfer principles. Blank labels can also be printed with laser and inkjet printers.
- In roll or sheet format
For industrial, food, and office labelling, blank labels are most often ordered in rolls. Sheet labels are more appropriate for home or small business use as they can be fed into any standard A4 printer.
2. Types of blank labels
2.1 Thermal transfer labels: white
- Blank labels printed with thermal transfer printers are also called thermal transfer labels. In the thermal transfer method, a thermal transfer ribbon is heated to melt the ink onto the label paper. Thermal transfer printing is not only very durable, but it can also be used on many different label materials.
- To produce white thermal transfer labels, we use a high-quality white label paper without a special heat-sensitive coating. This paper is available in a matte and a glossy version and with permanent or removable adhesives. Opaque labels or a special glue for especially low temperatures are also available.
- Thermal transfer labels made of plastic (PE, PP, PVC) are more appropriate for use in outdoor applications since they have a high resistance to external influences such as moisture, UV radiation, chemicals, and fats, and are much more robust and durable than paper labels.
2.2 Thermal transfer labels: neon
- A special form of thermal transfer paper labels are blank labels with a fluorescent pigment coating. These papers glow in neon green, red, orange and yellow. Neon blank labels stick securely in a temperature range from -40 °C to +100 ° C. They are often for promotional purposes, such as for special offer labels.
2.3 Thermal transfer labels: metallic
- Another special form of thermal transfer labels are those made of metallicised paper with a layer of fine-laminated aluminium foil which is applied to the paper surface during the production process. This film shines either metallic silver or golden. The metallic adhesive labels adhere securely in a temperature range from -40 °C to +100 °C. The aluminium layer of the unprinted blank labels is good at blocking grease, oil, and liquids and is therefore suitable for food packaging.
2.4 Thermal labels for direct printing
- The second common thermal printing method is direct thermal printing. Printing is done with a thermal print head directly onto a special thermo-sensitive paper that blackens when exposed to heat. A thermal ink ribbon is not required in this printing technology.
- The blank labels for direct thermal printing are made of a universal thermal paper. This paper has a so-called thermal coating applied during production. In addition, the surface of the thermal labels is provided with a protective layer to prevent premature actuation of the thermal coating by sunlight or ambient heat. The thermal labels for direct printing are excellent for printing EAN codes and other barcode systems. They are well suited therefore for pricing and other retail applications. The adhesive labels adhere securely in a temperature range from -30 °C to +80 °C.
2.5 Blank labels for inkjet printing
- Not all blank labels are printed with thermal printers. Inkjet printers are found in many homes and offices. These devices have the advantage of being able to offer photo-realistic printing of images. Blank labels for inkjet printing have a surface to which the water-based ink droplets adhere very well and do not blur. Blank labels for inkjet printing can be used as folder labels or address labels.
3. Label printer
Blank labels are printed using direct thermal printers, thermal transfer printers, inkjet printers, and laser printers. For direct thermal printers, only blank labels with a thermo-sensitive coating may be used. Since direct thermal printers require no additional ink or toner, they are very inexpensive to purchase and operate. However, their acquisition only makes sense when razor-sharp prints or colours are not needed. The receipt printers at grocery stores work with this effective, low-cost, and low-maintenance type of printer.
There is a wide range of thermal label printers: standard printers, industrial printers, mobile printers, textile printers, colour printers, card printers...Especially popular are the inline labelling machines used in packaging production lines, used to print labels with best-before dates, production numbers, ingredients lists, or batch numbers on various types of packaging. These industrial cluster printers are installed, for example, in packaging machines and use the thermal transfer method since the printed image is high quality and durable. To print blank labels using thermal transfer printers, ribbons of wax, resin, or a combination of both materials are necessary.
4. Advantages of blank labels fromlabelprint24
- Quality of the materials
- Additional printing of design elements possible
- Blank labels or enhance them with logos, slogans, etc.
- Dimensionally accurate shapes of your choice
- Suitable for all common printers
- Zebra labels + Avery Dennison formats are no problem
5. Blank labels: furthernotes
Blank labels are primarily used for quick and easy labelling of products or packaging. Before labelling, these labels are provided with individual data on the stickers. These labels are very frequently used in logistics and in the food industry.
To print the data on the unprinted labels, an additional thermal printer is required.
Blank labels are produced in our label printing plant as roll labels
or DIN A4 sheet from materials such as paper and film. Most label sheets are in A4 format, as this format fits exactly into the slots of most label printers, which are now found millions of times in offices or private homes.
Blank labels as label rolls are mainly used for labelling in industry, trade and shipping logistics. The labelling systems and label dispensers available here are designed for large quantities of stickers to be printed, a permanent change of sheets with blank labels would simply cost too much time.
These labels can usually be found in the office, in shipping or in the supermarket with product-specific information. It may involve information on coding, addressing, filling weight or durability. As this information is collected just prior to labelling, it is characteristic of blank labels that the layout is printed by the user himself.
Typical examples of a blank labels printed later are barcode labels, price labels, and shipping labels. But also for documentation purposes, for traceability in the pharmaceutical industry or, in addition to RFID labels, in logistics, they are an important component of product labelling.
To the calculator for blank roll labels
6. Printing process for blanklabels
Blank labels are unprinted adhesive labels that are imprinted with a laser printer, inkjet printer, thermal transfer printer or direct thermal printer before labelling. Due to the different printing processes, blank labels are often referred to as thermal transfer labels or thermal labels.
There are two common ways to print these labels:
thermal transfer labels
On the one hand, the user can print the label with the thermal transfer printing process. A thermal transfer printer and corresponding thermal ribbons are required. You can order these items directly from our online shop.
- The advantage of this method is a very stable and durable printing result.
- Applications: stock labels, industrial labels, chemistry, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, cleaning
Thermallabels
On the other hand, there is the possibility to print the blank label with the direct thermal printing process. The label material, such as thermal top-coated paper, is sensitive to temperature, and is directly printed on by a thermal printer.
- The advantage of this method is that no other consumables are required for printing such as ink ribbons.
- The disadvantage is that the print image fades considerably faster
- Applications: address labels, shipping labels, price labels, grocery store labels (meat, produce)
We are here to help: calculate your labels completely according to your needs and get them quickly and in top quality.
Individual blank labels
Your blank labels can be provided with lettering or company logo in our print shop and produced in all conceivable contours. Whether round, square or as a special shape (free format): We manufacture every desired "label shape" perfectly to measure using individual mechanical punching tools and modern digital punching technology, such as laser punching. Our available punching tools are of the highest quality, they can be reused many times and are therefore very cost-effective. We deliver the finished blank labels on rolls with core diameters from 26 to 76 mm for all popular printers, from Avery Dennison to Zebra.
YOUR INDIVIDUAL LABEL
- blank labels, white or coloured
- thermal labels
- thermal transfer labels
- paper label (thermo, fluorescent, metallicised)
- film label (PE, PP, PVC)
WE MAKE THEM FOR YOU
- Super price + quality
- All formats can be calculated online
- 48 hour express production, short delivery time
- Secure payment (SSL), PayPal, EC, VISA, on account
What kinds of materials do we use?
The basis for the unprinted label is solely the material selected. When calculating and ordering your individual blank label at labelprint24 you can choose from numerous paper or foil materials with various properties.
We manufacture blank labels from different label papers and PP film. Our materials offer excellent quality, stability and have a high thermal sensitivity.
Blank labels do not always have to be white!
To increase optical impact, we can also produce blank labels from fluorescent (neon yellow, green, red, orange) or metallicised paper in gold or silver (matte or glossy). The adhesive is also an important factor for the durability of the label. Again, you have a wide range of choices here according to your needs - from permanent to removable adhesives.
Roll labels request form 
Booklet labels request form 
Folding boxes request form 
Custom made shipping boxes request form 
Package leaflets request form 
Laminate tubes request form 
-min.jpg "Square blank labels")
-min.jpg "Blank labels on roll")
-min.jpg "Blank labels on roll")
