Sticker Printing: Any Size, Color, or Shape

I just saw a video made by a custom printing vendor I work with in my print brokering business providing an education in the new realities of die cutting. The equipment showcased in the video is the Mimaki integrated inkjet printer and cutter. (I’m sure that many other printers have similar equipment, so you may want to ask your print provider, if this technology seems appropriate for your work.)

Printing and Die Cutting: The Old Way

To provide some background on die cutting, let’s jump back a bit to discuss how this process used to be done (and continues to be done in many cases). You will see that it is a time and labor consuming process, in contrast to what the Mimaki equipment can do.

First the product (let’s say a custom sticker) is printed on an offset or digital commercial printing press. Then on a separate rotary or flatbed press, a steel cutting rule (inlaid into a wood block to make sure it doesn’t move) in the shape of the custom sticker is pressed forcefully against the press sheet by the action of the press. The sharp edge of the die then cuts through the paper. The surrounding paper (scrap) is held to the press sheet by thin bits of paper (pins) that have not been cut. This keeps the die cut item from falling out of the surrounding paper and into the press. Finally, the paper surrounding the die cut element is pulled away (scrapped) and discarded.

A good analogy to help you visualize this process is a cookie cutter. You press a cookie cutter into the uncooked dough and then peel away everything that’s not the cookie.

What makes die cutting expensive is twofold. First, there’s the cost of the metal die ($450 and higher, in my experience). Then there’s the die cutting process itself, which most commercial printing vendors do not do in-house. (Outsourcing the die cutting work adds time to the schedule and also increases the cost.)

Printing and Die Cutting: The New Way

Custom printing vendors with integrated inkjet printers and label cutters can make labels any size, color, or shape.

First, the large-format inkjet equipment prints the 4-color labels. Then, as the Mimaki equipment shifts the paper back and forth, a knife blade (like the pen of a plotter) moves around the contoured perimeter of each label, trimming through the coated label paper but not through the underlying label backing (this is called “kiss-cutting”). Finally, the user can peel the label away from the backing.

In contrast to traditional die cutting, the Mimaki integrated inkjet printer and label cutter requires no metal die and no separate rotary or cylinder press. Of course this lowers the overall cost of die cutting, as well as the time required to die cut the labels. It’s a much simpler operation, one that depends on digital information to position and move the label cutting knife around the press sheet (and also move the paper back and forth as needed).

What Does This Mean to You, as a Print Buyer or Designer?

You can have more flexibility in creating personalized wine labels, medical labels, custom stickers, etc. You can even create individual prototypes for product packaging, or you can create mock-ups of other items that require die cutting, folding, and gluing.

An Even Newer Way

There’s one more way to die cut using digital information: laser die cutting. In this case, the custom printing supplier would use even newer equipment with a laser instead of a digitally manipulated cutting knife. After the inkjet printing, the laser would burn through the paper substrate instead of cutting it.