Check out our full glossary of label definitions to learn what’s just right for your application…

A material that requires a thermal transfer ribbon for printing.  Heat is applied to the ribbon which transfers the ink onto the labels.  Idea for products that need more temperature resistance and a longer shelf life than a standard direct thermal product.

A material that does not require a ribbon for printing.  Heat is applied directly to the label, and a chemical reaction on the face stock causes the label to darken where heat is applied.  Receipt printers user direct thermal technology.

STANDARD DT

The material is an uncoated medium sensitivity product with excellent image quality.  It is manufactured with a permanent acrylic adhesive.  Since this product in uncoated, it should be tested by the end-user for their application.  It should not be used for applications that require extreme environmental resistance.

PREMIUM DT

The material is a top-coated medium sensitivity product with an all-temp/freezer grade, acrylic permanent adhesive.  This product provides excellent image quality.  Since it is top-coated, it provides excellent results in most environmental conditions.  It is recommended that any direct thermal product be tested in an end-user application before ordering production quantities.

NEAR INFRARED DT

This is a direct thermal material that has high bar code scannability and is ideal for fast scanning applications.  It is scannable with both visible light and near infrafred.

Printable using standard laser or inkjet printers.  Laser sheets are ideal for address labels, full color label productions, and packaging.  They are manufactured on 8 1/2″ x 11″ or 8 1/2″ x 14″ sheets.

A film facestock is a non-paper material that is usually waterproof, heat resistant, and chemical resistant.  Examples of films are polypropylene, polystyrene, polyethylene, and vinyl.

A label with a permanent adhesive cannot be removed without either tearing the label or tearing the surface that the label is applied on.  Ideal for most labels including box and shelf labels.

A label with a removable adhesive can be peeled off and reapplied.  This is deal for labels that are only used temporarily or will need to be removed.

A freezer-grade adhesive that is standard on our premium direct thermal labels.  Freezer-grade adhesives are used on case-ready meats and on goods that have to withstand the cold and moist conditions of freezers.

The standard packaging method for labels is to roll them onto cardboard cores.  The most common core dimensions are 3″ and 1″ cores.  Most stock rolls have an outer diameter of 8″.

An alternative label packaging method is to fanfold them.  The labels fold accordion-style into individual stacks.

Laser and integrated label products generally come in 8 1/2″ x 11″ and 8 1/2″ x 14″ sheets.  A sheeter is used on the press to cut the labels into individual sheets.

Most labels start out as blank labels.  These are plain white labels with no printing or ink.

A floodcoated label is coated from edge to edge in a single color.  Any solid colored labels are floodcoated.

A spot colored label has one or more colors covering only part of the label.  Any labels preprinted with text, images, or shapes are generally printed with spot colors.  Alternatively, colored ribbons can sometimes be used to achieve a similar effect.

This refers to the perforation between each perforated label to allow for easy tearing of the liner.  Perforation is generally used for hand apply and non-perforation is used for machine apply.

Perforated label width refers to the dimension of the label perpendicular to the direction of feed.  The width goes across the label.

This refers to the diameter of the inner core of roll labels.  Sheeted and fan-folded labels do not have cores or core sizes.