Whether you’re elevating your branding strategy, starting a lucrative business, or just looking to create fun stickers for yourself, sticker printing can help take your creative vision to the next level. But before you start cranking out a ton of your own custom creations, make sure you know the basics of printing stickers so you can avoid costly mistakes and ensure that your finished product looks exactly how you want it to.
First, make sure you choose a high-quality printer and the correct paper format for your sticker project. It’s also a good idea to test one sheet as a trial run before you produce additional sheets—that way you can carefully scrutinize the visual quality and see if any tweaking is needed.
Next, consider the shape of your stickers. You can choose from standard shapes like squares or circles, or you can go for a die cut (where both the sticker material and the backing material are cut into a specific shape, such as the eight limbs of an octopus). Stickers come in different finishes as well: matte or gloss; foil; or even holographic. Each finish has its own look and feel that can be used to enhance your design or appeal to a particular audience.
If you don’t have the equipment to print and cut your own stickers, there are a number of services that will do it for you. You can upload your artwork outline to a company, and they’ll print, cut, and mail the stickers to you in batches of a certain amount (usually with a discount for ordering higher quantities). They’re a great option for those who want to take the guesswork out of calibrating their own machine or don’t have the time to manage a DIY project themselves.