Color-Codes

Color-Coding is one of the key applications for a color label printer.

 

Color-Coded Food Labels

And recently, I read a saw a video from ColorDyne, a competitor as we don’t resell their printers, on one of their customers, Soli, color coding their food products.  See it here:

In the video, Brown Dudley, owner of Soli, says he needed to color-code his labels for several reasons. First, Brown says the color-coded labels keep it simple for his customers.  Soli codes their labels based on protein; seafood is blue, vegetarian/vegan is green.  Plus, Soli printed in large text the total calories, to make it easy for their customers to select the correct dish for them.  Color coded labels are a tool for customers to decide, on their own, which dish is best for them.

Second, on-demand, color-coded labels are flexible.  Prior to on-demand color, Soli purchased preprinted labels which are totally inflexible.  Soli needs to make changes on the fly; including developing new dishes.  With preprinted labels, Soli was constantly stuck with label stock, creating waste and obsolete inventory.
 
Third, on-demand, color-coded labels are affordable.  In the video, Brown says his preprinted labels were costing as much as $0.90 each in the small quantities need for each SKU.  Now Soli is paying only $0.19 each per printed label.

Foodie Fit Label

In November 2018, we published a post on our customer, Foodie Fit, who is using the exact same application.  Read it here:  

In the post, Andrew Kowal said, “As we rotate our menu every other week, it’s impossible to use preprinted labels.  Large minimum order quantities and obsolete labels make purchasing preprinted labels not feasible for us”.

What is interesting to me is Soli seems to be paying significantly more per label than our customer, Foodie Fit.  In the post, the estimated ink cost was only $0.013.  And Foodie Fit’s latest actual cost for either their 16.75” or 19” long labels from us is a small percentage of total mentioned by Brown in the video.  It seems we are saving Foodie Fit money compared to Soli. (FYI: I don’t know if Brown was including labor and overhead costs to determine label costs).

 

Brite Labs Label

Beside applications for food, we have written about many other color-coding applications.  One market where color seems important is cannabis.  In these posts, Brite-Labs uses color for strain identification, as did Georgetown Cannabis some time ago. We have several cannabis companies using print on-demand color labels for strain identification.

Brooklyn Rebar Tags

A completely different color-coded application is building products; with Brooklyn Rebar. “We use both solid colors and different color hash marks for each of the locations on a project.  For most projects, the solid colors are sufficient.  When we need more locations, we use different color hash marks.  We find the color coding helps our customers and us internally to reduce errors and increase our productivity”, said the Project Manager.
Read more here:

QuickScrews Labels

And another building products post on color-coding is our customer, Quickscrews.  In the post, Mark Buechler said, “And the colors and icons make it easy for our wholesalers and customer to select the correct fastener.”

Tyson Tools Labels

Closely related to building products are tools. Here is a post from a million years ago on color-coding tool labels. 

Pleasant Mattress Tags

Color-coding can benefit Manufacturers as well; especially on the shop floor.  Learn how Pleasant Mattress uses color codes in manufacturing and in their shipping.  In the post, Russell Raymond said, “the color codes prevent potential errors.  If a shipping error is made, the incorrect color sticks out.  The color-coding labels in our operation saves us time and potential costs.”

And one of the first posts I ever was a part in creating involved logistics; again from a million years ago.  Read how Tubelite uses color for staging and shipping.  In the post, Scott Moray said, “Because we can identify shipment materials for any particular day, we require less time to load and unload, allowing our internal personnel and drivers to be more productive.”
 

CES Event Tags

A market where color-coding and variable images are important is trade

show event badges.  In this post, our customer CompuSystems, adds pictures and attendee type color-code to badges during the largest tradeshow in the world. 

The video by ColorDyne is a good reminder of the benefits or color-coding labels; but many different industries, not just food, can benefit from this application of on-demand labels.  Contact us on how color-coding would benefit your operations and sales.
 
Guy Mikel
855-962-7670
info@colorlabelsolutions.com 

G-Band Wristbands

Wristbands.  Some of my earliest efforts in printing involved print on-demand color wristbands.

G-Band Color-Print On-Demand Color

For example, here is a post on wristbands for events from September 2011.

And here is an event in October 2012 that I printed wristbands for the organizers.

Now we have a great print quality, lower priced wristband available to sell; our G-Band Color.

G-Band Color Wristband

According to Jacki Block, Product Manager, Healthcare Consumables and Wristbands, “our new wristbands are not only less expensive, but offer many benefits that other bands don’t.  First, our G-Band color are chemical resistant; especially resistant to alcohols which are very prevalent in healthcare situations.

G-Band Color

Second, our G-Band Color are one-size fits all.  Most other bands are sized to fit adults or children.  With one-size fits all, you can reduce the amount of inventory of wristbands at each print station, making printing much simpler.
 
Third, you can adjust the adhesive fitting and closing tags easily to make for a very comfortable fit.
 
Fourth, at 1.25” x 11”, the G-Band Color offers lots of “real estate” to print images, color codes, barcodes and variable data for the user of the wristband.
 
But most important, our G-Band color are less expensive; even less than traditional direct thermal bands.  In addition, we do offer volume discounts.”
 
In my research, I found Zebra wristbands from many different vendors; all were much more expensive.  For example, I found similar Zebra Z-Bands at CDW for $242.99 for 6 rolls of 200; or $0.20 each. Our G-Bands are much less expensive.

G-Band Color Eliminates Color Bands

In addition to saving money, on-demand color printing enables health care facilities to reduce the number of bands per person.  Jacki says, “with the capabilities of on-demand color, a healthcare operation can set color codes for allergies, latex allergies, DNR, etc. to eliminate the number of bands placed on an individual patient.  These color codes not only save money, but improve the comfort of the patients.”

According to Jacki, “The G-Band identification wristband is designed for comfort and ease of use. The unique adhesive fitting and closure system makes it easy to fit the G- Band to any wrist size.”

G-Band Color Instructions

STEP 1: Before applying to patient’s wrist, first remove the backing from the small fitting tab (1) on the back of the G-Band.
STEP 2: Place the G-Band around the wrist, with the fitting tab (1) at the bottom, facing towards you.
STEP 3: Bring the bottom of the G-Band up around the wrist, and affix the
fitting tab to the underside of the G-Band at a location where the G-Band fits correctly and
comfortably around the wrist.
STEP 4: Remove the backing from the larger closure tab (2) on the back of the G-Band. 
STEP 5: Affix the closure tab (2). For user comfort, make sure the closure tab is centered on the surface of the G-Band with no exposed adhesive on either side.   Press on the closure tab to assure positive adhesion.
 
After the closure tab has been affixed, do not attempt to re-open it.  The closure tab is equipped with tamper-evident slits that are designed to tear if the wristband or closure has been opened or tampered with.

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In addition to healthcare, wristbands can work as Visitor ID badges; with color codes for negative tests for Covid-19 for example.  Further, color codes can be printed on wristbands for every type of visitor and days for access.  Color is an easy variable data option to make it easy for anyone to check quickly and easily.

Other unique ways to use wristbands include plant wraps, shipping ID’s such as suitcases, cleaning schedules for healthcare devices, and Product ID’s (instead of labels).  Wristbands would work in any application that requires a non-tear wrap around an item or person.
 
To print wristbands, we recommend the C3500 printer.  We’ve sold thousands.  Purchase a C3500 printer here.

For improved print quality, consider the C6000A.  I found the print quality using the G-Bands from the C6000A to be outstanding.  Plus the price is right!

G-Band Direct Thermal Wristband

In addition to the G-Band Color, we also have comfortable and affordable Direct Thermal bands called G-Bands; with a 1” x 11” size.  In addition, we offer a second type of Direct Thermal band, the G-Band Ultra as well.  Jacki says, “The G-Band Ultra is made using 3 ply versus 2 ply on the G-Band. In addition, the Ultra band is made with tapered ends that help prevent hair and skin from sticking to the band.  We created the Ultra band in conjunction with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.”

G-Band Ultra Direct Thermal Band

Contact us if you want to save money on your DT wristband purchases.  We can help reduce your wristband costs significantly.
 
At Color Label Solutions, we’re all about print on-demand color.  Consider moving your wristband printing to color; saving you money and time as well as improving end user comfort.
 
Guy Mikel
855-962-7670

info@colorlabelsolutions.com 

Printing Black

 I’ve said many times in the past that black is the most difficult color to print.

 Some time ago, I wrote how gloss poly seemed to produce the best black colors:

And later, I showed how our new whiter matte poly was producing better blacks during one stop of a Northern California road trip:

What I have not discussed before, is how artwork and the creation of black in the art changes the color of the print output.

 

According to Tony Molina, the inhouse Graphic Artist for Color Label Solutions, “most artwork today is created in Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Quark and other software.  In this software, many people believe that 100% K (black) is the best way to produce this color.  However, 100% K is not really black and can be somewhat flat.”

 

According to Phil Forbes in this article in PackHelp:

 

"Turning all these percentages (C,M,Y,K) up to 100% will give you black that's kind of dull, washed out and not very black at all.”

 

As an example of the differences in black color print output, we received recently artwork to test print.  When printed initially, the black was not very “rich”.

 

RGB Values Not Zero

By opening this file up in Photoshop and using the Color Picker function, Tony found the RGB values 35, 31, and 32; but the K% was 74:

 

RGB Not Zero

According to Tony, “using RGB values that create at least a 90% K value will create rich black colors. Make the R, G, B values 0 will create a black color that meets the 90% K requirement.  In the above referenced article, the author, Phil, has the C,M,Y, settings at 60, 60, 60.    You can have any combinations you want as long as all 4 primary colors are used and the black is 90+.”

 

Here Tony changed the colors in the same artwork to get a better black produced.

RGB Values Zero

And this color produced a much richer black.

 

Richer Black

To check this myself, I opened up BarTender and created a simple black square.  Once I selected black, I found that this software creates this color following Tony’s recommendation: Zero for R, G, B.

 

RGB Values Zero

And when I printed on our matte poly, the black color print output looked great.

 

BarTender Color Picker Black

The color picker in BarTender does not offer a C,M,Y,K option.

 

The bottom line; how you create black color in artwork makes a big difference in your print output.  One caveat: different printers and label media also make a difference in print output.  For example, we’ve found the black from the Memjet-based Afinia L801 or L901 printers produce darker, richer black colors generally when compared to the Epson printers; regardless of the artwork.  The dye-based inks in the Afinia printers produce very nice blacks.  Although the pigment-based inks in the Epson printers can produce great looking black colors, artwork and labels are more important in getting the print output you desire.

 

If you need help with your label printing or even label artwork creation, contact us.  We’ll help you get the quality and look you want with your on-demand label printing.

 

Guy Mikel

855-962-7670

info@colorlabelsolutions.com