This post is a complete guide for business owners, packaging buyers and marketing directors who need purchase the RIGHT paper bags.
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When it comes to ordering a paper bag, you need set your target first. This is essential for you to choose the right materials, print design and finish afterwards. Surely you won’t pick the plain kraft paper materials while you want to promote your brand if you own a fancy fashion clothing boutique.
To know your target, just ask yourself this simple question. What funtions would you like the paper bags perform for you?
The paper bag usually has two primary funtions, carrying and marketing. Paper bag help customers carry items easily and conveniently. Also it is a great marketing tool for business owners to increase their brand recognition, which opens new window to oppurtunities.
So which one is your priority?
If you just want to make your customers carry the products easily, it is the strength and durablity that you need focus. It would really be a shame if the wine bottle falls out of the bag and breaks just because the bag is not strong enough. Usually a plain kraft bag would be ok.
However, things will be quite different if you need a high impact paper bag to promote your brand and leave consumers a deep impression. You need take all factors into consideration, including handicraft details, paper materials, rope handles, print design as well the finishes. A little mistake can have a disastrous effect.
Before you have a print designer create the print design for you, you would better ask your printer if they can create a dieline for you, then you can let the graphic designer put the print design on the template.
In China, most manufacturers are reluctant to provide the free dieline because they scare that you give the order to some other printers after you finish the dieline. They usually will let you put a deposit of 100-200USD and promise to give you 3-5 pieces color printed sample bags after the design is finished. In DE Printed Box, we provide our customers the accurate and applicable template without any charges ahead, because we believe that the good long-term business should be built on the mutual trust.
When you let a printer create the template for you, be sure to specify the length, width and height of the paper bag correctly. A mistake in the size specification can lead to frustration and a terrible waste of time for both. In China, the size is usually specified in the order Length x Width x Height, which is illustrated by the image below.
With respect to the print design of the paper bag, knowing the difference between the general graphic design and print design is quite important. Particularly for the long run printing, it may save you tens of thousands of dollars.
The web design adopts the RGB mode while it is CMYK color mode for the printing. A pretty image design created with the RGB mode can have a fantastic display on the computer. However, it may look quite ordinary when printed on the press. It is because the RGB mode has the wider color range than the CMYK color mode. Refer to the post below to learn more about the color space for RGB and CMYK color mode.
Color Space for Human Eyes, CMYK and RGB
In one word, the professional designer knows how to choose the safe colors within the CMYK color space to create the appealing design and how to reduce the costs by using solid colors instead of the process colors. A print designer makes the whole printing process go more smoothly.
When the artwork is finished off, the PDF format is preferred, which represents the most universal adopted standard today.
In addition to the format, be sure to outline all the texts in the artwork in case there is any special fonts involved to create the design. If the printer’s computer lacks this font, the texts will be displayed quite weirdly, which makes the printer’s life quite hard.
About the font issue, some designers may have a different opinion, insisting that a PDF format is enough. And the Adobe Acrobat can display the text quite well even if the text is missing. However, who knows the printing better than the printer? You would better listen to the advice of your printer. Sometimes, an outlined artwork is completely imperative when the artwork is terribly created mixing the print design with the dieline together. It may become the printer’s nightmare when the designer has nothing to provide but a JPEG image with very low resolution.
Gorgeous paper bag begins with the right paper material that will deliver performance, quality and dependability for the product it holds and carries. Whether it be an exquisite shopping bag with the prominent spot UV varnished logo or a plain brown Kraft food bag, choosing the proper materials is critical to the marketing and visual effect.
How do we choose the proper paper materials?
Three types of paperboards are mostly used in the paper bag printing, SBS C1S ( Solid Bleached Sulfate, coated on one side), CUK ( coated unbleached kraft paperboard) and specialty paper.
SBS paper is a coated paper and contains at least 80% natural bleached virgin wood. It has the incredible physical properties, like brightness, whiteness and smoothness to make it very suitable for the high graphics printing of the paper bag. Study suggests that nearly 90% paper shopping bags are made of the SBS C1S paper thanks to its splendid printing quality on the litho offset press. Major industries that use SBS:
In Australia, Hong Kong and China mainland, the C1S SBS is often referred to as the ivory board or art paper. And the art paper is slightly different from the ivory board. In the United States and Canada, people prefer to use the term C1S SBS. We will use the term art paper in the description below.
Also known as the white Kraft paper, it is made of the solid unbleached board coated with a thin layer of kaolin clay, which contains at least 80% natural bleached virgin wood. It is extremely durable and is very suitable to make the heavy duty packaging and carrying bags. Besides, it is very eco-friendly because it is 100% recyclable. The main usages include:
One typical specialty paper is the black specialty paper with the matte black color. With either silver hot foil stamping or the spot UV varnishing, the paper bag made of this paper looks really gorgeous with a luxurious quality feel. Once before, we helped ProspektSupply in Canada produce a very unique luxury paper bag. We printed the logo (ProspektSupply) in black color and applied the spot UV varnishing on it, which turned out great. Also we use the black specialty paper to produce the paper bag for a well-known bank in China with the silver hot foil stamping for the texts, which looks terrific too.
Besides the black specialty paper, there are actually a lot of types to choose with various patterns and texture.
Usually the more prestigious the packaging bag, the thicker the paper. Also the grammage and thickness of the paper material have a huge impact on the bag’s endurance.
Usually 157gsm (6-8pt), 210gsm (10-11pt) paper is recommended for the paper bag. And 300gsm (15-17pt) or above art pape can be used when a heavy duty packaging and carrying bag is in need.
The units to represent the paper grammage and thickness are quite confusing. People in China, Australia would like to use the grammage to measure the paper thickness, while the unit pt is used in North America. We have published a post in our blog before to illustrate the conversion between the pt and grams. You can learn more there.
Paper Grammage (gsm) and Thickness (pt) Conversion Table
The handle plays an important role in the bag’s performance, aesthetically and functionally. With a good handle, the paper bag can be used for months to a year sometimes thanks to its amazing endurance. There are usually two types of handles are used, the grosgrain ribbon handles and the rope handles.
For rope handles, 3 types of materials are mostly used, the nylon, cotton and the paper. Among these materials, the nylon has the best durability and endurance; the cotton rope handle is the most popular handles used for the paper bag, which has the most wonderful touch in hand; and the paper rope handle can make the paper bag like a piece of great artwork with the help of the top packaging designers.
With respect to the price , the nylon usually costs more than the paper. The cotton handle is the cheapest at around one cents. Generally, the cotton rope are mostly used which has the best hand feel.
Besides, when the paper bag is particularly big, we need use the rivets to fasten the handles to the paper bag.
Contact us to discuss your requirements of print shopping paper bag supplier. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.
The printing finish adds a luxurious quality feel, turning the ordinary paper bag into an extrodinary artwork.
The laminating makes the paper bag water-proof and more durable. With the glossy laminating, the paper bag will look very shiny, clear and eye-catching. The matte laminating gives the paper bag a very smooth and soft texture, looking more elegant and luxurious.
In the mean time, the spot UV, hot foil stamping, embossing and debossing can also be used to produce an upscale paper bag.
Every finish can have a splendid effect on the paper bag if they are used in the right context. Therefore, each finish is just different but no less at all.
DE Printed Box is a professional paper packaging products manufacturer, which can provide you the best packaging solution with the upscale and luxury feel. Email at janewu@www.deprintedbox.com to learn more.
Custom Paper Bags are a great marketing and advertising tool in the hands of your customers. Brands can choose from a variety of Custom Shopping Bags including Custom Paper Bags, Custom Tote Bags and Custom Reusable Bags depending on their purpose and budget. Custom Paper Bags add significant brand recall and increase brand publicity along with adding a sense of comfort in the hands of your customers carrying your products and other items. Here are some of the key factors to remember the next time you’re ordering Custom Paper Bags:
1. Purpose
Review and outline the purpose how your brand uses Shopping you’re ordering Custom Shopping Bags including factors like how many items do your customers buy and carry on an average? What is the most common or largest product size that you need to fit in your custom printed paper bag? Any other important decision-making factors that will help you decide on the kind of Custom Paper Bags you’d like for your brand.
2. Size
The size dimensions include the Length, Width (Gusset) and Height of the bag and need to be decided based on factors like how many items are your customers most likely to carry, what is the size of the largest item your customers purchase, at what point would you like to offer a 2nd/3rd bag to your customer to be able to comfortably carry your products.
3. Strength
Choose from a variety of Paper Gauge (GSM) options from 80GSM – 400GSM which are the core strength measure of any custom paper bag. The higher the GSM, the stronger the bag. Use this formula to calculate what is the Weight Carrying Capacity: Number of Items X Average Weight of an Item. Each custom paper bag generally comes with advisory on it’s Weight Carrying Capacity.
4. Handle Type
Custom Paper Bags come with a variety of Handle options including Twisted (Paper), Ribbons, Rope, Die Cut or No handle. Select the right kind of Handle based on factors including how convenient is it for your customers to carry your products in accordance with the Weight Carrying Capacity, your brand perception and theme. For instance:
– Die Cut – good alternative to twisted handles and offer better grip whilst carrying
5. Color & Graphics
Custom Paper Bags are mostly popular in White and Kraft amongst other color options. Select from a Paper Bag Color along with 1/2/4 or more Color Printing in accordance with your branding and identity. Some of the commonly published elements include Your Logo, Brand Name, Website, Facebook Page, Twitter Handle, Instagram Handle, Hashtag, Slogans and Messages.
6. Design & Plates
When designing custom printed paper bags, it involves a process of approval beginning from a digital mockup, to samples and revisions if any and finally a production run. It’s always good to ensure your Custom Paper Bags design is sustainable and may not need changes very frequently which helps your brand – develop an identity and also Reduces repeat order costs since the original plate costs have already been borne once.
7. Durability
There are various options for you to to add durability to your custom paper bags including Bottom Board, Double Wall Paper Bags, Higher GSM Paper & Better Handle Qualities. To judge durability, order samples and test out the Custom Paper Bags in various conditions to ensure your custom paper bags are durable, reliable and won’t tear open or fall off from the hands of your customers.
8. Quantity
Custom Printed Paper Bags are generally ordered in bulk. Select from an appropriate quantity according to the number of customers/sales you perform, how many bags per sales you use, cost benefit from ordering in bulk vs smaller quantities and most importantly storage of the excess paper bags.
9. Storage & Distribution
One of the key factors when ordering Custom Paper Bags is to ensure you or your supplier have the necessary Storage to store short-term requirements as well as Excess Inventory without having to run a production too frequently. Further, if you have multiple Point-of-Sales then Distribution and Regional Availability of your Custom Paper Bags becomes an important factor for your supply chain to quickly replenish the appropriate quantity in the most feasible time and cost from the nearest warehouse.
10. Cost
All of the above factors including the Size, Paper Type, Quantity, Color & Graphics are key in calculating the Landed Cost of your custom printed paper bags, it is also important to remember how much or in what range are you looking to spend on your product packaging in terms of affecting your revenues. Select an affordable, feasible option which compliments your branding and identity and ensures you continue the same bag design for a long period of time which adds to the longevity and registration of your brand’s custom paper bags.
11. Sustainability
With growing demand of Custom Paper Bags and single-use plastic reducing in popularity, it’s important that we preserve our natural resources as much as possible. Select a supplier that uses Sustainably Sourced Raw Materials like FSC Certified Paper & 90% or 100% Post Consumer Content so that your customers shop responsibly whilst adding Sustainability as an element of your branding.
12. Recycling/Compostable
While all Paper is Recyclable and/or Compostable, it’s always a good idea to confirm with your suppliers to ensure that you have selected options which are environment safe and part of sustainable practices.
The author is an expert in Eco Friendly Packaging and is available for quotes and questions. Please email Nick on hello[at]canadabrown [dot] com for any more information.
Are you interested in learning more about customized recycled paper bags manufacturers? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!