Using Inkscape to design your label using our stock outline templates

1)

 Download a Template

You can view all of our bottle templates at http://www.naturallythinking.com/pages/Templates.html here you can download the outline template to fit the bottle you have purchased at Naturallythinking. If you are using your own packaging, you will need to work out a size which fits your packaging.

Online you can download label outline templates for all of our bottles, letting you can quickly design and have ready for print any label for our bottles, or you can use the software to design a different size to our standard bottle sizes... your imagination can be unlimited as we can make your labels in any shape, any size, any design.

2)

 Your Working Environment

Everything you see on the page is locked, i.e. you cannot change it. You design your label, simply by designing all of your text, graphics and objects inside the hashed lines on the label area.

The orange line indicates the safe area to keep text in. The hashed area indicates where the cutter will cut the label and the outer black line shows where you should make graphics that you want printed to the edge of the label come to. This in the trade is called "bleed". The reason for doing this is the cutter that cuts the label, although accurate has a margin of error, therefore continuing colours and graphics beyond the cut area ensures there is no white space left on the label and that your graphics run seemlessly to the edge of the label to give a professional finish. It is for the same reason you position your text within the orange lines, to ensure slight cutter inaccuracy does not cut into any text and remove vital information.

3)

 Adding Text

4)

 Adding Images / Logos

5)

 Adding Square, Circles, Shapes, Colour and
 Lines

To enhance the design you can add blocks of colour (colour the entire background), circles and lines by using the tools on the left handside.

Simply click on the shaped item you would like from the menu. A new menu will open at the top of the page with additional options in relation to that object.

Along the base of the page is a colour band to select a colour simply RIGHT click on the band and you can choose either the stroke colour (the line around the edge of the object) or the fill colour (the inside fill colour).

If you do not want there to be any colour on either the fill or you do not want a line around the edge, click the X box on the far left of the menu and this object will be transparent.

5)

 Save & Submit

It is always wise to regularly save your work, to ensure you do not lose any changes. It is often wise to save with different file names as you go through the design process when saving. As your design is an evolution, you may find that you liked something you did before and not your new changes, so making backups all the way long will mean you can revert to original ideas.

To save your file:

FILE > SAVE AS

To save your file ready for print:

You will need to send a special copy of this file to us, ready for print. This special copy locks the file down, so we receive it excactly as you intended it to look and no changes can be made. It removes the need for any other file conversions which may alter the appearance of your file. It is important that you do this, in order to submit your file without errors.

FILE > SAVE A COPY

Change the "Save as type" to:

Encapsulated PostScrip (*.eps)

Choose your filetype and click save, another option box will popup

It is important that the box is filled in as above, ensuring the "convert texts to paths box is checked.

Once you have created your file, you are now ready to upload your file to Naturallythinking for printing.