Decals and Labels, what is the difference?

The term decal is the shortened version of the word decalcomania, which the English pronunciation of the French word decalcomania.  This was a decorative technique where artist images of prints and engraving, could be transferred onto pottery to decorate the stoneware. 

The invention of taking artist rendering from canvas and printing these images onto a medium to decorate ceramic pieces was attributed to Simon Francois Ravenet.  Simon was from France and he was an engraver who immigrated to England and after arriving in England circa 1750 he perfected this transfer process.

 

This printing process of decorating ceramic pieces was imported to the United States in about 1865.  In the United States this process was popularized during the ceramic decorating craze of the mid-1870s.  In the United States the word decalcomania was shortened to the version we use today decal.

As we can see the decal had it’s genesis in the desire of artist to decorate their ceramic art.  The decal today continues to transfer artist renderings to ceramic  products, such as fine china table setting also vases, coffee mugs, drink ware as well any of a ceramic or glass product for functional use or promotions. 

The decal has evolved from a water slide-off ceramic decal to decorate ceramic pieces to a product that is screen-printed onto environmentally tough material with a pressure-sensitive adhesive.  This product now brands products, warns of dangers, and is used to promote products, and services. 

 

The label is a more recent invention and usually is printed on paper, cloth, or a plastic substrate that is pressure-sensitive.  The label is printed using a Flexography printing machine, which produces the label from a roll to a roll, and uses water base inks.  The labels usually brands consumer products that have a short shelve life and is not exposed to a harsh environment.   

 

The above is a thumb nail sketch of the history of the products we want to look at.  Now let’s try and answer the query: what is the difference between a decal and a label?

        

 The decal is usually a printed on a plastic substrate that can be adhered to a surface of a product and has to with stand harsh environmental conditions. Such as direct sun exposure without much fading of the inks for many years, decals are usually printed using screen printing method.

In the last 10-15 years digital printing can also claim a non-fading resistance to sun exposure. Decals can be manufactured using this method and achieve the same high quality results as with screen printing. It must be said that digital printing is used for smaller quantities whereas screen printing is less expense in higher quantities.

A label is usually on a roll and normally the substrate printed on is a pressure sensitive paper and using the flexography printing method. This type of printing does not last long in direct sun light, and is used mostly the branding of consumer products such as wine bottles, BBQ sauce jars, etc, etc.

The label printing on plastic substrates can be augmented with a plastic lamination to protect the printing against chemicals, water, abrasion, but this added over lamination will not protected the printing or graphics from the fading rays of the sun.  The label also usually manufactured and delivered to the customer on a roll.

What is the difference between a decal and a label? The decal resist fading the label does not.  The decal usually in individual pieces the label usually is on a roll.  There are exceptions and other reasons to use a decal verse a label, or to use a label verses a decal, but that is another question.

A question to the reader: Have you ever purchased a decal when a label would have sufficed and conversely, have you ever purchased a label, but found out you needed a decal?

Doug Bryant

<br><a href=”http://www.decalfactory.com“>The Decal Factory – The best decals, signs, labels, posters, stickers and banners in the industry for business and hobby.</a> <br>Toll Free – (800) 369-5331

About Mr. Decal

Founder and CEO of TheDecal Factory since 1983. I have been selling printing since 1978.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

951 Responses to Decals and Labels, what is the difference?

  1. Tamra Porzio says:

    Reading your article really helped me with my problem. I want to thank you for writing this article.

  2. Is the theme you use for your site available anywhere?

  3. Your article is very informative and coherent. I’m happy that I stumbled upon your page and hope to find more articles of such caliber on this site in the future.

  4. ugh! having a hard time trying to read this. What font are you using?

  5. Moses Hovell says:

    Yea, this site is by significantly an individual of the perfect at any place that I’ve noticed. Kudos so substantially for helping me out.

  6. Vella Borne says:

    Brilliant post, keep up the good work.

  7. I love your blog. Keep up the good work

  8. awesome post. I have discovered for myself just how flexible WP is, as a hosting platform for your website. you literally have everything you need to publish a website at your fingertips, through WordPress. thanks.

  9. Mr. Decal says:

    You can quote if you link to article to http://www.decalfactory.com

    Contact info

    Douglas Bryant
    The Decal Factory®
    (800) 369-5331
    http://www.decalfactory.com
    Visit Mr. Decals Blog
    http://www.decalfactory.com/wp-index.php/
    http://twitter.com/doug4818

  10. Mr. Decal says:

    Thank you for your comment and advice.

    Douglas Bryant
    The Decal Factory®
    (800) 369-5331
    http://www.decalfactory.com
    Visit Mr. Decals Blog
    http://www.decalfactory.com/wp-index.php/
    http://twitter.com/doug4818

  11. mbt says:

    This is a great blog and you should seriously think about building up this blog into a serious authority in this field, I’m sure you could definitely make a dollar or two from some ads. I would look into following recent news and raising the number of posts you make and I bet you’d start receiving some easy traffic soon. Just a thought, good luck regardless!

  12. mbt schuhe says:

    Keep up the amazing work!! I love how you wrote this and I also like the colors here on this site. Very good opinions expressed here

  13. Hello… I can not access your rss feed… Something trouble? Can you fix it? Thanks

  14. What a fantastic article,and the blog theme is so Beautiful,could you tell me where can download this theme.

  15. tiffany says:

    Amazing Dude, that’s extremely helpful info, thankyou.

  16. Dahon Bikes says:

    Thankyou for such an easy to read informative article. I have long been attempting to explain the exact thing to my friends but I think it’s better if I just email them the link to this site instead.

  17. Pingback: nokia 7210 supernova

  18. I wasn’t aware of some of the information that you mentioned so I want to just say thank you.

  19. Onle dating says:

    Nice, just to let you know the post isnt showing up properly on my iphone – I think there is a plugin you can grab that takes care of that now.

  20. This is my first time i visit here. I found so numerous interesting stuff in your blog particularly its discussion. From the tons of comments on your content articles, I guess I’m not the only one having all of the enjoyment here! maintain up the great function.

  21. I just wanted to comment your blog and say that I really enjoyed reading your blog post here. It was very informative and I also digg the way you write! Keep it up and I’ll be back to read more soon mate

  22. E Cigarette says:

    Keep up the good work, I have subscribed to your weblog.

  23. So Great! I need some infos in this post for my rapport de stage. Can i have your contact please? I need your permission to quote it . Anyway, That’s great job. Keep going.

  24. Just wasting some in between class time on Digg and I found your post . Not normally what I like to learn about, but it was absolutely worth my time. Thanks.

  25. E Cigarette says:

    I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article.

  26. Yikes this definitely takes me back, where is your contact details hmm?

  27. Good blog! I truly love how it’s easy on my eyes and the details are well written. I am wondering how I may be notified whenever a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your rss feed which should do the trick! Have a nice day!

  28. Is Blogengine getting a large upgrade shortly? I listen to that they have been performing so to combat off wordpress three.zero – just curious once you had take heed to anything in any respect at all?

  29. Mr Nuvi says:

    I do think that Toyota made the right decision by conducting a recall. It is for their customers’ safety, the the consumers who’ll be buying their cars for the rest of their lives.

  30. Sweet, that’s precisely what I was hunting for! You just saved me alot of digging around

  31. Thanks ! Supper Post !!

  32. I know this is really boring and you you want to skip to the next comment, but I just wanted to give you a big thanks – you cleared up some things for me!

  33. Great blog! I truly love how it’s easy on my eyes and also the data are well written. I am wondering how I can be notified whenever a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your rss feed which ought to do the trick! Have a nice day!

  34. Nice to have this comment box working again.

  35. ugg stiefel says:

    Thanks for a sweet article, very informative.. we will sure be back for more.

  36. ugg boots says:

    Thank you so much for the great article this was exactly the thing I needed today

  37. Brad Boulger says:

    Excellent blog post but for whatever reason your blogs theme is broken in the Seamonkey v4.07 browser. I simply wanted to tell you…

  38. Hey,I just find your website doesnt appear right under IE 7. I think it’s because of some CSS problems. Please check it. BTW, very nice blog!

  39. How-do-you-do, just needed you to know I have added your site to my Google bookmarks because of your extraordinary blog layout. But seriously, I think your site has one of the freshest theme I’ve came across. It really helps make reading your blog a lot easier.

  40. Hey,I just find your website doesnt appear right under IE 7. I think it’s because of some CSS problems. Please check it. BTW, very nice blog!

  41. Finally, I found the information I was searching for. I have been doing research on this subject, and for two days I keep entering web-sites that are supposed to have what I’m searching for, only to be disappointed with the lack of what I wanted. I wish I would have located your website sooner! I had about 40% of what I was looking for and your web-site has that, and the rest of what I needed to complete my research. Thank you and keep up the good work!

  42. Great posting! I enjoy your blog, is it acceptable to try it for resyndication?

  43. Good blog! I really love how it’s easy on my eyes and also the data are well written. I am wondering how I might be notified whenever a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your rss feed which should do the trick! Have a nice day!

  44. Hi, Each time I add a web-page to my Favorites in IE8, it is added at the bottom of the already established list. I could sort them by name*manually. But I’d like IE8 to try this automatically. Is this done ? Thanks

  45. Casket says:

    I like the post very much.

  46. backlinks says:

    Keep up the amazing work!! I love how you wrote this and I also like the colors here on this site. Very good opinions expressed here :)

  47. I liked seeing this, are you on twitter?

  48. legal highs says:

    Sorry for the huge review, but I’m really loving the new Zune, and hope this, as well as the excellent reviews some other people have written, will help you decide if it’s the right choice for you.

  49. Ovedacycade says:

    I enjoyed reading your blog. Keep it that way.

Leave a Reply