How to design best waterproof stickers

Posted by johnallanes on April 19th, 2013

Vinyl is the best material to create waterproof stickers using inkjet printer. However, sometimes polyester is also used which uses a laser printer. Since vinyl is cost effective, it is more popular. Vinyl stickers are coated with a substance that locks the ink, making it waterproof. Ink and top coating have to be used in equal measures, otherwise if one is slightly more than the other, there are chances of bleeding, which makes the sticker appear shabby and unprofessional. There are various tricks of the trade used to counter this bleeding.

The most common one is giving your printed sticker a cold water rinse. After you print the sticker, let the ink set for some time and then rinse it with cold water. Water will wash away any unlocked ink on the sticker, leaving it free from any bleeds. The sticker would look just right and will last longer! Alternatively, you could adjust the settings of your printer to give you a superior print. You can select the option for premium paper (actually using vinyl) and turn down the volume of the ink to be used because sometimes using too much of ink can also cause bleeding.

You could also use additional top coating to seal in the ink after printing. These topcoats are recommended for those stickers, which are continually, exposed to water over a period of time, like bath products, scuba diving gear etc. Thesestickers can be used in number of ways. You can use them as bottlelabels, bumperstickers, window stickers etc. When you use them as window stickers, there is no need to print them in reverse (usually window stickers are printed in reverse as we stick them from inside) because they are waterproof and you can stick them outside. If you are planning to go for customized stickers for marketing and promotional purposes, it is more economical to choose waterproof stickers because they will last longer and remain bright for a long time and also since vinyl stickers can be made in huge sizes, they are perfect for outdoor promotional activities.