”Corner Radius”(CR) describes how rounded the corners are on a rectangular die-cut. The term “corner radius” refers to the radius of the circle created by extended the corner arc to form a complete circle.
What is an RCR?
Rounded Corner Rectangle. Describes a rectangle with a corner radius greater than 0.0 (the radius of a square corner).
Why Do Labels Have a Corner Radius?
1) The need for high speed automatic label application led to Pressure Sensitive Labels - labels with adhesive already on them adhered to a carrier liner. The liner is pulled across a sharp edge, causing the label to dispense onto the container. A square cornered label does not release as easily from a PS liner - thus corner radius is used to help ease automatic application.
2) Graphic Designers will often choose rounded corners or square corners to enhance a design concept. For example, many wine labels have square corners to evoke the look of old-school cut and glue labels. Other designers use large radius rounded corners to differentiate their products on the shelf against traditional 1/8″ corner radius labels.
How do I measure the Corner Radius of a label?
Click the thumbnail on the right to open a full page Corner Radius Chart. Print the page and hold the label against the corner radius examples until you find a match.
What Corner Radius should I use?
This is a matter of preference. The packaging industry standard is 1/8″ corner radius. This size radius is not unsightly, but allows ease of manufacturing and application. For customers desiring “square corners” we often recommend 1/64″ (0.015625″) as the smallest CR we can consistently convert. For machine application projects Custom Label recommends consulting your production team or contract packager before purchasing labels with less than a 1/8″ CR.
Although the consumer never sees it, the liner is a critical component of any pressure sensitive label. A label liner, also known as “carrier” or “backing” or “release liner”, serves a very important purpose: carrying the die-cut labels to applicator and releasing the adhesive-backed label onto the product. The diagram below shows how diecut labels are released from the liner. 
Conventional wisdom indicates that during recessionary periods, new businesses appear at a higher rate. Terminated employees strike out on their own, determined to take control of their future. For many an entrepreneur, they are in un-chartered waters. Custom Label works daily with these heroes of industry. We are often contacted with the generic question “I’ve got a bottle and I need to put a label on it!”. Just this week I was contacted by a start-up, and the owner said “my bottler told me I need a pressure-sensitive label, whatever that is!” In this blog entry I will answer that question, and help you understand how we ended up with this product called “pressure-sensitive”.
Custom Label is all about Color. Your Color. We have more than 30 years of experience working with customers to match your exact color – not once, but every time you place an order. Our flexo label presses are multi-color platforms that support up to 10 individual colors run in a single pass. Each print station can print a different PMS or custom-match color. We can provide color draw down samples or conduct a live press-check proof where you can be involved and confirm the perfect color for your label and product. Our digital press uses up to 6 colors to create a process blend that emulates the traditional PMS colors. We can come very close for a large percentage of PMS colors. For those colors that do not translate to process printing, we can order PMS match colors for the digital press. Whether your need is short run digital labels or a long run flexo job, we will make sure you are happy with the color. Your success depends upon it!