How to prepare your logo for woven labels

Almost every delay on a label order comes from the same place: the artwork. Not because the logo is bad, but because a logo designed for a shopfront sign has to survive being rebuilt out of thread at four centimetres wide. Here is what to send and what to check first.

What file to send

Best case is a vector file — AI, EPS, SVG or a vector PDF. Vector artwork can be scaled to label size without losing edge definition, which makes it far easier to work out exactly where each thread boundary falls.

If you don’t have vector artwork, send the largest, cleanest raster file you own — a high-resolution PNG with a transparent or plain background, or a big JPG. A logo lifted off a website or screenshotted from Instagram is usually too small and too compressed to work from cleanly.

You do not need to prepare anything special before you ask for a quote. Send what you have and we’ll tell you whether it’s workable, and what would need to change if it isn’t.

Send the original file your designer gave you, not the version you exported for social media.

Look at it at label size

This is the single most useful thing you can do, and it takes two minutes. Print your logo at the actual width you want the label to be — 40mm, 50mm, whatever you have in mind — and put it on the table.

At that size you’ll immediately see what survives and what disappears: the tagline under the wordmark, the thin outline around the icon, the registered-trademark symbol. Anything you have to lean in to read on paper will be harder still in thread.

If parts vanish, that’s not a problem with your logo — it’s a sign the label needs either a simplified version of it or a slightly larger size.

What usually needs simplifying

Thread has a minimum thickness, so there is a practical floor on fine detail. The things that most often need adjusting are:

• Hairline strokes and thin outlines — these either thicken up or drop out entirely.
• Gradients and soft shadows — thread is solid colour, so a gradient becomes a small number of flat steps or a single colour.
• Photographic elements — these don’t translate into weaving at all.
• Very small secondary text — taglines, website addresses and establishment dates are the usual casualties.
• Tight inner detail — fine gaps inside a monogram or crest may close up.

Many brands end up with a slightly reduced label version of their logo: the mark and the name, with the smaller supporting elements removed. That is completely normal and it’s what most established labels do too.

Thinking in thread colours

Each colour in a woven label is a separate thread. A focused palette keeps the weave clean and the design readable. Most logos sit comfortably within a small set of colours — a background, the mark, and perhaps one accent.

If you have brand colour references (Pantone numbers, or even just a swatch), send them. Thread is matched to the closest available colour rather than mixed to order, so we’ll tell you how close a match is realistic before production rather than after.

One practical tip: contrast matters more than exactness. A logo that is mid-grey on a slightly different mid-grey may be perfectly legible on screen and almost invisible in thread.

Text and legibility

Type behaves differently once woven. Chunky sans-serif and clean geometric type hold up well. Fine serifs, thin scripts and very condensed type are harder — the thin parts of each letter are exactly where thread runs out of room.

If your brand uses a delicate typeface, you have a few options: set it slightly larger, weave it in higher contrast, or give the label a little more width so the letters can breathe. We’ll flag which of these your artwork needs when we look at it.

A short checklist

1. Find the original vector file if one exists.
2. Print the logo at your intended label width and look at it on paper.
3. Decide what can be removed for the label version.
4. Note your brand colours, if you have references.
5. Decide roughly what size and fold you want — our size guide and fold comparison cover both.
6. Send it all on WhatsApp and we’ll come back with how it translates.

You don’t have to get every one of these right before you contact us. The list is what a smooth order looks like, not a barrier to asking.