Should I choose Clear Stickers with or without white ink?

What is a white ink underbase?

White ink underbase or underprint is a layer of white ink underneath the print of your design. With Stickeroo, there is an option to print your clear stickers with or without white ink underprint.  

What’s the difference?

Without white ink underbase, the inks laid out on the clear vinyl would be a tad semi-translucent when light shines through. As a result, the colour of the surface you’ll pop these stickers on may bleed through. Additionally, all of the white areas in your artwork will be clear.

This makes the stickers more ideal to be stuck on a light opaque background rather than a dark background which might drown out your design.

Check out how clean the clear stickers without white underprint with the right colour of surface:

With white ink underbase, the inks will be printed similarly except that there is a layer of opaque white ink underneath your artwork. 

Because of this, we require the artwork to be provided as a vector so we can extract the shapes of your artwork easily and configure which areas will be printed with white ink underbase.

Where we will pop the white ink underbase is determined and shown when we organise the proof of your artwork for printing. You can also indicate in your vector artwork where you would like us to print the white underbase.  

Below are pictures of clear stickers printed with white ink underbase:

Same design, different print

Here’s an illustrative comparison of how printing with and without white ink underbase would look like:

What is the best option for your project?

To decide which type of clear stickers works for you, below is a checklist you can refer to when deciding. 

Choose clear stickers with white ink underbase if:

• The colour of the surface you intend to stick the stickers on is dark or black.
• Your artwork has white elements. 
• You want to ensure the colours of your artwork will pop off.
• Your artwork only has solid shapes and doesn’t have gradients or shadows.
• You have your artwork available in vector format like Ai, PDF, SVG and more.

We recommend the clear stickers without white ink underbase if:

• You’re planning to stick the stickers onto white or light surface.
• You’re happy with semi-translucent clear sticker print.
• The artwork includes elements like shadows and gradients. 
• The artwork is available in raster formats like PNG or JPG only. 

To learn more on how to prepare your artwork for clear stickers with white underbase, you may jump onto this article:Clear Stickers: How to Set Up my Artwork?

 If you have a question particular to your project, you may email us through hello@stickeroo.com.au and we'll try our best to help you!