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  3. Tiny, tiny print on packaging. Can someone who does this explain?

Tiny, tiny print on packaging. Can someone who does this explain?

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  • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

    As a matter of fact, I've made labels for packagings in the meat industry. Your #2 is pretty close to the mark. Mostly, the software that creates labels isn't exactly high-tech, so scaling is not something it does. The size of labels is restrained by the printers a company has, those printers aren't easily replaced because you'd have to change all labels too, which can easily grow into the hundreds (different labels for different products, countries, customers, etc.). Labels are usually too small for all the data that producers are now legally obliged to print. There's a big chance your label is unreadably small because the Arab translation of the text is a bit longer and the label has to accommodate both. And sometimes it's just that font size 8 is too big, but font size 7 is too small (or there is no 7 and you have to fall back to 6), and if those are your option you go for the size that fits and call it a day! BarTender is popular label printing and design software and this is what it looks like: BarTender[^]

    Chris Maunder wrote:

    No one involved from label design to product creation to printing to stocking

    There's usually not really any design phase. Some IT guy just makes a label and drags and resizes until it fits. The people who print the labels and put them on the packaging are not paid nearly enough to care!

    Chris Maunder wrote:

    To save time and money they did zero usability testing

    I've never heard of a label being usability tested :laugh: They print the label once to check if all necessary data is on it (read, they can't be sued) and continue with more important business. Companies don't make those labels for you, they make them so you can see their logo and they don't get fined by their government.

    Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LI

    H Offline
    H Offline
    haughtonomous
    wrote on last edited by
    #27

    Well now, funny how they can arrange all the other printing on the packaging to be larger than life to grab your attention, but somehow the stuff they'd rather you didn't pay attention to has to be, for a variety of apparently insurmountable reasons, almost too tiny to read!

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    • L Lost User

      Do what the "weed" people do: a "2-ply" label that peels apart with the pre-printed instructions, etc. inside. Two sides versus part of one face.

      "Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I

      Sander RosselS Offline
      Sander RosselS Offline
      Sander Rossel
      wrote on last edited by
      #28

      Gerry Schmitz wrote:

      the "weed" people

      At first I thought you were referring to me because I'm Dutch :laugh: For the record, I never smoked weed, but have had plenty of opportunity.

      Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

      1 Reply Last reply
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      • H haughtonomous

        Which countries are they?

        D Offline
        D Offline
        Daniel Pfeffer
        wrote on last edited by
        #29

        In Israel, there is a minimum size allowed for "small print". I'm sure it's not the only country on the globe with this requirement.

        Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.

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        • C Chris Maunder

          Is there anyone here who works on systems that print food labels. The specific ones I'm thinking about are small sachets of soy sauce, or the labels printed for in-store, freshly baked bread. The labels that are 90% whitespace with 2pt high text that you almost need a microscope to read. The trend of unreadably-tiny-font-on-an-area-that-could-accomodate-a-billboard seems to have been increasing in the past few years and I would love an actual reason for it. My guesses 1. They don't actually want you to read the labels. They package the raisin bread with the whole grain bread in the same exact package, label, tie, everything, with the only difference being the teeny tiny words that allow you distinguish, in the mood lighting of the bread department, what it actually is. It makes shifting unwanted inventory easier
          2. They have software that can't scale a font to make it fit the space, and also have to cater to labels that are potentially 1024 characters long, so they take space / # chars = microscopic font. Problem solved!
          3. Someone in accounting worked out that based on font size, total chars printed, total number of labels, and the cost of ink, they would save $5.47 each year if they printed in 2pt font size.
          4. No one involved from label design to product creation to printing to stocking has ever actually tried purchasing a product printed like this in an actual store. To save time and money they did zero usability testing
          5. They are simply evil. Can anyone shed some light here?

          cheers Chris Maunder

          C Offline
          C Offline
          Cpichols
          wrote on last edited by
          #30

          6. They are ageist.

          1 Reply Last reply
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          • C Chris Maunder

            Is there anyone here who works on systems that print food labels. The specific ones I'm thinking about are small sachets of soy sauce, or the labels printed for in-store, freshly baked bread. The labels that are 90% whitespace with 2pt high text that you almost need a microscope to read. The trend of unreadably-tiny-font-on-an-area-that-could-accomodate-a-billboard seems to have been increasing in the past few years and I would love an actual reason for it. My guesses 1. They don't actually want you to read the labels. They package the raisin bread with the whole grain bread in the same exact package, label, tie, everything, with the only difference being the teeny tiny words that allow you distinguish, in the mood lighting of the bread department, what it actually is. It makes shifting unwanted inventory easier
            2. They have software that can't scale a font to make it fit the space, and also have to cater to labels that are potentially 1024 characters long, so they take space / # chars = microscopic font. Problem solved!
            3. Someone in accounting worked out that based on font size, total chars printed, total number of labels, and the cost of ink, they would save $5.47 each year if they printed in 2pt font size.
            4. No one involved from label design to product creation to printing to stocking has ever actually tried purchasing a product printed like this in an actual store. To save time and money they did zero usability testing
            5. They are simply evil. Can anyone shed some light here?

            cheers Chris Maunder

            V Offline
            V Offline
            VE2
            wrote on last edited by
            #31

            I would guess number one. Many medical TV ads, after saying how great their product is, often have a disclaimer (how it may in fact harm you) in small low contrast fonts which are on screen for only a few seconds. I am 80 years old, still writing apps (well sort of), and small font size is always an issue for me. Bring back punched cards!!

            73

            1 Reply Last reply
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            • C Chris Maunder

              Is there anyone here who works on systems that print food labels. The specific ones I'm thinking about are small sachets of soy sauce, or the labels printed for in-store, freshly baked bread. The labels that are 90% whitespace with 2pt high text that you almost need a microscope to read. The trend of unreadably-tiny-font-on-an-area-that-could-accomodate-a-billboard seems to have been increasing in the past few years and I would love an actual reason for it. My guesses 1. They don't actually want you to read the labels. They package the raisin bread with the whole grain bread in the same exact package, label, tie, everything, with the only difference being the teeny tiny words that allow you distinguish, in the mood lighting of the bread department, what it actually is. It makes shifting unwanted inventory easier
              2. They have software that can't scale a font to make it fit the space, and also have to cater to labels that are potentially 1024 characters long, so they take space / # chars = microscopic font. Problem solved!
              3. Someone in accounting worked out that based on font size, total chars printed, total number of labels, and the cost of ink, they would save $5.47 each year if they printed in 2pt font size.
              4. No one involved from label design to product creation to printing to stocking has ever actually tried purchasing a product printed like this in an actual store. To save time and money they did zero usability testing
              5. They are simply evil. Can anyone shed some light here?

              cheers Chris Maunder

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              G Offline
              Gary Wheeler
              wrote on last edited by
              #32

              Chris, they're age-ist, twentysomething arsehats who will get their comeuppance when they hit their 40's. In my experience (I'm 62), that's your only hope. Nobody gives a crap about accessibility issues for anyone over the age of 25.

              Software Zen: delete this;

              1 Reply Last reply
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              • C Chris Maunder

                Is there anyone here who works on systems that print food labels. The specific ones I'm thinking about are small sachets of soy sauce, or the labels printed for in-store, freshly baked bread. The labels that are 90% whitespace with 2pt high text that you almost need a microscope to read. The trend of unreadably-tiny-font-on-an-area-that-could-accomodate-a-billboard seems to have been increasing in the past few years and I would love an actual reason for it. My guesses 1. They don't actually want you to read the labels. They package the raisin bread with the whole grain bread in the same exact package, label, tie, everything, with the only difference being the teeny tiny words that allow you distinguish, in the mood lighting of the bread department, what it actually is. It makes shifting unwanted inventory easier
                2. They have software that can't scale a font to make it fit the space, and also have to cater to labels that are potentially 1024 characters long, so they take space / # chars = microscopic font. Problem solved!
                3. Someone in accounting worked out that based on font size, total chars printed, total number of labels, and the cost of ink, they would save $5.47 each year if they printed in 2pt font size.
                4. No one involved from label design to product creation to printing to stocking has ever actually tried purchasing a product printed like this in an actual store. To save time and money they did zero usability testing
                5. They are simply evil. Can anyone shed some light here?

                cheers Chris Maunder

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                M Offline
                Mark Starr
                wrote on last edited by
                #33

                So, I liked #3 as a great rationalization, and I know Sander’s answer is closest to the truth, but I would have bet that the store manager assigned the task to whomever was working in the bakery - without regard to whether they had any experience at all with computers, labels, fonts, or printing. That person, after finally getting something to print on the actual label, said “Good enough!” :)

                Time is the differentiation of eternity devised by man to measure the passage of human events. - Manly P. Hall Mark Just another cog in the wheel

                1 Reply Last reply
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                • C Chris Maunder

                  Is there anyone here who works on systems that print food labels. The specific ones I'm thinking about are small sachets of soy sauce, or the labels printed for in-store, freshly baked bread. The labels that are 90% whitespace with 2pt high text that you almost need a microscope to read. The trend of unreadably-tiny-font-on-an-area-that-could-accomodate-a-billboard seems to have been increasing in the past few years and I would love an actual reason for it. My guesses 1. They don't actually want you to read the labels. They package the raisin bread with the whole grain bread in the same exact package, label, tie, everything, with the only difference being the teeny tiny words that allow you distinguish, in the mood lighting of the bread department, what it actually is. It makes shifting unwanted inventory easier
                  2. They have software that can't scale a font to make it fit the space, and also have to cater to labels that are potentially 1024 characters long, so they take space / # chars = microscopic font. Problem solved!
                  3. Someone in accounting worked out that based on font size, total chars printed, total number of labels, and the cost of ink, they would save $5.47 each year if they printed in 2pt font size.
                  4. No one involved from label design to product creation to printing to stocking has ever actually tried purchasing a product printed like this in an actual store. To save time and money they did zero usability testing
                  5. They are simply evil. Can anyone shed some light here?

                  cheers Chris Maunder

                  C Offline
                  C Offline
                  cwjinc
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #34

                  Oddly, another place this is true is the Android Alarm Clock interface. Huge canvas with tiny, widely spaced print. For no reason I can think of.

                  1 Reply Last reply
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                  • C Chris Maunder

                    Is there anyone here who works on systems that print food labels. The specific ones I'm thinking about are small sachets of soy sauce, or the labels printed for in-store, freshly baked bread. The labels that are 90% whitespace with 2pt high text that you almost need a microscope to read. The trend of unreadably-tiny-font-on-an-area-that-could-accomodate-a-billboard seems to have been increasing in the past few years and I would love an actual reason for it. My guesses 1. They don't actually want you to read the labels. They package the raisin bread with the whole grain bread in the same exact package, label, tie, everything, with the only difference being the teeny tiny words that allow you distinguish, in the mood lighting of the bread department, what it actually is. It makes shifting unwanted inventory easier
                    2. They have software that can't scale a font to make it fit the space, and also have to cater to labels that are potentially 1024 characters long, so they take space / # chars = microscopic font. Problem solved!
                    3. Someone in accounting worked out that based on font size, total chars printed, total number of labels, and the cost of ink, they would save $5.47 each year if they printed in 2pt font size.
                    4. No one involved from label design to product creation to printing to stocking has ever actually tried purchasing a product printed like this in an actual store. To save time and money they did zero usability testing
                    5. They are simply evil. Can anyone shed some light here?

                    cheers Chris Maunder

                    T Offline
                    T Offline
                    tbim
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #35

                    I wrote label printing software in the late 90s/early 2000s for hardware-type stores, streaming data from the computer's COM port to an RS232 port on the printer. The few label printers we developed for (I remember SATO printers) had "built in" support for specific font types and sizes. If you used any font/size combination not built in then the printer treated it as a graphic rather than text. This slowed the printing down considerably - from 20 or 30 labels per second to 1 label per second. The font sizes supported were strange - if you went up one size it effectively doubled the printed size. To figure out the finished label, you get the max size that would ever be printed per field and play a long game of massaging the various fields' fonts/sizes to get things looking ok. Another problem is the DIP switches on the printer. If not set right it can affect the printing. I'm not saying the food packaging label designers put a lot of thought in, but there might be legitimate reasons. Someone mentioned Bartender software - I used that as well during the discovery phase, but we ditched it for the printing speed of using the built-in fonts.

                    Mike

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                    0
                    • T tbim

                      I wrote label printing software in the late 90s/early 2000s for hardware-type stores, streaming data from the computer's COM port to an RS232 port on the printer. The few label printers we developed for (I remember SATO printers) had "built in" support for specific font types and sizes. If you used any font/size combination not built in then the printer treated it as a graphic rather than text. This slowed the printing down considerably - from 20 or 30 labels per second to 1 label per second. The font sizes supported were strange - if you went up one size it effectively doubled the printed size. To figure out the finished label, you get the max size that would ever be printed per field and play a long game of massaging the various fields' fonts/sizes to get things looking ok. Another problem is the DIP switches on the printer. If not set right it can affect the printing. I'm not saying the food packaging label designers put a lot of thought in, but there might be legitimate reasons. Someone mentioned Bartender software - I used that as well during the discovery phase, but we ditched it for the printing speed of using the built-in fonts.

                      Mike

                      C Offline
                      C Offline
                      Chris Maunder
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #36

                      My very first job was writing a printer driver for geo plots on a state-of-the-art printer that used actual pens for printing (as in, it would pick a pen from the rack of pens, draw in that colour, put the pen back. It was mesmerising). I remember spending a lot of time working on getting the font sizes right. I guess this is what's doing my head in: working out how to measure the width of a piece of text you are about to print is a task that needs to be done once per system. Providing the means to change fonts seems to be definitely already built in (I see different font weights and size in this micro-text). For some reason putting the two together just seems...to hard?

                      cheers Chris Maunder

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • C Chris Maunder

                        Is there anyone here who works on systems that print food labels. The specific ones I'm thinking about are small sachets of soy sauce, or the labels printed for in-store, freshly baked bread. The labels that are 90% whitespace with 2pt high text that you almost need a microscope to read. The trend of unreadably-tiny-font-on-an-area-that-could-accomodate-a-billboard seems to have been increasing in the past few years and I would love an actual reason for it. My guesses 1. They don't actually want you to read the labels. They package the raisin bread with the whole grain bread in the same exact package, label, tie, everything, with the only difference being the teeny tiny words that allow you distinguish, in the mood lighting of the bread department, what it actually is. It makes shifting unwanted inventory easier
                        2. They have software that can't scale a font to make it fit the space, and also have to cater to labels that are potentially 1024 characters long, so they take space / # chars = microscopic font. Problem solved!
                        3. Someone in accounting worked out that based on font size, total chars printed, total number of labels, and the cost of ink, they would save $5.47 each year if they printed in 2pt font size.
                        4. No one involved from label design to product creation to printing to stocking has ever actually tried purchasing a product printed like this in an actual store. To save time and money they did zero usability testing
                        5. They are simply evil. Can anyone shed some light here?

                        cheers Chris Maunder

                        J Offline
                        J Offline
                        jkirkerx
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #37

                        Not quite the explanation here, but what I know ... We have auto bagging machines here at the building I work in. The bags are printed with all the art work in a generic format, and come on a roll of 5000. When we designed the bag artwork, we left ourselves a 2" by 4" space to print the product name, specs, UPC Barcode, customer logo, etc. As time passed, we had to print more legal stuff in the print area, and the printing got smaller for some text, and increased the size of the barcode, so it scans on every barcode scanner you can imagine. So these auto baggers, feed a bag into the plenum, blow air into the bag to open it, and dump product into it by weight, and seal the bag, then tear and dump into a bin. We can't make the print area larger, because were limited by the heat thermal transfer head size that prints the information. We can't buy a larger one, because the ones we have match the entire system, where we use RS232 to download the data to the thermal heat thermal transfer print head. To print larger, we would have to buy all brand new equipment, which is not cost effective. I know with major bread brands, they can afford to have a custom bag printed for each bread type, because they only offer White and Wheat. They just auto bag, and print the factory number, batch number, UPC Barcode, and expiration date in a specified area. I first saw tiny print 30 years ago coming from Asia, with products such as Sony, Toshiba, etc, because they tried to print in 5 different languages on the same sheet of paper designed for a single market place. But now they can consolidate that one product, and ship it to many market places, such as the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe. Hope that helps ...

                        If it ain't broke don't fix it Discover my world at jkirkerx.com

                        C 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • J jkirkerx

                          Not quite the explanation here, but what I know ... We have auto bagging machines here at the building I work in. The bags are printed with all the art work in a generic format, and come on a roll of 5000. When we designed the bag artwork, we left ourselves a 2" by 4" space to print the product name, specs, UPC Barcode, customer logo, etc. As time passed, we had to print more legal stuff in the print area, and the printing got smaller for some text, and increased the size of the barcode, so it scans on every barcode scanner you can imagine. So these auto baggers, feed a bag into the plenum, blow air into the bag to open it, and dump product into it by weight, and seal the bag, then tear and dump into a bin. We can't make the print area larger, because were limited by the heat thermal transfer head size that prints the information. We can't buy a larger one, because the ones we have match the entire system, where we use RS232 to download the data to the thermal heat thermal transfer print head. To print larger, we would have to buy all brand new equipment, which is not cost effective. I know with major bread brands, they can afford to have a custom bag printed for each bread type, because they only offer White and Wheat. They just auto bag, and print the factory number, batch number, UPC Barcode, and expiration date in a specified area. I first saw tiny print 30 years ago coming from Asia, with products such as Sony, Toshiba, etc, because they tried to print in 5 different languages on the same sheet of paper designed for a single market place. But now they can consolidate that one product, and ship it to many market places, such as the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe. Hope that helps ...

                          If it ain't broke don't fix it Discover my world at jkirkerx.com

                          C Offline
                          C Offline
                          Choroid
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #38

                          Do you mind if I ask Why does Firefox not like your link "View My Work" I am not being critical just trying to understand what Firefox is doing

                          J 1 Reply Last reply
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                          • H haughtonomous

                            When I was young I didn't understand why my Dad couldn't read stuff I had no trouble with. I knew old people's eyesight was poorer, but not my Dad, surely? Now, many decades later, I get it! It is easy for businesses to set standards for their packaging. That they obviously don't, or don't bother to enforce them, suggests that they just don't care. Well now, there's a surprise!

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                            S Offline
                            sasadler
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #39

                            That's may be part of the problem but I always carry a pair of cheaters with me to correct for that particular issue. The problem is that some of the companies just do stupid stuff. Years ago, I purchased a new HSF for my computer and the instructions for installation came on a piece of paper approximately 2x3 inches. Turns out they'd shrunk the 8.5x11 inch original instruction page to fit in the packaging (assumption here). I had to go to their website to get the full page instructions which were readable.

                            1 Reply Last reply
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                            • C Chris Maunder

                              Is there anyone here who works on systems that print food labels. The specific ones I'm thinking about are small sachets of soy sauce, or the labels printed for in-store, freshly baked bread. The labels that are 90% whitespace with 2pt high text that you almost need a microscope to read. The trend of unreadably-tiny-font-on-an-area-that-could-accomodate-a-billboard seems to have been increasing in the past few years and I would love an actual reason for it. My guesses 1. They don't actually want you to read the labels. They package the raisin bread with the whole grain bread in the same exact package, label, tie, everything, with the only difference being the teeny tiny words that allow you distinguish, in the mood lighting of the bread department, what it actually is. It makes shifting unwanted inventory easier
                              2. They have software that can't scale a font to make it fit the space, and also have to cater to labels that are potentially 1024 characters long, so they take space / # chars = microscopic font. Problem solved!
                              3. Someone in accounting worked out that based on font size, total chars printed, total number of labels, and the cost of ink, they would save $5.47 each year if they printed in 2pt font size.
                              4. No one involved from label design to product creation to printing to stocking has ever actually tried purchasing a product printed like this in an actual store. To save time and money they did zero usability testing
                              5. They are simply evil. Can anyone shed some light here?

                              cheers Chris Maunder

                              S Offline
                              S Offline
                              Shmoken99
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #40

                              And while we're at it, what about contrast? As in, grey letters on a black background are cool, right? So let's make it the darkest possible grey so it is as cool as it can be. That is somehow worse, since someone put thought into making it that way.

                              1 Reply Last reply
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                              • C Choroid

                                Do you mind if I ask Why does Firefox not like your link "View My Work" I am not being critical just trying to understand what Firefox is doing

                                J Offline
                                J Offline
                                jkirkerx
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #41

                                Don't know yet. I just renewed my SSL certificate, and maybe I got it wrong. I tested it from home, and I didn't get any warnings, so I'm not sure yet. On Firefox IOS, says connection secure. Kind of stupid that I buy a 5 year certificate, and I have to regenerate it every year for 5 years, on like June 11. I went to generate it this year, and forgot how to do it, and messed up, and had to do it again, so maybe that's it.

                                If it ain't broke don't fix it Discover my world at jkirkerx.com

                                C 1 Reply Last reply
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                                • J jkirkerx

                                  Don't know yet. I just renewed my SSL certificate, and maybe I got it wrong. I tested it from home, and I didn't get any warnings, so I'm not sure yet. On Firefox IOS, says connection secure. Kind of stupid that I buy a 5 year certificate, and I have to regenerate it every year for 5 years, on like June 11. I went to generate it this year, and forgot how to do it, and messed up, and had to do it again, so maybe that's it.

                                  If it ain't broke don't fix it Discover my world at jkirkerx.com

                                  C Offline
                                  C Offline
                                  Choroid
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #42

                                  Here is what I see FYI Thanks for the reply Hmm. We’re having trouble finding that site. We can’t connect to the server at codename-indigo.com. If you entered the right address, you can: Try again later Check your network connection Check that Firefox has permission to access the web (you might be connected but behind a firewall)

                                  J 1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • C Chris Maunder

                                    Is there anyone here who works on systems that print food labels. The specific ones I'm thinking about are small sachets of soy sauce, or the labels printed for in-store, freshly baked bread. The labels that are 90% whitespace with 2pt high text that you almost need a microscope to read. The trend of unreadably-tiny-font-on-an-area-that-could-accomodate-a-billboard seems to have been increasing in the past few years and I would love an actual reason for it. My guesses 1. They don't actually want you to read the labels. They package the raisin bread with the whole grain bread in the same exact package, label, tie, everything, with the only difference being the teeny tiny words that allow you distinguish, in the mood lighting of the bread department, what it actually is. It makes shifting unwanted inventory easier
                                    2. They have software that can't scale a font to make it fit the space, and also have to cater to labels that are potentially 1024 characters long, so they take space / # chars = microscopic font. Problem solved!
                                    3. Someone in accounting worked out that based on font size, total chars printed, total number of labels, and the cost of ink, they would save $5.47 each year if they printed in 2pt font size.
                                    4. No one involved from label design to product creation to printing to stocking has ever actually tried purchasing a product printed like this in an actual store. To save time and money they did zero usability testing
                                    5. They are simply evil. Can anyone shed some light here?

                                    cheers Chris Maunder

                                    Y Offline
                                    Y Offline
                                    YSLGuru
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #43

                                    I too despise the way they (manufacturers) handle this however you have to keep in mind that there are always government regulations, sometimes at multiple levels, that have to be followed. I imagine what they put on them is required and the text has to fit and sometimes on something small. This of course doesn't explain this for other products that have larger containers but I imagine the same machine(s) are used to do the text regardless of the packaging (regardless of it's size) and so instead of changing up font sizes they leave it as is using whatever is the smallest font that works on all products they make. Plants that produce the boxes/packaging used to box up and ship just about anything don't have different machines for each container size/type they make. They will typically have a few going and each will make 1 or more batches of a specific box/container and then they switch the machine up to do another type of box/container. You can bet that the majority of them would rather you not read any of that info (there are a few more health conscious companies that do want you to read that stuff). There's way too many different sized and shaped containers to have a separate machine making each one.

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                                    • C Choroid

                                      Here is what I see FYI Thanks for the reply Hmm. We’re having trouble finding that site. We can’t connect to the server at codename-indigo.com. If you entered the right address, you can: Try again later Check your network connection Check that Firefox has permission to access the web (you might be connected but behind a firewall)

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                                      J Offline
                                      jkirkerx
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #44

                                      I took that website down years ago, back in 2018 I think, and replaced it with my new Code Project Footer "Discover my world at" @ jkirkerx.com right after that. I remember Chris giving me a hard time about the how Code Project writes the footers in real time, to what ever the footer is at the moment you post, so you can't change the footer in all your posts at one time. Strange that your seeing that. Codename Indigo was a failed project, where I attempted to make ecommerce technology in Microsoft .Net with MVC using views, and then discovered Angular and went that direction instead, and got stumped in Mar of 2020, when I decided to outsource this technology to Ebay and Amazon to see how they do it. After that, my online business took off to heights I never imagined to be possible, and is the source if my income, But my jkirkerx.com did actually generate some good leads, that turned into huge projects lasting for years. But soon, jkirkerx.com will change again, after my trademarks with USPTO get approved so I can go to the next level of marketing with my online business and code business.

                                      If it ain't broke don't fix it Discover my world at jkirkerx.com

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                                      • C Chris Maunder

                                        Is there anyone here who works on systems that print food labels. The specific ones I'm thinking about are small sachets of soy sauce, or the labels printed for in-store, freshly baked bread. The labels that are 90% whitespace with 2pt high text that you almost need a microscope to read. The trend of unreadably-tiny-font-on-an-area-that-could-accomodate-a-billboard seems to have been increasing in the past few years and I would love an actual reason for it. My guesses 1. They don't actually want you to read the labels. They package the raisin bread with the whole grain bread in the same exact package, label, tie, everything, with the only difference being the teeny tiny words that allow you distinguish, in the mood lighting of the bread department, what it actually is. It makes shifting unwanted inventory easier
                                        2. They have software that can't scale a font to make it fit the space, and also have to cater to labels that are potentially 1024 characters long, so they take space / # chars = microscopic font. Problem solved!
                                        3. Someone in accounting worked out that based on font size, total chars printed, total number of labels, and the cost of ink, they would save $5.47 each year if they printed in 2pt font size.
                                        4. No one involved from label design to product creation to printing to stocking has ever actually tried purchasing a product printed like this in an actual store. To save time and money they did zero usability testing
                                        5. They are simply evil. Can anyone shed some light here?

                                        cheers Chris Maunder

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                                        E Offline
                                        Ed Attfield
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #45

                                        I'm voting for number one; they don't want me to read the label. The teeny tiniest print I find is for the ingredients list on cat food cans, where I want to know if it has actual fish in it or just guar gum and crab shells.

                                        1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • C Chris Maunder

                                          Is there anyone here who works on systems that print food labels. The specific ones I'm thinking about are small sachets of soy sauce, or the labels printed for in-store, freshly baked bread. The labels that are 90% whitespace with 2pt high text that you almost need a microscope to read. The trend of unreadably-tiny-font-on-an-area-that-could-accomodate-a-billboard seems to have been increasing in the past few years and I would love an actual reason for it. My guesses 1. They don't actually want you to read the labels. They package the raisin bread with the whole grain bread in the same exact package, label, tie, everything, with the only difference being the teeny tiny words that allow you distinguish, in the mood lighting of the bread department, what it actually is. It makes shifting unwanted inventory easier
                                          2. They have software that can't scale a font to make it fit the space, and also have to cater to labels that are potentially 1024 characters long, so they take space / # chars = microscopic font. Problem solved!
                                          3. Someone in accounting worked out that based on font size, total chars printed, total number of labels, and the cost of ink, they would save $5.47 each year if they printed in 2pt font size.
                                          4. No one involved from label design to product creation to printing to stocking has ever actually tried purchasing a product printed like this in an actual store. To save time and money they did zero usability testing
                                          5. They are simply evil. Can anyone shed some light here?

                                          cheers Chris Maunder

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                                          G Offline
                                          greenteabreath
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #46

                                          Its not just food. WD "My passport" serial number is so small a magnifying glass barley helped. Amazon receipt allowed me to get the right string - too bad WD registration splotch app still said was bad Id - just make things so small no one will ever get them right and corps will never have a liability to support stuff (as if it mattered) - also a piece of crap db lookup to confirm correct makes it set in stone like the mafia with cement galoshes

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