Differences between kiss cut stickers and punched die cut stickers

When buying or designing stickers, it is important to know what you are getting…Two simple terms that we see people getting confused with a lot are KISS CUT STICKERS and PUNCHED DIE CUT stickers. These both have different purposes and uses, and each will vary from job to job depending on your needs.  In this blog, we have decided to spell this one out, and hopefully help you figure out which option is more appropriate for you.

Kiss cut stickers

Kiss cut stickers are stickers that have been cut with a knife to a custom shape during the printing process, allowing the cut shape to be released from the paper backing. Typically, these come in standard trimmed rectangles or squares, and your sticker is peeled off, so that when it is applied you have your shape. The knife only cuts through the adhesive part of the sticker, not the backing paper. These are more commonly used by us for short run digital print and cut stickers, or for other uses such as custom sticker sheets. Kiss cut stickers are a little more expensive than standard stickers as the cutting adds a step to the finishing process. See below for a ninja kiss cut sticker example.

Punch die cut stickers

Punch die cut stickers are stickers where a custom die is made to your shape. A die is essentially a sharp shape cutter (like the old play-dough ones) that punches your sticker into custom shape. The whole sticker, including the backing paper, is cutout to your custom shape. Punch die cut stickers usually come with a split back, which means that the back of the sticker is split so you can peel these off easily. Punched die cut stickers have a one off setup cost to make the die – but you only pay this once, any re-orders you may make using the same die will not incur this cost.  We only make these types of stickers when making large runs (orders of 500+) of screen printed stickers (that includes bumper stickers!), and they always look really sharp… see below for a madazz example.

What artwork file type is required to make kiss cut and die cut stickers?

Both kiss cut and die cut stickers need the artwork to be setup in a vector file which we are happy to do for you (although this may incur an art charge), or you can supply it print ready – check out our page on artwork requirements if you need help of feel free to get in touch.