Label
As of 10:34 · the period does not apply here
The eight things the law puts on a bag of coffee, and where each one comes from. Six are set from the product record and never typed; two exist only on the artwork. This page is both sides of that comparison.
Bags in the record
Product record7
Every one of them needs all eight
Fields the law requires
Brand rulebook8
6 from the product record, 2 from the artwork
The record cannot fill
Product record2
Both on one lot, opened last week
Labels at the gate
The gate2
Blocked on a record
Computed1
Not on a design. No amount of artwork fixes it
The label at the gate
The artwork on the left with what the book found marked on it, and on the right every field the law requires, beside the record it is supposed to be set from.
- Single estate, Huila
- Roasted coffee
- 250 g ℮
- Lot AB-2609
autumn-blend-label-v3.pdf
Label · 250 g bag · round 3 · waiting 2 h 22 m on the owner
6 findings sit somewhere you can point at. The rest are properties of the whole file — its shape, its colour space, the ink it puts on paper — and are listed without a pin rather than given a place they do not have.
| Field | In the product record | On the artwork | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name of the foodFood labelling regulation · mandatory particulars | Autumn Blend 250 g | Autumn Blend 250 g | From the record |
| IngredientsFood labelling regulation · mandatory particulars | not provided | Roasted coffee | Typed into the artwork |
| Net quantityFood labelling regulation · mandatory particulars | 250 g ℮ | 250 g ℮ | From the record |
| OriginFood labelling regulation · mandatory particulars | not provided | Single estate, Huila | Typed into the artwork |
| Importer and addressFood labelling regulation · mandatory particulars | Harbor Lane Coffee, 14 Dock Road | Harbor Lane Coffee, 14 Dock Road | From the record |
| Storage and best beforeFood labelling regulation · mandatory particulars | Keep sealed, cool and dry. Best within three months of roasting. | Keep sealed, cool and dry. Best within three months of roasting. | From the record |
| Lot markFood labelling regulation · traceability | the record has no opinion about this one | AB-2609 | Set on the artwork |
| Allergen statementFood labelling regulation · allergens | the record has no opinion about this one | not printed | Not on the artwork |
2 fields were typed in
The record holds nothing for ingredients or origin, and the artwork prints “Roasted coffee” and “Single estate, Huila” anyway. Somebody did that to get the job moving, which is the same stop with a plausible sentence over it — and on a three-country blend, naming an estate is the one thing this trade does not forgive.
It is on the owner's desk, where the product record lives.
What the book found on this one
Numbered where the finding has a place on the artwork; the rest are properties of the whole file.Every field set from the product record, never typed
Stops itingredients is set on the artwork and the record does not hold it
A label typed by hand is a label that is right until the recipe changes. Every required field is read from the record, and where the record does not hold one, the job stops rather than the field being filled in by whoever is nearest.
Set the field from the record rather than typing it. A label typed by hand is right until the record changes.
MeasuredCompany brain · product records- 1
Ingredients
Stops itthe artwork prints “Roasted coffee” and the record holds no ingredients to set it from
Required on every food label sold in a shop, in descending order of weight. A missing ingredients line is not a design note, it is a recall.
Whoever typed this had a reason. It still has to be in the record, and the record is on the owner's desk, where the product record lives.
ReadFood labelling regulation · mandatory particulars - 2
Origin
Stops itthe artwork prints “Single estate, Huila” and the record holds no origin to set it from
Where the coffee is from, and for a blend, that it is a blend. The trade does not forgive a single farm named on a blended lot, and neither does the regulation.
Whoever typed this had a reason. It still has to be in the record, and the record is on the owner's desk, where the product record lives.
ReadFood labelling regulation · mandatory particulars - 3
Allergen statement where the line is shared
Stops itthe allergen statement is not on the artwork
Roasted coffee carries none of the fourteen, but a line that also runs flavoured lots does, and the statement says so.
The line runs flavoured lots, so the statement is required whatever is in this bag.
ReadFood labelling regulation · allergens - 4
Nothing set under the surface's smallest size
Stops itSmallest type is 5.5 pt; 250 g label takes 6 pt
Each surface has a size below which its own type stops being read: a poster across a room, a label in a hand, a spec line on a phone.
MeasuredBrand Book p. 19 · the type scale - 5
Mandatory text at 1.2 mm x-height or more
Stops itx-height 1.05 mm; the law sets 1.2 mm
The law sets the height of the letters the law requires, not the point size — an x-height of 1.2 millimetres. It is the one type rule that is not a matter of house style, and the one that is checked in millimetres on the artwork.
Set the mandatory block larger, or take something else off the back of the bag.
MeasuredFood labelling regulation · legibility - 6
Origin named, never implied
Stops it“estate” on a blend
If a lot is a blend it is called a blend. Naming a single farm on a blended coffee is the one thing this trade does not forgive.
Call it a blend and name the countries it is blended from.
ReadBrand Book p. 22 · how a lot is named Only the lockups in the book
ChecklistConfirm the lockup is one of the three in the book
Wordmark, stacked, and the roundel. A designer who needs a fourth arrangement asks for one rather than making one at four in the afternoon.
On the checklistBrand Book p. 5 · lockupsSpot colours named, and only the ones we buy
ChecklistConfirm the separations are the four we buy and nothing else
A spot colour invented in the file becomes a fifth plate and an invoice nobody approved.
On the checklistPrinter's specification · separationsNo light type set to overprint
ChecklistConfirm nothing light is set to overprint
White set to overprint disappears on press. It is invisible on screen and in the proof, and obvious on the pallet.
On the checklistPrinter's specification · overprintDie-line on its own layer, and not printed
ChecklistConfirm the die-line is on its own layer and set not to print
A die-line left in the artwork prints as a thin magenta rectangle around the label, on every bag.
On the checklistPrinter's specification · die-linesReal weights, never faux bold or slanted
ChecklistConfirm the weights are real rather than outlined or sheared
The families ship the weights. A bold made by outlining and a slant made by shearing both look like what they are, at size, on paper.
On the checklistBrand Book p. 19 · weights
Every bag we print
Whether each product record could fill a label this morning. Five of these have no label job open, so what is shown for them is the record alone.
| Product | Lot | From the record | At the gate | State | Record updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autumn Blend 250 gHL-BL-AUT-250 | Blend | 4 of 6 | autumn-blend-label-v3.pdf | Blocked on the record | 9 Sep |
| Kenya AA 250 gHL-SO-KEN-250 | Single lot | 6 of 6 | nothing open | The record can fill it | 18 Jun |
| Decaf Colombia 250 gHL-SO-DEC-250 | Single lot | 6 of 6 | nothing open | The record can fill it | 2 May |
| House Blend 250 gHL-BL-EV-250 | Blend | 6 of 6 | seasonal-sticker-die1.ai | The record can fill it | 14 Feb |
| Espresso Blend 250 gHL-BL-ESP-250 | Blend | 6 of 6 | nothing open | The record can fill it | 14 Feb |
| Ethiopia Yirgacheffe 250 gHL-SO-ETH-250 | Single lot | 6 of 6 | nothing open | The record can fill it | 22 Apr |
| Colombia Huila 250 gHL-SO-COL-250 | Single lot | 6 of 6 | nothing open | The record can fill it | 22 Apr |
A bag whose record is complete is not a bag whose label is right — it is a bag whose label can be set without anybody typing. The artwork still has to carry the lot mark and the allergen line, and those are checked when there is artwork to check.
Every value on a label here is read out of the product record at the moment the artwork is laid out, which is the only way a recipe that changes in the record changes on the next bag rather than on the next bag somebody remembers. Where the record is empty, the job waits. A machine that invents a plausible origin is worse than a machine that stops.