Physical music did not go away. Vinyl outsells CDs in several markets, cassettes have a small but genuine following, and independent labels press short runs constantly. The music is the easy part. The packaging is where a release either looks like a record or looks like a burned copy in a paper wallet.
Record and tape packaging is a specialist print job with fixed dimensions, unusual stocks, and a set of conventions that exist for practical reasons. Here is what actually has to be decided.
The components of a vinyl release
A 12 inch release is not one printed item. Depending on the format it can be five.
- The outer sleeve or jacket, either a single pocket printed on one side of board and folded, or a gatefold that opens out.
- The centre labels, two small circular labels applied to the record itself before pressing.
- The inner sleeve, plain paper, poly lined paper, or a printed sleeve carrying lyrics and credits.
- An insert, a separate printed sheet for artwork, lyrics or a download code.
- The obi strip or sticker, a wrap or a hype sticker carrying the barcode and format information.
Sizing is dictated by the pressing plant, not by you. A 12 inch jacket is conventionally 315mm square with the record sitting slightly proud, and a 7 inch is 178mm. Get the final dimensions from your plant before you design anything, because a jacket that is 2mm out will not accept a record cleanly.
Centre labels are the fiddly part
Labels are die cut circles with a centre hole, and they are applied to the record while it is being pressed, which means they go through heat and pressure. Plants specify their own label stock for exactly this reason, and inks that are fine on a sleeve can discolour on a label.
Keep artwork out of the outer few millimetres and well clear of the centre hole. The label is placed by machine and small variation in position is normal, so a design with a thin concentric ring at the edge will look off centre even when it is within tolerance.
Board, and why sleeves feel different
Jacket board is heavy, typically in the 300 to 350gsm range for the printed outer wrapped around a board core on old style tip on jackets, or a single thick board printed direct for modern production. The difference in feel between a cheap sleeve and a good one is mostly board choice and finish.
Uncoated board has become the default look for a lot of independent releases: it feels closer to paper than to packaging, takes matt ink well, and hides handling marks. It also shifts colour noticeably, absorbing ink and softening images, so photographic covers on uncoated stock need adjusting rather than sending as they are.
Matt lamination is the practical middle ground on coated board. Gloss laminate shows every fingerprint on a black cover, which is why so many dark sleeves are matt. Soft touch coating feels excellent and scuffs, particularly at the spine edge, so consider it for a limited edition rather than a stock item. Our comparison of specialty substrates covers how these surfaces behave with different inks.
Cassettes: small canvas, tight tolerances
The J-card is the folded insert that sits in the case, named for its shape. A standard one is roughly 102mm tall with a front panel around 63mm wide, a spine, and one or more folded flaps that tuck behind the shell. The exact panel widths vary by shell type, so work from a template supplied by your duplicator.
Two practical points. First, the spine is only a few millimetres wide and it carries the artist and title, which means type there is small and needs to be a clean weight rather than a light one. Second, the folds are close together, so a heavy stock does not tuck properly. Something in the 250 to 300gsm range creases and folds without bulking up in the case.
Cassette shell labels are printed on adhesive stock and are unforgiving of long text. Keep them to the essentials and put the credits on the J-card flaps.
Barcodes, spines and the things that get forgotten
A release that will be stocked by shops needs a barcode that scans. Print it at a proper size, in black on a light background, with the quiet zone either side kept clear. Barcodes reversed out of dark colours or printed small are the most common reason a release gets rejected at a distributor.
The spine matters more than designers expect, because in a shop the spine is what the customer sees. Artist, title and catalogue number, legible, is the minimum. On a single pocket 12 inch jacket the spine is narrow, so this is a typography problem, not an afterthought.
Check the credits before you print, not after. Publishing details, copyright lines and personnel credits are the things people notice missing, and unlike a digital release you cannot correct them later.
Quantities and lead times
Print runs for music packaging are typically short, a few hundred to a couple of thousand, which puts them in digital or short run litho territory rather than long run offset. Ordering the sleeves, labels, inserts and stickers together is worth doing even when they are different stocks, because the colour is then managed across the set rather than separately.
Build in time for a physical proof on anything with a photographic cover or a colour you care about. Screen approval on a heavy uncoated board is a guess, and a run of 500 sleeves is expensive to guess at.
Printing your release with us
We print sleeves, jackets, inner sleeves, inserts, centre labels, J-cards and shell labels, and we work from plant templates rather than generic sizes, so send us whatever spec sheet your pressing plant or duplicator gave you. If you do not have one yet, tell us the format and we will tell you what to ask them for.
For covers where colour is doing the work, we will supply a physical proof on the actual stock before the run, which on uncoated board is the only reliable way to know what you are getting. Materials and finishes are listed under print quality and materials, our disc packaging guide covers the CD side of a release, and you can send artwork questions through our contact page before committing to a quantity.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need different artwork for vinyl and CD versions?
Yes. The dimensions and proportions differ, and a 12 inch square design scaled down to a CD wallet loses detail and often loses legibility on credits. Rework rather than rescale.
Can I print my own centre labels?
Most pressing plants require labels printed on their specified stock and supplied to them, because the labels go through the press cycle. Check with the plant before printing anything.
What resolution do I need for a 12 inch sleeve?
Work at 300 pixels per inch at final size, which is a little over 3700 pixels square for a 315mm jacket. Scanned artwork and photographs need to start large, because upscaling a small file to that size is visible on a cover held at arm's length.
Should the inner sleeve be printed?
Only if you have content for it. A printed inner adds cost and needs a poly lining or an anti static paper to avoid marking the record, so many releases use a plain lined inner and put lyrics on a separate insert instead.
