Send us your logo file and you’ll usually get one question back: “How many colors do you want to print?” If your logo was designed for screens or full-color printing, that question can be confusing — isn’t it just... your logo? On custom packing tape, the answer is more complicated, because the tape itself can’t print full color the way a digital printer can.
The short answer: our custom packing tape — both Standard and Premium — prints in up to 3 ink colors, not unlimited full color. If your logo uses CMYK or a gradient, photo, or shading effect, it has to be simplified into solid “spot” colors before it can go on tape. That’s a normal, expected step — not a flaw in your artwork — and we handle the conversion for you with a free proof before anything prints.
Why packing tape works differently than full-color printing
Some of what we print — like full-color “floodcoat” Post-it® Notes — uses digital printing, which can reproduce practically any color, gradient, or photo because it’s laying down color pixel by pixel. Packing tape printing works differently: each color is applied as its own solid layer of ink, which means every color in your design has to be a distinct, flat “spot” color rather than a blend of thousands of digital shades. That’s why both of our packing tape products cap out at up to 3 ink colors per design, regardless of how many colors your original logo file contains.
This isn’t a Stik2it-specific limitation — it’s standard across custom packing tape printing. But most logos today are designed in CMYK or RGB for screens, business cards, and digital use, where “full color” is the default. So almost every customer who orders packing tape for the first time is sending us a file that needs to be converted — they just don’t always know it yet.
What actually happens to your logo
Converting a logo to spot colors means picking out the handful of solid colors that best represent your design and rebuilding the artwork using only those flat colors — no gradients, no blends, no photographic shading. How much detail survives depends on how many colors you choose:
- 1 color — the simplest option. Your entire logo prints in a single solid ink color (usually black or your darkest brand color). Great for clean, high-contrast logos; gradients and multiple brand colors get flattened into one.
- 2 colors — enough to separate a logo’s main shape from a secondary element, like a wordmark in one color and an icon or accent in another.
- 3 colors — our maximum, and usually enough to keep a logo clearly recognizable, especially if your brand already leans on 2-3 solid colors rather than a photo-realistic mark.
As you can see, simplifying a logo doesn’t have to mean losing its identity — it usually just means being intentional about which details matter most once you’re down to a handful of solid inks.
You don’t have to do this yourself
If you’re not a designer, don’t worry about converting your own file. When you upload your logo on either packing tape product page, our team reviews it and builds the spot-color version for you, matching your brand colors as closely as the ink count allows. You’ll see exactly how it will look on a free proof — emailed within 24 hours — before we print anything or charge your card. If you’d rather not upload artwork at all, you can also just type the text you want printed and skip the logo entirely.
Ready to order? Both Custom Printed Packing Tape (our Standard 2 mil tape) and Custom Printed Premium Packing Tape (2.5 mil, for heavier wholesale shipments) support 1, 2, or 3 ink colors — pick the option that fits your logo and budget, and we’ll take care of the rest.
Quick rule of thumb: the simpler and more solid-colored your logo already is, the more of it survives the conversion. A single-color wordmark can go straight to print with almost no change; a detailed, photo-style, or heavily gradiented logo will see the biggest simplification — but a well-done 2 or 3-color version can still look clean and recognizable on every box you ship.