Free tool

Label size calculator for jars, bottles, cans and tubs

Enter the container’s diameter and the height of its flat area, and choose how the label goes on: a full wrap, front and back panels or a front label. Get the label size, the file size with bleed, the pixels at 300 ppi and a preview, or the curved label for a tapered cup or tub.

Free, no sign-upRuns in your browser

Label size

Runs in your browser. Nothing to install.

How it works

The containerSidesUnitI measured theDiameter (in)Height of the flat area (in)Measure where the label will sit, between the shoulder and the base.

The labelHow it goes onGap at the seam (in)Margin at each edge (in)Bleed (in)Starting points: 0.125 in (3 mm) gap or overlap, 0.0625 in (1.5 mm) clear of the shoulder and base, 0.125 in (3 mm) bleed. Use your printer’s figures if they give them. Free, no limit, nothing sent anywhere.

The calculator needs JavaScript. By hand: label width = π (3.1416) × diameter − the gap, or + the overlap; height = the flat area − a small margin top and bottom. A 3 in jar with a 0.125 in gap takes a 9.30 in label.

Short answer

Label width = π × diameter − gap (or + overlap); height = the flat area minus a margin. A jar 3 in across is 9.42 in around, so with a 0.125 in gap the wrap label is 9.30 in wide; a 70 mm bottle with a 3 mm overlap needs a 222.9 mm label.

0.125 in (3 mm) for the gap or overlap is a common starting point. Printers and labelling machines specify their own, so check before you order.

The sum, and some worked sizes

The distance around a round container is π (3.1416) × its diameter. A full wrap label is that, less the gap at the seam, or plus the overlap if the ends lie on top of each other. Front and back panels are each half the way around less a gap at each side, and a front label is whatever share of the way around you want it to cover: up to about a third reads nearly flat from the front. The height is the flat area, less a small margin so the label stays clear of the shoulder and the base.

Diameter	Distance around	Wrap label, 0.125 in (3 mm) gap	Pixels across at 300 ppi, with bleed
2 in	6.28 in	6.16 in	1,922 px
2.5 in	7.85 in	7.73 in	2,394 px
3 in	9.42 in	9.30 in	2,865 px
3.5 in	11.00 in	10.87 in	3,336 px
4 in	12.57 in	12.44 in	3,807 px
50 mm	157.1 mm	154.1 mm	1,891 px
60 mm	188.5 mm	185.5 mm	2,262 px
70 mm	219.9 mm	216.9 mm	2,633 px
80 mm	251.3 mm	248.3 mm	3,004 px
90 mm	282.7 mm	279.7 mm	3,375 px

Containers of the same volume differ between makers, so these are examples, not standard sizes: measure the one you’ll fill. The product label size guide has common front labels, roll and sheet formats like Avery 5160, and how to measure.

Tapered containers: the curved label

A cup, tub or tapered bottle is a cone with its top cut off, and a label on it has to be curved, a ring segment, or it wrinkles at one edge. The calculator flattens the cone exactly. With r₁ and r₂ the small and large radii at the label’s edges, and s its height along the side:

Inner radius: R₁ = s × r₁ ÷ (r₂ − r₁), from the center of the arcs to the narrow edge.
Outer radius: R₂ = R₁ + s, to the wide edge.
Angle: θ = 360° × (r₂ − r₁) ÷ s for a full wrap, so the arcs are exactly π × each diameter long.

For example, a cup 90 mm across at the top of the label and 60 mm at the bottom, with 100 mm of side between them, gives R₁ = 200 mm, R₂ = 300 mm and θ = 54°: arcs of 282.7 mm (π × 90) and 188.5 mm (π × 60), and a flat label 272.4 × 121.8 mm before bleed. A gap or overlap is measured along the wide edge. Only true cones flatten like this; a shoulder or a bulge stretches the label, so ask the printer or container maker for their dieline, and see fitting artwork to a dieline.

Setting up the file

Make the file at the finished size plus the bleed: 0.125 in (3 mm) on every side, with the background running to the edge. Put the cut line on its own layer as a named spot color, keep text and barcodes 0.0625 to 0.125 in (1.5 to 3 mm) inside it, and keep them off the overlap on a full wrap. At 300 ppi a 9.30 × 2.88 in label with bleed is 2,865 × 938 pixels. Need a carton for the jar? The free box dieline generator draws a tuck end box to your sizes.

Questions

How do I measure a jar or bottle for a label?

Measure the diameter across the part the label will sit on, or wrap a strip of paper around it and mark where it meets, for the circumference. Then measure the height of the flat area, from just below the shoulder to just above the base, where the label can lie without creasing. Make the label a little shorter than that, so it doesn’t ride onto a curve, and test a paper print-out on the real container.

How much gap or overlap should a wrap label have?

Take 0.125 in (3 mm) as a starting point, not a rule. A gap hides small differences between containers and labels; an overlap gives a continuous wrap, with the overlapping end kept free of text and barcodes. Printers and labelling machines specify their own, often between 0.0625 and 0.25 in (1.5 to 6 mm), so ask before you set the file up.

Do roll labels and sheet labels need different sizes?

The label’s finished size is the same; what changes is the layout around it. Roll labels, for hand application in quantity or a labelling machine, have a gap between labels, a core size and an unwind direction the printer sets. Sheet labels sit on a fixed grid, often with little room for bleed, so use the sheet maker’s template. See the label size guide for common sheet formats.

How do I size a label for a tapered container, like a cup or tub?

A rectangle on a taper wrinkles or spirals, so the label has to be curved: a ring segment, the shape of a cone band laid flat. Measure the diameter where the label’s top and bottom edges sit and the height along the side, and choose Tapered sides here for the two radii and the angle. Containers with shoulders or bulges can’t be flattened this way; ask for the printer’s dieline.

Which way should a label face on the roll?

It depends on how the labels go on, so ask the person or machine applying them. The unwind direction says which edge of the label comes off the roll first; printers number the positions, usually 1 to 8, with the label top, bottom, right or left leading, outside or inside the roll. Wrap labels for a machine are often run sideways, with the label’s left or right edge first.

How much bleed does a label need?

0.125 in (3 mm) on every side is the usual figure, so a 9.30 × 2.88 in wrap label becomes a 9.55 × 3.13 in file. The background runs out to the bleed, the cut line sits on its own layer as a named spot color, and text stays 0.0625 to 0.125 in (1.5 to 3 mm) inside the cut. Some roll printers ask for less, so check their spec.

Printer messages this helps with

“The artwork doesn’t fit our dieline”: A dieline is the printer’s template for the cut, fold and glue lines of a label or box.
“We can’t print a ChatGPT picture of a label”: A label from ChatGPT is a picture of a label, not a label file.

Rather have it done? Labels, stickers & packaging, at a fixed price.

More free tools

Cards, flyers, brochuresPrint template makerMake a print template with bleed, free EAN, UPC, Code 128, QRBarcode generator: UPC, EAN, QRMake a UPC, EAN-13 or QR code, free PackagingBox dieline generatorMake a box dieline, free

Or the rest: Print-ready PDF checker, DPI and print size calculator, Add bleed to a PDF, Seamless pattern checker, Book cover size calculator, RGB and HEX to CMYK converter, Paper weight converter: GSM to lb, UPC and EAN check digit calculator, and all of them on one page.

Want the label designed to fit?

Send the container, or its size, and the brand. A designer sets the label up on the right dieline, with bleed, white ink if it needs it, and a barcode that scans.

Ask a designer See prices