September 10, 2026
Barcode Label Material Guide: Paper vs PP vs PET
Paper, polypropylene or polyester? A beginner guide to what a label is made of, which material survives your conditions, and the ribbon each one needs.
Most label problems are decided at the moment of ordering, not at the printer. A label that curls in a cold room, discolours in a humid warehouse, or comes away in someone's hand almost always traces back to a material chosen on price alone.
This guide assumes you have never bought label stock before. We start with what a label physically is, then work through the three materials you will actually be offered and how to tell which one your job needs.
⚡ Short answer
Paper for anything indoor, dry and read within days. PP when the label might meet moisture or light handling but nothing extreme. PET when it must survive water, cold, chemicals, abrasion or months of shelf life. Then match the ribbon: paper takes wax or wax-resin, PP and PET need resin.
On this page
What a label is actually made of
A self-adhesive label roll is three layers, and almost every specification you will be quoted refers to one of them. Knowing which is which makes the rest of this guide, and most supplier conversations, considerably easier.
Figure 1 — The three layers of a self-adhesive label
Face stock
The printable top layer. This is the layer that paper, PP and PET refers to, and the one this guide is about.
Adhesive
Sticks the label to your product. Comes in permanent, removable and cold-temperature versions — worth naming when you order.
Liner
The waxy backing you peel off and discard. It carries the labels through the printer and is what the die-cut gap is cut down to.
Paper, PP and PET compared
Paper
Cheapest. Indoor, dry, short-lived labels: shipping, picking, internal tags. Discolours when damp, tears easily, and the print can smear if it gets wet early.
PP — polypropylene
The middle ground. Waterproof and tear-resistant at a modest premium. Good for indoor product labels that may meet condensation, light oil or a warehouse floor.
PET — polyester
The durable default. Waterproof, abrasion-resistant, stable hot or cold. Asset tags, drums, outdoor and cold-chain labels, and anything needing months or years of life.
The jump from paper to PP is mostly about water and tearing. The jump from PP to PET is about everything harsher than that: scrubbing, solvents, sustained sunlight, and the temperature swings of a cold store or an outdoor yard. With a resin ribbon on PET you are close to the most durable barcode you can put on a surface without moving to engraving or a metal plate.
The layer nobody asks about: adhesive
Face stock gets all the attention, but a surprising share of label failures are adhesive failures. The printing is fine, the material is fine, and the label is on the floor. Adhesive is quoted separately from face stock, so you can pair any of the three materials with any of these.
Permanent
The default. Bonds hard within about 24 hours and tears rather than peels. Use it unless you have a reason not to.
Removable
Peels away cleanly without residue. For promotional stickers, temporary pricing and anything a customer is meant to take off.
Freezer grade
Stays flexible below freezing. A standard adhesive goes brittle in a cold store and lets labels drop off the pack.
Two surfaces defeat ordinary adhesive regardless of grade. Curved or small-diameter items — vials, pens, thin bottles — put the label under constant tension, so it lifts at the edges unless the adhesive is specified for it. Textured or recycled board gives the adhesive far less actual contact area than it looks like, and a label that holds fine on smooth card can creep off a rough carton.
The practical rule: describe where the label goes and what it goes onto, not just what it should be made of. A supplier who knows it is going onto a frozen 30 ml vial will quote something quite different from what you would have picked off a price list.
Which material does my job need?
| If the label is for | Material | Ribbon | Expected life | Relative cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Courier and picking labels | Paper | Wax, or direct thermal | Days | Lowest |
| Dry goods, cartons, MRP panels | Paper, coated | Wax-resin | Months, indoors | Low |
| Bottles, pouches, toiletries | PP | Resin | Full shelf life | Medium |
| Drums, chemicals, outdoor stock | PET | Resin | Years | Higher |
| Freezer and cold chain | PET, cold-temp adhesive | Resin | Full shelf life | Higher |
💡 The 30-second test
Four questions. Any single yes moves you off paper.
- Will it ever get wet, including condensation from a fridge or cold room?
- Will it be outdoors, or in sunlight, for more than a few days?
- Does it need to stay readable for longer than about a month?
- Will anything rub, scrub or scrape across it during handling?
Precut or continuous?
This is the second thing a supplier will ask, and precut is right for almost everyone. Precut, also called die-cut, means the labels are cut to a fixed size with a small gap between them, cut down to the liner but not through it. Your printer senses those gaps and lines up every print identically.
Figure 2 — Precut vs continuous stock
Ask for precut unless your label length genuinely varies, as it does on some shelf tickets and weigh labels.
Your material decides your ribbon
These two choices are not independent, and treating them as if they were is the most expensive mistake in labelling. Paper accepts wax or wax-resin. PP and PET need a resin ribbon, because wax does not bond to synthetic film — it sits on the surface, prints perfectly, and comes off on the first thumb that touches it days or weeks later.
If you are choosing both at once, our thermal transfer ribbon guide covers the grades in full, including the compatibility table and the winding-direction trap.
Four expensive mistakes
1. Choosing on price per roll
The relevant number is cost per label that still works when it is read. A cheap label that has to be reprinted and reapplied is the most expensive one you can buy.
2. Paper anywhere near cold or damp
Condensation is the one people forget, because the label is applied in a dry room and only later meets a chilled product. By then it is already on the pack.
3. Upgrading the material but not the ribbon
Moving from paper to PET and keeping the wax ribbon produces a label that is more durable than its own printing. The material survives; the barcode does not.
4. Not naming the adhesive
Face stock gets all the attention, but a standard adhesive goes brittle below freezing and lets labels drop off. Say where the label will live, not just what it should be made of.
Quick glossary
- Face stock — the printable top layer; paper, PP or PET.
- Liner — the backing sheet you peel off and discard.
- Die-cut / precut — labels cut to size with gaps, cut down to the liner only.
- Continuous — unbroken stock with no gaps, cut to length as it prints.
- PP — polypropylene, a moderate-cost waterproof film.
- PET — polyester, the most durable of the common face stocks.
- Core — the tube at the centre of the roll; its diameter must fit your printer.
- GSM — grams per square metre, a thickness measure you will see quoted on paper stock.
Where to go next
With the material settled, the ribbon follows from it — see the ribbon guide. If you would rather have labels printed for you than print them yourself, you can lay one out in the browser with our design tool, or read about printing codes straight onto packaging in the batch coding printer guide.
Tell us where the label has to survive
Send us the size, the surface and the conditions, and we will come back with the right material, adhesive and ribbon — and a firm price rather than a range.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between paper, PP and PET labels?
- Paper is cheapest and works indoors on dry, short-lived labels. PP, or polypropylene, is a synthetic film that resists moisture and light chemical contact at moderate cost. PET, or polyester, is the toughest of the three: waterproof, tear-resistant and stable across a wide temperature range, and the standard choice for outdoor, cold storage or heavily handled labels.
- Do I need a waterproof label material?
- If the label will ever get wet, paper is the wrong choice. Condensation from a cold-chain product, rain on an outdoor drum or a warehouse spill will discolour it, can smear the print and can lift the adhesive. PP and PET both shed water. PET additionally survives being wiped or scrubbed, which matters where labels are handled repeatedly.
- Does the label material affect which ribbon I need?
- Yes, and this is the pairing people most often get wrong. Paper takes a wax or wax-resin thermal transfer ribbon. PP and PET both need a resin ribbon, because wax does not bond to synthetic film and will wipe off later even though the print looked perfect when it came out of the printer.
- What is the difference between precut and continuous labels?
- Precut, also called die-cut, labels are cut to a fixed size with a small gap between them on the liner. The printer senses each gap so every print lands in the same place. Continuous stock has no gaps and is cut by the printer or by hand. Precut suits almost everyone; continuous only makes sense when the label length genuinely varies.
- What are face stock, adhesive and liner?
- They are the three layers of every self-adhesive label. Face stock is the printable top layer and is what paper, PP or PET refers to. Adhesive is the middle layer that sticks the label to your product. Liner is the waxy backing sheet you peel away and throw out; it carries the labels through the printer.
- Is a more expensive label material ever the wrong choice?
- Yes. A label applied and read once within days, such as most shipping or picking labels, gains nothing from the extra durability PET offers and simply costs more per label. Match the material to how long the label has to survive and what it will be exposed to, rather than choosing the toughest option by default.
- Which material should I use for freezer or cold storage labels?
- PET with a resin ribbon, and a cold-temperature adhesive. Cold storage combines two problems: condensation wets the label surface, and low temperatures make standard adhesives brittle so labels drop off. Paper fails on both counts. Tell your supplier the label will be applied or stored below freezing, because the adhesive matters as much as the face stock.
- What should I send a supplier to get a firm quote?
- Five things: the label size in millimetres given as width by height, the material, the quantity, the core size your printer takes, and your printer make and model. If the labels are to be printed for you rather than blank, send the artwork or data file too. With those, a supplier can quote a firm price rather than a range.