Stickers for packaging and laptops: which ones stay put

Whether a sticker stays on depends more on the surface you stick it to than on the print. On cardboard, glass or metal, almost any sticker holds well. On some plastics (bags, food tubs, soft jars) you need an adhesive and material chosen for them. The rest is format: die-cut, on a sheet or on a roll, depending on how you use it.

The surface decides

Avery Dennison, one of the big makers of self-adhesive materials, splits surfaces into two groups: high energy (PET, glass, metals) and low energy (polyethylene, both HDPE and LDPE, and polypropylene). Labels stick easily to the first group. They come off easily from the second.

The simple explanation: on low-energy plastics, the adhesive doesn't "wet out" across the surface, so it doesn't grab. The manufacturer says standard acrylic adhesives bond poorly to these plastics, while rubber-based ones bond well but hold up less well to heat, weather and chemicals. There are adhesives made specifically for these plastics.

How do you find out what your packaging is made of? Ask your packaging supplier, who will know for sure, or send us a few empty pieces. We pick the adhesive based on the material and test it on your actual packaging, not on something similar.

Packaging: box, bag, jar

• Cardboard boxes for an online store or deliveries: a paper sticker with permanent adhesive works. It's the easiest case.
• Plastic bags and food tubs: a film sticker with an adhesive for plastics, not paper with a standard adhesive. Otherwise the corners lift after a day in the fridge or in damp air.
• Squeezable containers (tubes, soft bottles): Avery's film guide says any squeezable container needs a conformable film. A rigid film doesn't follow the shape when someone squeezes the tube.
• Glass (jars, bottles): a high-energy surface, so it holds well. On glass, a clear conformable film looks cleaner than a rigid one, with no air trapped underneath.

Laptops: stays on, but comes off

With laptops the question is different: people want the sticker to last for months, but also to come off without leaving glue on the lid. Here you choose between permanent, removable and repositionable adhesive. The manufacturer notes that every film and adhesive pairing behaves differently, and the surface matters a lot. That's why for laptop stickers we test first on real lids, aluminum and plastic.

A few practical tips: vinyl rather than paper (it handles rubbing and moisture), rounded corners (they catch less on a backpack), and keep them away from the vents.

The format: die-cut, sheet or roll

• Die-cut: each sticker follows the shape of the design. This is the format for giveaways, events or tucking into parcels.
• Sheets with several stickers cut only through the film (kiss-cut): you peel them one by one, and the sheet itself can carry a logo or instructions.
• Rolls: for packing at volume, when you apply hundreds a day. They peel fast, one-handed.

For all of them, the artwork needs a safety margin so text doesn't get trimmed in cutting. We covered materials (vinyl or paper) in more detail in our article on stickers.

Test before the full run

Before a big run, ask for 10–20 samples and stick them on the real packaging. Leave them for a day, put a few in the fridge if the product is stored cold, and try peeling them off. The test costs you a few days. A run that falls off the bags costs you the whole run.

Our stickers page shows the formats we make.