How to print chip bags
An 11 × 8.5 in chip bag wrap does not fit a sheet of Letter the way up you expect. Letter is 8.5 × 11, so the wrap has to be turned a quarter turn — and then it fills the sheet exactly, with nothing left for bleed or trim marks.
Which paper it fits
| Letter, 8.5 × 11 in | One, turned sideways, with no room for bleed or marks. Fine for a wrap you cut out by eye. |
|---|---|
| Legal, 8.5 × 14 in | One, turned sideways, with room to spare down the page. |
| Ledger, 11 × 17 in | Two upright, or one with bleed and trim marks around it. |
So the honest answer for most people is: one per sheet of Letter, turned sideways, cut out with scissors. If you are making thirty for a party, Ledger halves the paper and the cutting.
The setting that ruins it
Print at 100%, never "fit to page". The wrap is sized to go round a real bag. Scaled to 94% to clear a printer's margin, it no longer meets at the back, and you will not notice until the eleventh one.
If your printer refuses to print to the edge, that is the moment to move up a paper size rather than to scale down.
What to print on
- Ordinary paper works and is what most people use. It creases cleanly and takes tape well.
- Matte photo paper looks better in photographs and resists greasy fingers, but is stiffer and the folds want scoring first.
- Avoid gloss unless you have tried it. It curls at the seal, and it reflects straight back at a camera flash.
- Do not use sticker paper for the whole wrap. It will not survive being pulled round a curve, and it cannot be repositioned.
Cutting and sealing
- Cut on the trim line, or just inside it if there is no bleed.
- Score the folds with the back of a knife against a ruler before folding — paper creased by hand wanders.
- Wrap it round the bag, overlap at the back, and seal with double-sided tape rather than glue. Glue wrinkles the paper and shows through.
- Press the seam flat under something heavy for a minute.
Where it goes wrong
- Printing it portrait. The design is 11 in wide; the sheet is 8.5 in wide. It must be landscape.
- Scaling to fit. See above. The single commonest mistake.
- Trimming before checking one. Print one, wrap one, then print the rest.
- Expecting bleed on Letter. There is no room. Either cut carefully or print on Ledger.
Questions
How many fit on a sheet?
One on Letter or Legal, two on Ledger. The print layout calculator works out any other paper, and uses the same code the app prints with.
Why is mine coming out small?
Almost always "fit to page" or "shrink oversized pages" in the print dialogue. Set scaling to 100% or Actual size.
Can I print several different designs on one sheet?
Not with the repeat setting, which tiles one design. Make a Ledger-sized design and place two different wraps on it as elements. See printing more than one design on a sheet.