Product label design for Indian brands in 2026: label sizes for jars, bottles and pouches, stock, the legal panel, and food, cosmetic and Ayurvedic rules.
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Drafted with AI tools; researched, edited and approved by Fidal P. Our editorial policy
On this page · 8 sections
- What makes a product label work on a shelf and a screen?
- How do you size a label for a jar, bottle, tub or pouch?
- Which label stock and finish suits which product?
- Where do the legal details go on a small label?
- How do food, cosmetic and Ayurvedic labels differ?
- What does a printer need from your label file?
- Frequently asked questions
- Design the label around its container
We design product labels and packaging for food and FMCG brands, so this guide is written from the artwork side. It quotes the official rules as they read on 7 October 2026, with links; a regulatory consultant should still check your label before print.
For a pickle in a glass jar, a coconut oil in a PET bottle or a serum in a dropper bottle, the container comes from a supplier and the label is the brand: the cheapest way to look established, and the easiest place to make an expensive mistake.
What makes a product label work on a shelf and a screen?#
A label is read at two distances. On a shelf, a shopper scans from a metre or two away and needs three answers in a second: what brand, what product, which variant. On a phone, the same label is a thumbnail on a marketplace or quick-commerce grid. Design for both from the start.
What works at both distances:
- One dominant element. The brand or the product name, large and simple, not both fighting for space.
- A variant signal you can see before you read. Colour usually works best. For Proteinuts' peanut butter tubs, we designed a tub label system in which a white tub carries a brand-green band for Pineapple Crunchy and a rich brown band for Dark Chocolate, so the flavour reads from across the aisle, as the project page describes it. Write rules like these into your brand guidelines so every new label follows them.
- A mark that survives being small. For Tea Today, a tea café brand for the Gulf, we designed a round logo lockup for its takeaway range, sized for lids, stickers and box tops, so one mark works from a cup lid to a delivery box.
- One claim, if you can prove it. Food claims such as "natural" and "pure" have legal definitions; our FSSAI labelling checklist covers them.
- Contrast for the legal text. FSSAI's labelling FAQ (opens in a new tab) says its logo and licence number go "in contrast colour to the background", and the same logic serves every mandatory line.
How do you size a label for a jar, bottle, tub or pouch?#
Start from the container, not the artwork. Ask your supplier for the container's drawing, or measure it: the height of the flat or straight-sided area where a label can sit (the label panel), and the circumference or width at that height. The label can't be bigger than that panel, and the legal text sizes follow from its area.
For food, FSSAI's Labelling and Display Regulations (opens in a new tab) count the principal display panel of a jar, bottle or tub as 40% of its height times its average circumference, and of a carton as 40% of its largest face (regulation 6(2)). The panel's area then sets a minimum letter height, from 1 mm on the smallest panels to 6 mm on the largest (regulation 6(3)); our FSSAI labelling checklist sets out both. A pack of 10 cubic centimetres or less may carry its panel on a card or tape fixed firmly to it.
The net quantity, MRP, dates and consumer care details follow a stricter table, in rule 7 of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, which cover cosmetics and other packaged goods too (consolidated text (opens in a new tab) of May 2022; the amendments since, up to the latest on 21 September 2026, change these sizes only for medical devices):
Those rules measure a rectangular panel as its whole face, and rule 8 keeps clear space around the net quantity: the numerals' height above and below, and twice their height at each side.
Here is the worksheet we use to plan a label on each common container. It's our own working method, not a rule:
Two rules help small food labels. A pack of 100 sq cm or less can move several details, such as the ingredients and the nutrition table, to the multi-unit pack, and below 30 sq cm the dates as well, as our labelling checklist explains, though FSSAI's FAQ says the veg or non-veg symbol can't be dropped even then. And regulation 8(5) lets the brand owner's address, and the manufacturer's or packer's licence number when it differs from the brand owner's, live in a barcode instead of on the label; the same FAQ confirms that "Barcode" includes QR codes.
Which label stock and finish suits which product?#
The legal reason to choose carefully comes first: FSSAI's regulation 4(6) says a label must be applied so "it will not become separated from the container", and 4(7) that its contents must be "indelible and readily legible". A label that slides off a chilled bottle or ink that rubs off an oily jar is a compliance problem, not only a looks problem.
Ask the printer to test a few labels on your filled container in the conditions it will meet: a night in the fridge, a monsoon week in a shop, a hot van to the Gulf.
Where do the legal details go on a small label?#
Our FSSAI labelling checklist lists every detail a food label carries and the panel each belongs on. On a small label of any kind, three habits keep it legal and readable:
- Keep the front for what must be there and what sells: the brand, the product's name, the variant and, for food, the veg or non-veg symbol. FSSAI's FAQ is direct about two of these: the product name and the veg or non-veg logo "need to be declared on front-of-pack only".
- Put the rest on one plain back panel, every line at or above its minimum size: for food, the list in our checklist; for cosmetics and Ayurvedic medicines, the details in the table below.
- Leave a coding patch: an unprinted, unvarnished space where the packing line prints the batch number and dates. Both FSSAI's rules and the Legal Metrology rules let the information printed on the line sit apart from the pre-printed details.
Lay the back panel out first, at minimum sizes, before you finalise the front. If the legal text doesn't fit, the label needs to grow, the container needs to change, or some details need to move to an outer pack or a code, not shrink below the minimum.
How do food, cosmetic and Ayurvedic labels differ?#
They answer to different rule books, and the product's licence decides which one applies: a herbal hair oil licensed as an Ayurvedic medicine follows different rules from one sold as a cosmetic, even in the same bottle.
Two recent changes matter here. Since July 2026, an Ayurvedic, Siddha or Unani medicine may also carry all its label information in a QR code, GTIN or barcode (rule 161(3A)). Since 21 September 2026, the green dot (vegetarian) or red or brown dot (non-vegetarian) at the top of a soap, shampoo, toothpaste or other cosmetic is listed among the declarations a maker may add, instead of a required one (G.S.R. 826(E) (opens in a new tab)). A food made to Ayurvedic recipes is a third category: under the FSS (Ayurveda Aahara) Regulations, 2022 (opens in a new tab), its front carries the words "AYURVEDA AAHARA" beside the name with the logo the regulations set out, plus "ONLY FOR DIETARY USE" and warnings on the label (regulation 13). For masala and spice labels, our FSSAI labelling checklist covers the nutrition exemption most spices get.
If a product sits on a boundary, such as a herbal tea with a health claim or an Ayurvedic skin cream, settle its licence category with a consultant before the label is designed.
What does a printer need from your label file?#
A file that prints right the first time. Before artwork leaves us, it goes through the pre-press step our packaging design process guide describes. For a label, that means:
- The die shape and size from the printer, including corner radius and, for rolls, the gap between labels and the direction they unwind for your applicator.
- Bleed and a safe area as the printer specifies, so nothing important is trimmed.
- Colour set up for the press: process colours or named spot colours, with the white underprint on clear or metallic stock as its own layer.
- Special finishes on their own layers: varnish, foil and emboss, never over legal text that must stay readable.
- Text converted or fonts supplied, and images at print resolution.
- A barcode built to spec. GS1 India's implementation guide (opens in a new tab) gives an EAN-13 barcode an ideal size of 37.29 × 25.91 mm, quiet zones included, with 80% of that as the minimum and twice it as the maximum. Keep the blank quiet zones on either side clear, don't shorten the bars to fit the design, and print dark bars on a light, opaque background, especially on a clear pack.
- A proof on the real stock, checked at actual size, on the container, before the run.
Frequently asked questions#
What size should a product label be?#
There's no standard size. Measure the container's label panel, the height of the flat or straight-sided area and its circumference or width, and size the label to fit inside it. The panel's area then sets the minimum height of the legal text: see the Legal Metrology table above and, for food, the FSSAI table in our labelling checklist.
What material should food labels be printed on?#
Match it to the product's life. Paper suits dry products kept dry; plastic films such as BOPP suit oils, pickles, chilled and wet conditions, with an adhesive rated for them. FSSAI requires labels that won't separate from the container and text that is indelible, so test a few on the filled product before you order a full run.
What language must a product label be in?#
English or Hindi for the mandatory details, with any other language alongside. The Legal Metrology declarations, such as the MRP and net quantity, go in Hindi in Devanagari script or in English, with other languages allowed in addition (rule 9(4)), and FSSAI asks the same of a food label's mandatory particulars, as our labelling checklist explains. So Malayalam can sit beside them but can't replace them. Labels for the Gulf need Arabic; our guide to packaging for Kerala brands going to the Gulf covers it.
Do cosmetics need a manufacturing licence number on the label?#
Yes. Rule 34 of the Cosmetics Rules, 2020 requires the manufacturing licence number on the inner or outer label, preceded by "M" or "M. L. No" or "Mfg. Lic. No.", along with the manufacturer's name and address, a batch number and a use-before or expiry date. Imported cosmetics carry the import registration certificate number and the importer's name and address instead.
How much does label design cost?#
Our packaging page publishes a planning range: label or pack design for a single SKU typically starts around ₹20,000 to ₹40,000, and a full range system with structure, variants and renders usually lands between ₹75,000 and ₹3 lakh. Our guide to packaging design costs in India explains what moves the price and what a design quote leaves out.
Design the label around its container#
The most important label decisions come before any artwork: the container, the stock, the panel sizes and the rule book. Get those right and the design has room to sell. If you're planning a label or a range, tell us about the product and its container, or see how we approach label and packaging design. For the step-by-step of a full packaging project, read our packaging design process, and for the materials rules behind food packs, our guide to FSSAI packaging regulations. If you'd like to talk through your brand or your packs, book an hour with Fidal P, our co-founder.
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Co-founder, Marketlube
Fidal P researched, edited and approved this post. Marketlube is a growth partner in Calicut building brands, websites, CRMs and campaigns for businesses across Kerala, India and the Gulf.
