Print and Fill Tolerance Calculator
Enter the tolerance you were quoted — tube length, fill weight, print registration or colour — and this works out the acceptance band you should actually be inspecting against.
A tube held to ±0.3 mm and one held to ±0.1 mm are two different products at the same nominal size.
Print tolerance calculator
Runs in your browserWhat a print tolerance tells you
Commercial grades in practice| Band quoted | Process | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| ±0.05 mm or tighter | High-registration offset | Multi-colour logos and fine text on laminate. Achievable with a vision system, not on every line — price it before you promise it. |
| ±0.10 mm | Standard offset registration | General four-colour artwork. What a competent tube printer should confirm in writing. |
| ±0.20 mm | Wide register / screen print | Bold graphics and single-colour work. Text below 6 pt will show visible drift between batches. |
| Looser than ±0.20 mm | Pad print / hot stamp | Decoration only. Keep registration-critical elements off the artwork and expect the limit to be renegotiated per run. |
How to use the result
The range matters, not the nominal number
A quote for “40 mm” says almost nothing. The useful statement is “40.00 mm, ±0.10 mm”, because that fixes the smallest and largest print you will accept. Put that band on the purchase order and you have something to inspect against on arrival; leave it off and every dispute becomes an argument about wording.
Registration and position tolerance
Registration is the colour-to-colour alignment of the same artwork; position tolerance is where the whole print block sits relative to the seam and the crimp. They are inspected separately. A tube can hold ±0.10 mm registration and still fail a position check because the artwork was placed 2 mm off the datum — so quote both numbers, and state the datum.
| Colour difference | What it looks like | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| ΔE00 ≤ 1.0 | Indistinguishable side by side | Matches the approved drawdown — release the batch. |
| ΔE00 1.0–2.0 | Visible only in a direct comparison | The normal batch-to-batch limit; put the number in the purchase order. |
| ΔE00 2.0–3.0 | Visible side by side, acceptable alone | Ship only on a written concession from the customer. |
| ΔE00 > 3.0 | Reads as a different colour | Reject — repress or reprint, do not sort. |
Approve a drawdown, not a PDF
Colour is the one specification a screen cannot show. Ask for a drawdown on the actual laminate, approve it under the light the product will be sold under, and keep the signed sheet with the ΔE figure on it. On a 10,000-tube order that sample costs a fraction of the goods and is the only way to know whether the colour you were shown is the colour you will get.
Sources & methodology
- Tube formats and print areas used by the preset list
- Tolerance grades shown above are the bands traded in practice across tube decoration, and are the ranges our own print inspection is held to.
- Colour difference follows CIE ΔE00 with a D50 light source and a 2° observer. ΔE76 values are typically 30–50% larger for the same pair, so the formula must be named in the specification.
- Nominal print dimensions are trade sizes for the artwork block; the acceptance band for each is agreed per project, not guaranteed by the format.
Need a number for your own specification?
Send us the formula base, the fill size and the quantity. We will come back with stock, pricing and lead time — and ship samples so you can test them yourself.
