The cutting blade is the same. The substrate is the same. A printed face material with adhesive bonded to a silicone-coated liner. The only difference is depth: the press operator sets the die-cut tonnage (or the laser power) so the blade cuts through the face and adhesive but stops at the liner.
A through cut (die cut) goes all the way and separates the piece from waste. A kiss cut leaves the piece sitting on the carrier liner, peelable but not separated. Same artwork file, same cut path geometry. Different cut depth setting.
The press tolerance for kiss cuts is tight. Cut too shallow and the sticker won't peel cleanly; cut too deep and the liner gets cut too, breaking the sheet. Most operations dial it in on the first sheet of a run and verify with a peel test.
Sticker sheets at retail. A printed 4×6 sheet with a dozen die-cut stickers, sold packaged in retail. The sheet itself has a through cut around the perimeter; each sticker is a kiss cut.
E-commerce shipping labels. A multi-up sheet of address labels (Avery 5160 layout, for example). The user prints, peels one label off at a time, applies it to the package.
Sample-pack labels. A row of small labels for product samples. The brand prints once, peels and applies to individual sample sachets as needed.
Marketing collateral with peelable elements. Postcards with a removable sticker, magazine inserts, conference badges with attendee labels.
Multi-label medical and lab work. Sheets of small barcode or specimen labels. The lab tech peels one per sample.
| Question | If yes → Kiss Cut | If yes → Die Cut |
|---|---|---|
| End user peels labels off a carrier sheet? | Kiss cut | |
| Inline labeler applies labels from a roll? | Die cut | |
| Multiple individual stickers per finished sheet? | Kiss cut | |
| One sticker per finished piece, sold individually? | Die cut | |
| Sold packaged as flat sheets? | Kiss cut | |
| Shipped on a roll for production application? | Die cut |
Most sticker-sheet products combine both: an outer through cut around the whole sheet (so it leaves the press as a finished flat piece) and an inner kiss cut on each peelable sticker.
Same file structure as a die cut. Vector path, closed shape, no fill, stroke in a named spot color, set to overprint, on its own layer. The geometry doesn't change, only the naming and the converter instruction.
Name the spot color clearly. "Kiss Cut" or "KissCut", distinct from any "Cut" or "Dieline" spot used for through cuts on the same file. The converter relies on the spot color name to choose the right cut depth.
Use different spot colors for through and kiss on the same sheet. If your sheet has both an outer through-cut perimeter and inner kiss-cut stickers, use two separate named spots (e.g. "Cut" for through, "KissCut" for shallow). The converter runs them as two separate cutting passes.
Add a note. Some operations want a free-text note in the file or job ticket: "Kiss cut depth. Face only, leave liner intact." This eliminates ambiguity if the spot color naming is unfamiliar to the press.
Bleed and safety still apply. Even though the liner stays intact, the face material still gets a hard edge cut. Extend artwork 0.0625" past the kiss cut path, and pull text 0.0625" inward, exactly as for a die cut.
Single "Dieline" spot color used for both through and kiss cuts. The converter doesn't know which paths are which; the printer has to email back asking. Use distinct spot color names.
Kiss cut path drawn directly against the through cut perimeter. Put a small gutter (0.125" or more) between the kiss cut and the outer through cut. Otherwise the user can't get a fingernail under the sticker to peel it.
Kiss cut paths overlapping each other. Adjacent stickers should have a small visible gap between their cut paths so each one peels independently. Stickers butt-cut against each other tend to peel in pairs.
Sharp internal corners. Kiss cut blades and lasers struggle with very tight inside corners. The substrate tears instead of cutting cleanly. Use a small radius (1/16" minimum) at internal corners.
Specifying kiss cut on a substrate without a release liner. Card stock, label face material with no liner, or single-ply paper has nothing to "kiss" against. Kiss cuts only work on pressure-sensitive label stock.
Preflight checks that your dieline paths use distinct named spot colors, are vector (not rasterized), and have adequate bleed and safety margin.
Check a file →