How small can the small print on a can be?

Ebbi · 10 October 2026

The back of a drink can holds a few lines that must be there — what it is, what’s in it, how to keep it — on a label that cannot grow. So the type shrinks, and the designer decides where to stop: usually with a printer’s number in points and the law’s in millimetres, and never the can maker’s.

I set those lines for a green tea can of my own. By eye, they looked like any can’s small print. Measured, they passed the law and failed the can makers’ rules three times.

This is that back, line by line, and the one I set to replace it — so you can see which rule decides yours.

The first back of the can, flat: pale green capitals on deep green — SPARKLING GREEN TEA, GROWN TWENTY DAYS IN THE SHADE, LIGHTLY SPARKLING . NO SUGAR, WATER, GYOKURO GREEN TEA, CO2, KEEP COLD. DRINK IN THE SHADE., OSMUNDA . 2026 — a bar code in a pale panel and 330 ML at the foot — The first back, flat, as its file holds it: pale small print on the can’s deep green. Set by eye, then measured.

The law: passed

In Europe the rule for these lines is one number. The words a food or drink must carry are set in a size whose x-height — the height of a small x — is at least 1.2 mm. On a pack whose largest side is under 80 cm², it is 0.9 mm; the wall of a 330 ml can is far bigger.

Why the small x, and not the whole letter? The European Commission put the reason plainly in 2023, writing about the labels on chemicals: the legibility of a text “is primarily influenced by the size of the minuscule letters”. A rule on the whole size would let a typeface with tall capitals and tiny small letters through.

My back is set in capitals, and the law still measures the size it is set in by its small x. That x was 1.285 mm. It passed.

Here a designer meets the first trouble: nobody counts in the same unit. The law measures the small x, in millimetres. One can maker measures the capital, in millimetres. Another measures the whole type, in points — the size you type into your design program. The same line on my back was 1.285 mm, 1.713 mm and 6.66 pt, depending on who was asking.

TWENTY from the first back, drawn large, with a small x beside it: the small x stands 1.285 mm, the law’s measure; the capital 1.713 mm, Ardagh’s; the whole type, from below the line to above the capitals, 6.66 pt, or 2.35 mm, Crown’s. — One line of the first back, three ways. The faint box is the whole type — the size you set it at, with room above the capitals and below the line; the capital and the small x stand inside it.

The can makers: failed three times

Then I held the same back against the companies that print the cans. Their rules are public, if you know where to look, and for my back they ask more than the law — because my letters are light on a dark can.

Ardagh, which prints cans across Europe, asks a light capital to stand at least 1.75 mm tall. Mine stood 1.713 mm. Failed, by 0.037 mm.

Crown’s guide for its North American presses asks light type on a dark can to be at least 7 pt. Mine was 6.66 pt. Failed.

Ardagh, and NOMOQ, a digital can printer, ask for at least 0.2 mm between any two letters. In “TWENTY” the T and the Y came within 0.108 mm of each other — the only one of the back’s 103 pairs under 0.2 mm. Failed.

And one more, the law’s own. The figures of the volume have a rule older than the x-height: on a pack from 20 cl up to a litre, at least 4 mm high. My “330” stood 3.48 mm. The small print passed the law. The can did not.

The first back of the can, flat, a white box round its word TWENTY and round its 330: the two places the drawings measure — The first back, each rule drawn where it meets a letter: white is what its file holds, amber what a rule asks.

TWENTY from the first back: its whole type is 6.66 pt, short of the 7 pt Crown asks of light type on a dark can. — The first back, each rule drawn where it meets a letter: white is what its file holds, amber what a rule asks.

Why the can makers ask for more

Why would a can maker ask more than the law? Because of what a press does to light letters on a dark ground. A can is printed fast, on curved metal, and the ink spreads a little as it lands. Crown’s guide says it in one line: “there will be press gain (ink spread).” Ardagh’s says it in two: “Positive elements tend to grow. Negative Elements tend to fill in.”

Light letters on a dark can are the gaps the dark ink leaves open. Let the ink grow and the letters thin, the space between them closes, and a T and a Y that nearly touch in the file can touch on the can. So both makers ask more of light letters than of dark ones: Ardagh a capital of 1.75 mm against 1.6, and a stroke of 0.3 mm against 0.15; Crown 7 pt against 6.

The second back

So I set the back again, to the strictest of every rule at once.

The typeface. The second back is set in PT Sans Caption, the cut of PT Sans drawn for small sizes: wider letters, a looser fit, open shapes that spreading ink is slower to close.

The pairing, off. A typeface moves some pairs of letters closer — a T tucks in toward a Y. At this size that tuck would bring the T and Y of “TWENTY” to 0.092 mm. So every pair stands at its plain width, and the space between all the letters opened a little, from 0.12 to 0.18 mm.

The 2 of CO2. Written properly it is a small, lowered 2, and that is how my own story page writes it. On the can it is full size: a small 2 would print under the 1.75 mm floor.

The volume. “330 ML” is set so its figures stand 4.10 mm.

Does it pass?

Measured the same way, the second back clears every rule at once. Its x is 1.315 mm, over the law’s 1.2. Its capital is 1.753 mm, over Ardagh’s 1.75 — by 0.003 mm. Its type is 7.10 pt, over Crown’s 7. The stroke of its I is 0.371 mm, over 0.3. Its closest letters stand 0.205 mm apart, over 0.2 — by 0.005 mm. Its “330” stands 4.101 mm, over 4.

Two of those margins are a few thousandths of a millimetre. The back is as small as every rule allows, and no smaller.

And what no file can show: a file that passes by thousandths is not yet a can that passes on the day — how far the ink spreads is decided on the press. This can I made to show my work; it is on no shelf and has never been printed. What I can show you is its file, measured.

The second back of the can, flat, the print file itself: the same lines in pale green on deep green in a face cut for small sizes, the code turned so its bars run round the can, and 330 ML at the foot — The two backs at one scale, each rule one amber line straight across both.The two backs at one scale, the first over the second, measure by measure.

And yours?

Would your back fail the way mine did? Two things decide it, and you can check both now: the colour of your letters, and your typeface.

I measured sixteen typefaces designers reach for, worked out the size each rule asks of each one, and noted which rule asks the most. Light letters on a dark can: the law’s 1.2 mm decides in none of the sixteen. Ardagh’s 1.75 mm capital decides in eleven; Crown’s 7 pt in the other five — Inter, Lato, Open Sans, Oswald and Roboto.

On a dark can, the law is never the rule that decides your small print. The press is.

Sixteen typefaces, each an H and an x in pale green on deep green, at the size its strictest rule asks, under two lines: Ardagh’s 1.75 mm capital and the law’s 1.2 mm small x. Ardagh’s capital decides in eleven: Archivo 7.23 pt, Barlow 7.09 pt, Bebas Neue 7.09 pt, DM Sans 7.09 pt, Familjen Grotesk 7.63 pt, Montserrat 7.09 pt, PT Sans Caption 7.09 pt, Poppins 7.07 pt, Source Sans 3 7.61 pt, Space Grotesk 7.09 pt and Work Sans 7.52 pt. Crown’s 7 pt decides in five: Inter, Lato, Open Sans, Oswald and Roboto. The law decides in none. — Sixteen typefaces designers reach for, light on dark, each at the size its strictest rule asks, the rule that decides under its name. The upper line is Ardagh’s capital, the lower the law’s small x: where Ardagh decides, the capital sits on its line; where Crown’s 7 pt decides, it stands over it. Every small x clears the law’s line.

Dark letters on a light can, the typeface decides: the law in four of the sixteen, Ardagh’s 1.6 mm capital in eleven, Crown’s 6 pt in one.

And if your can holds an American beer, every letter of its mandatory words, small letters too, must stand 2 mm tall — across the sixteen, 8 to 11 pt. Since 2011 the US regulator has approved beer labels without checking their type size; the 2 mm is the brewer’s alone to hold.

Why it is this small

The EU’s first proposal, in 2008, asked 3 mm; the law of 2011 settled on 1.2 mm of x. People still squint — a father who could not read the ingredients on his son’s sweets without a magnifying glass, radio listeners in Belgium who need reading glasses, even a magnifying glass, to read the food they buy.

Every rule, side by side

Whose rule, and for what	What it measures	The floor	Where I read it
EU law, Regulation 1169/2011, Art. 13the words a food or drink must carry	What it measures: the small x	1.2 mm (0.9 mm on a pack under 80 cm²)	Where I read it: the consolidated text of 1 Apr 2025
EU law, Directive 76/211/EEC, Annex I 3.1the figures of the volume, 20 cl to 1 l	What it measures: the figures’ height	4 mm	Where I read it: the consolidated text of 26 Jul 2019
Ardagh, Europelight letters on a dark can	What it measures: capital · x · stroke · gap	1.75 · 1.2 · 0.3 · 0.2 mm	Where I read it: its Graphics Portal, Text and Checklist
Ardagh, Europedark letters on a light can	What it measures: capital · x · stroke · gap	1.6 · 1.2 · 0.15 · 0.2 mm	Where I read it: its Graphics Portal, Text and Checklist
Crown, North Americalight type on a dark can	What it measures: the whole type, sans serif	7 pt (10 pt serif) = 2.47 mm	Where I read it: Crown Graphics Design Specifications, 2024
Crown, North Americadark type on a light can	What it measures: the whole type, sans serif	6 pt (9 pt serif) = 2.12 mm	Where I read it: Crown Graphics Design Specifications, 2024
NOMOQ, digital can printinglight letters on a dark can	What it measures: capital · x · stroke · gap	1.75 · 1.2 · 0.3 · 0.2 mm	Where I read it: its Artwork Preparation Guidelines
US law, 21 CFR 101.2the words a food or drink must carry	What it measures: the small o, or the capitals	1/16 inch = 1.59 mm	Where I read it: the eCFR as of 6 Oct 2026
US law, 21 CFR 101.7the net quantity, panel of 5 to 25 sq in	What it measures: the small o, or the capitals	1/8 inch = 3.18 mm	Where I read it: the eCFR as of 6 Oct 2026
US law, 27 CFR 7.53every mandatory word on a beer over half a pint	What it measures: every letter	2 mm	Where I read it: the eCFR, at Cornell’s LII
Verpact, the Netherlandsthe letters of the deposit mark	What it measures: letter height	1.2 mm, the mark at least 1.2 cm²	Where I read it: Annex II, Deposit logo metal beverage cans, 2022
Ball—	What it measures: —	not public	Where I read it: its print guide sits behind a registration

This table as a file, with the address of every rule (CSV)

Every rule above was read at its own page on 10 October 2026, and is read again the day this page changes.

How I measured

Both backs were measured from their print files, flat, never from a photograph. Each line was set in its own typeface’s outlines exactly as the file sets it, and every measure was taken on those outlines: the height of the capital and of the small x, the stroke of the I, and the closest approach of every pair of neighbouring letters — 103 pairs on the first back. The second back was also read by its pixels, at 17 to the millimetre; the two ways agree within a pixel. The sixteen typefaces were read from their own font files at bold weight, each sized so its capital, its small x and its whole type met each rule in turn.

What this cannot show: how a press spreads its ink on the day, the metal, the light in the shop. A file measured is the floor a can starts from, not the can.

The Osmunda can, deep green with its pale fern, standing in its fern wood at noon: a render from its story

The can these backs belong toOsmunda