Branding and design expert Herbert Meyers details the following two key points related to package printing:
1. Use larger type, without crowding the package. Legibility of packaging copy, especially on medical packaging, has always been an important issue. It continues to need greater attention. The ability—or inability—to read and comprehend information such as usage and dosage declarations, identification of active substances, warnings and counterindications is critical for anyone, but especially the elderly. With Food and Drug Administration regulations requiring certain information, making these details readable is not an easy task. But it is often further complicated by the marketer’s desire to use side and back panels for text to promote product benefits while keeping the mandatory copy size to its permissible minimum—often making it virtually illegible to seniors.
2. Use color and warning messages.
Bullet points, red, and bold type for warnings and “do not” copy often help to call attention to important health information on panels. Without these, seniors with vision problems may miss cautionary information that may be buried among the dense mandatory copy.
See the story that goes with this sidebar: Experts offer insights on healthcare packaging design
