Almost every bar orders white napkins, and a good number of them should not. The reason is light.

What a dark room does to a white napkin

Bars are lit low and warm, usually with pendants over the pass and the bar top. A white napkin under that light is the brightest object on the counter: it glares, it pulls the eye away from the drink, and on a dark walnut or zinc bar top it reads as a stack of paper rather than part of the room.

Meanwhile the logo, printed dark on white, has the least contrast it will ever have in exactly the conditions where you wanted it seen.

What coloured stock does instead

Black, navy, forest and burgundy stock sit down into a dark bar top and let the drink be the bright thing. Printed in white ink or stamped in metallic foil, the mark reads clearly without shouting, and it photographs far better — which matters, because customers photograph drinks constantly.

The white-ink caveat

Printing white onto dark is a different process from dark onto white, and fine detail needs a little more stroke weight to hold. This is fixable and free: we adjust the artwork and show you the difference in the mockup rather than letting you find it in the carton.

When white is right

Bright rooms. Daytime cafes, hotel lobbies with tall windows, garden bars and anywhere the light is cool and plentiful. White stock in daylight looks clean; white stock at midnight looks like a napkin dispenser.

The most-ordered combination

Black stock with gold foil, by a distance. It is not fashion — it is the combination that survives low light and comes out well in a photograph.