The colour of the envelope you print on matters just as much as the artwork you put on it. Because digital printing lays translucent CMYK inks onto the stock, the material underneath is always part of the finished result: white stock gives you the brightest, truest colours, while kraft and manila mute and warm everything printed on them. There is no white ink in the process, so anything white in your design simply shows as the bare envelope.
That single fact catches out more customers than any other. Below we explain how white, manila, kraft and gold stock each behave under print, and how to pick a combination that looks deliberate rather than disappointing.
Why the envelope colour changes your printed result
Commercial four-colour printing builds every shade from cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Those inks are transparent by design, so the paper beneath them supplies the lightness in the image. CMYK relies on the underlying whiteness of the sheet to reach its full range of colours, which means a naturally brown sheet shifts every value you specify.
Four things happen when you move from white stock to kraft or manila:
- Colours darken and warm. Brown showing through the ink pulls blues towards teal, greys towards taupe and pinks towards terracotta.
- Light tones almost vanish. Pastels, tints and anything under roughly 20 per cent coverage rely on a white base to read as light. On kraft they simply disappear into the material.
- Contrast drops. Uncoated, absorbent stock soaks up ink and spreads the dots slightly, so fine detail softens and edges look less crisp than they do on a screen.
- White becomes a gap, not a colour. Since there is no white ink, a white logo on a brown envelope is physically impossible. What you get is a brown logo-shaped hole in your design.
None of this is a flaw. Kraft prints beautifully when the artwork is designed for it. The mistake is sending artwork built for white paper and expecting it to survive the move.
White stock: the safest choice for colour accuracy
If your brand depends on a specific colour being recognisable, print on white. White self seal envelopes and gummed envelopes give the widest colour range, the cleanest light tones and the sharpest edges. Corporate mail, invoices, membership packs and anything with a logo in a set brand colour all belong on white.
White also makes the address block easiest to read, which matters for automated sorting, so it is the right default for high-volume business post and for folding inserting machine envelopes.
One caution: white stock shows heavy ink coverage at its worst. Large solid blocks of colour tend to band and print patchily on stock envelopes, because the surface was never engineered as a print substrate. Outlined shapes, line art and lighter tints hold up far better.
Manila and kraft: warm, natural and firmly on-trend
Manila is the familiar buff-brown of a traditional pocket envelope. Kraft is the stronger, more textured brown produced by the unbleached kraft pulping process, which is exactly why it keeps its natural colour. Both read as honest, practical and increasingly as environmentally considered, which is why so many e-commerce brands have moved to them.
Our eco-friendly padded envelopes come in honeycomb kraft, and our cardboard envelopes and corrugated pocket envelopes share the same natural board tone. If you are choosing kraft partly on environmental grounds, it is worth knowing that paper and card are one of the dry recyclable streams UK workplaces must separate under the government's Simpler Recycling rules for workplaces in England, so a plain kraft mailer is straightforward for your customer to dispose of. We cover this in more depth in our guide to whether printed envelopes are recyclable.
Designing artwork that works on kraft
The approach is different from white, but it is not difficult:
- Use dark, saturated colours. Deep navy, forest green, burgundy, black and strong rust all hold their identity over brown.
- Let the kraft be your background. A single-colour line drawing or outlined wordmark sitting directly on the material looks confident and prints cleanly.
- Avoid pastels, light greys and anything relying on a white knockout.
- Increase weight slightly on fine lines and small type so they do not get lost in the texture.
- Think of kraft as a tinted canvas rather than a blank one, and design for it from the start.
Gold and coloured padded mailers
Our padded envelopes are available in white and gold. The gold here is the classic warm bubble-lined mailer tone rather than a metallic finish, and it behaves much like manila under print: warm, slightly muted, excellent with dark inks and poor with pale ones.
Gold suits brands with a warm palette and hides handling marks better than white in transit. White is the better pick when colour accuracy is the priority, or when your logo contains lighter tones.
How colour interacts with size, weight and postage
Stock colour has no bearing on what Royal Mail charges you. Format is decided by dimensions and weight, so it is the envelope's size and thickness, not its shade, that determines whether you pay Letter or Large Letter rates. Check the current figures on the Royal Mail size and weight guide, and see our article on how envelope size affects your postage for the practical implications.
Material weight is a separate question from colour, and we have covered it fully in our guide to envelope paper weights and GSM.
What we can and cannot print on each material
We print full-colour CMYK water-based digital inkjet directly onto pre-manufactured stock envelopes and mailing bags. Printing sits inside a defined print area and is kept clear of the seal, so it never runs to the edges. On most of our products you can choose front side only, rear side only, or front and rear sides, with the exact printable area shown on each product page.
What we do not offer, on any colour of stock, is white ink, full-bleed or edge-to-edge printing, foiling, embossing, debossing, spot UV or metallic inks. We also cannot guarantee an exact Pantone match, because the stock colour and its absorbency both influence the final shade. If a precise colour is critical to your brand, order a printed sample first and judge it in the hand.
Our print-ready artwork guide covers file setup in detail, and you can order printed samples of any product so you can see your own artwork on your chosen material before committing to a full run.
Frequently asked questions
Can you print white onto kraft or manila envelopes?
No. Our process uses CMYK inks only and there is no white ink, so any white in your artwork will show as the bare envelope colour. On a kraft or manila envelope that means brown, not white. If your logo is white, we would normally suggest supplying a version in a dark solid colour instead, or choosing white stock.
Will my brand colours look the same on kraft as on white?
No, they will look warmer and darker. The brown material shows through the translucent inks, so blues shift towards teal, greys towards taupe and any light tones lose their brightness. Dark, saturated colours cope far better. We recommend ordering a printed sample on the exact stock you intend to use.
Which envelope colour is best for a brand logo?
White stock, if colour accuracy is your priority, because it gives the widest and truest colour range. Kraft or manila is a strong choice if your logo is a single dark colour or a line drawing, and if you want the finished mailer to read as natural and understated.
Does the envelope colour affect postage costs?
No. Royal Mail prices UK mail on dimensions and weight, not appearance, so a kraft envelope and a white envelope of the same size and weight cost exactly the same to send.
Can I print on both sides of a coloured envelope?
On most of our products, yes. Front side only, rear side only and front and rear sides are all available, and printing both sides costs a little more per unit because it needs a second pass. The available faces and the exact print area are listed on each product page.
Why should I avoid large blocks of solid colour?
Stock envelopes are manufactured to be posted, not to be printed on, so their surface is less uniform than press paper and heavy solid coverage tends to band. Outlined shapes, line art and lighter tints give a much more consistent finish on every material we offer.
Choose your material with confidence
Envelope colour is a design decision, not an afterthought. Pick white when your brand colours have to be exact, kraft or manila when you want a natural, low-key look that suits a single dark ink, and gold when you want warmth with a little more resilience in transit.
Browse the full range of custom printed envelopes at Fast Printed Envelopes, or order a sample pack to compare the materials side by side before you commit.