Supplement Facts Label Template

FDA publishes nine high-resolution example panels for the current Supplement Facts format, with the amounts and percents of each example. They are pictures to look at rather than files you can type into. Each card on this page is drawn from the same layouts and from the paragraphs of 21 CFR 101.36, and the example on each card prints the amounts FDA uses: 900 mcg of vitamin A, 20 mcg of vitamin D with 800 IU beside it, 3 mcg of biotin at 10% of the Daily Value.

The editor below is the other half. It lays out the panel from your own formula, in the same ten layouts, so a supplement facts label template can be printed as it is or filled in and downloaded as a finished panel.

Most capsules and tablets take the standard list, with the (b)(2) dietary ingredients in FDA order and any other dietary ingredients below them (101.36(b)(2)(i)(B)). A product for children 1 through 3 as well as older children and adults shows two % Daily Value columns, and each heading names the group whose Daily Values it uses (101.36(b)(2)(iii)(E)). A packet sold as an AM formula and a PM formula can carry both products in one panel with a column for each (101.36(e)(8)), and a product taken more than once a day may add a per day column (101.36(e)(9)(ii)).

A proprietary blend keeps its ingredients indented under its name and total weight, in descending order by weight (101.36(c)). Herbs, amino acids and other dietary ingredients with no Daily Value take the symbol and the footnote that explains it (101.36(b)(3)). When the list is too long for the space, the split display continues it to the right with the headings repeated (101.36(e)(12)), and a package with less than 12 square inches of label area may use the linear display (101.36(i)(2) with 101.9(j)(13)), at 4.5 point (101.36(i)(2)(i)).

Serving Size goes under the title, left aligned, and Servings Per Container goes under it (101.36(b)(1)(ii)); it is left out when the net quantity statement already gives the count. The amount heading names the measure the amounts are given in: Amount Per Serving, Amount Per Capsule, Amount Per Teaspoon. The % Daily Value heading may read % Daily Value, % DV, Percent Daily Value or Percent DV (101.36(b)(2)(iii)(A)).

Body text is at least 8 point and the column headings and footnotes at least 6 point (101.36(e)(4)). Each (b)(2) ingredient with a Daily Value gets a percent, worked out from that Daily Value and rounded to the nearest whole percent; for an ingredient with a DRV, <1% stands for an amount that rounds to 0% (101.36(b)(2)(iii)(C)). Ingredients with no Daily Value carry the symbol, and the footnote below the last heavy bar explains it: Daily Value not established (101.36(b)(2)(iii)(F)). A source may sit in parentheses after the name, as calcium carbonate or from cod liver oil (101.36(d)).

At the width the label maker opens each format on, the multiple vitamins panel is 3.6 × 4.44 inches, children and adults 4.1 × 4.62, the AM and PM packets 5.8 × 3.86, cod liver oil 2.9 × 2.96, the proprietary blend 2.9 × 3.19, the herb 2.8 × 1.75, amino acids 3.4 × 4.21, per serving and per day 4.4 × 1.96, the split display 7.5 × 4.85 and the linear display 3.2 × 0.61. The size table on this page lists the same figures for every card.

Those sizes come from the type: no body text below 8 point, no heading or footnote below 6 point, and 4.5 point for a small package. A panel asked for at a narrower width widens to its minimum and gets taller, so the height in the table is the height at that width. Print the file at 100% and never scale it down, or the type falls below the minimums.

Teachers use a blank panel for a lesson on reading a supplement label: students copy the amounts from a real bottle, work out a % Daily Value with the class and compare the serving sizes. Inventing a formula and filling in its panel is the other favorite. At the panel’s size each place is 0.05 to 0.30 inch wide; printed larger on a copier, the blank gives room to write each number by hand.

Designers drop the blank into artwork as a vector, or place the outlined PDF or SVG as it comes, and keep room for the panel from the first sketch. The blank and the example are the same size, so the space you plan with one is the space the other needs.

A 3.5 × 5 inch label takes the cod liver oil, proprietary blend, herb and amino acid templates, the per day panel turned 90 degrees, and the linear display. A 4 × 3 1/3 inch label takes cod liver oil, the blend, the herb and the linear display. A 2 × 5 inch label takes the herb and the per day panel turned 90 degrees, and the linear display; 4 × 2 and 3 × 2 inch labels take the herb and the linear display, and a 2 × 2 inch label only the linear display.

The larger panels need a bigger label: the multiple vitamins, children and adults, AM and PM packets and split display panels are taller or wider than these sheets. On a small package, the linear display at 4.5 point is usually the format that fits, and the table above the editor shows the exact size each one takes on each sheet.

A per day column repeats the amounts multiplied by the number of servings taken in a day, under its own heading such as Per Day (3 Caplets) (101.36(e)(9)(ii)). The split display balances a long list over two halves with the headings repeated and a line between them (101.36(e)(12)), and the linear display sets the whole panel as one paragraph for a package too small for a column (101.36(i)(2) with 101.9(j)(13)).

The editor below makes all three. Choose the columns setting for a per day column, the display setting for split or linear, and the small package switch for 4.5 point type; the checks tab names the paragraph behind every point it raises.