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Difficulties are anticipated when printing the new hazard labels (pictograms) for the Global Harmonised System, not least due to the requirement to produce a red diamond! 
This is an interesting issue regarding the pictograms which appear on hazard labels for supply in the Global Harmonised System (GHS).

You see, not only do they contain a picture, but they also have a red border as well, as you can see here below.

Now for EC hazard labels for supply the pictogram was in black on an orange background. So the obvious solution for producing the labels automatically was to have a yellow area the size of three (the largest number possibly required) pictograms on the label, and then the necessary pictograms could be printed in black by a regular thermal transfer printer.

But the situation is not so clear for the GHS pictograms with their red borders. A GHS hazard label for supply may contain up to four such coloured pictograms but, with the thermal transfer printers that the majority of companies use, you can print in any colour you like (to quote Henry Ford) so long as it is black .

So it seems that there are some choices:-

1. Throw away all of your existing thermal transfer printers, and print all of your hazard labels on colour printers instead.
   Companies use thermal transfer printers because they can produce large volumes of labels reliably even when used and abused, day after day, in hostile environments like chemical production facilities. I have yet to see any colour printer that I would trust in such an situation. How long do think that a colour laser printer would last doing this?
2. Have a white area on the label for the pictograms. The thermal transfer printer prints the pictogram(s) required in black without a border. Someone then manually applies self adhesive coloured pictograms over the top of each of these.
   When I see companies producing labels like this it makes me want to cry as it is so innefficient.
3. Have four red diamonds pre-printed on the label for the pictograms. The thermal transfer printer prints the pictogram(s) required in black in the borders. The unused pictograms are left unfilled.
   This poses the question as to how someone might interpret the meaning of an empty red diamond. A red diamond usually means a warning, but what is an empty diamond warning about? The possibilities for goods being held up in transit whilst this is queried seems endless.
4. Have four red diamonds pre-printed on the label for the pictograms. The thermal transfer printer prints the pictogram(s) required in black in the borders, and prints some sort of symbol in black over the unused red diamonds. This could range from something subtle like an ‘X’ to cross it out up to a solid black diamond or square that completely obscures the diamonds.
   This solution looks like the current front-runner for producing large numbers of labels automatically, but the labels are not going to look particularly attractive.

Unfortunately there is not yet any guidance on this very real and practical issue, which is a concern given that we must all be preparing to implement the GHS hazard labels.

Our own advice to customers for the moment is to try to limit GHS hazard labelling to low volumes where solutions 1 or 2 can be tolerated. We are hoping that specific advice will be issued by the authorities which officially sanctions solution 3 and/or 4 before the number of GHS labels required increases significantly.