Every historical reference behind Pharmacy Prop Studio in one place: how medicine was contained, sized, labelled and legislated from the apothecary’s shelf to the Data Matrix — so your prop matches its scene’s year and country. All app output is fictional; this page documents the real history it draws on.
A medicine package is a legal document that happens to be beautiful. What it must say, what it may claim, and whose name carries the authority all change at datable moments — and the graphics follow the law, not the other way round.
| When | What changes on the object |
|---|---|
| to c. 1900 | No retail carton. The dispensed unit is a hand-folded powder paper, a turned pill box, or a shop-labelled bottle. Latin abbreviation, apothecaries’ weights, no ingredients, no dose, no warning — the compounding chemist was the record. |
| 1829 | New York requires the word POISON on dangerous containers. The skull and crossbones becomes standard from the 1850s; the APhA proposes the death’s-head in 1853. |
| 1852 / 1868 | UK Pharmacy Acts restrict poisons to registered chemists; the label carries POISON plus the seller’s name and address. |
| mid-1800s–1920s | Label under glass on shop bottles: a gold-leaf-bordered label set into a moulded recess under a glass cover. Shelf furniture, not dispensed goods. |
| 1 Jan 1907 | The US Pure Food and Drugs Act takes effect. Eleven substances must be declared by quantity; “cure” quietly disappears; packs carry Guaranteed under the Pure Food and Drugs Act, June 30th, 1906 — a line that dates a pack to within about eight years. |
| 1908 | The UK Poisons and Pharmacy Act makes coloured and ribbed warning bottles compulsory — the cobalt hexagonal, identifiable by touch in the dark. |
| 1914 / 1938 | Harrison Narcotic Act brings Warning — may be habit forming; the FD&C Act brings adequate directions for use. |
| 1951 | Durham–Humphrey splits prescription from over-the-counter. Legend drugs carry Caution: Federal law prohibits dispensing without a prescription — the most recognisable line on any mid-century American pack. |
| 1962 | Kefauver–Harris requires the generic name prominently alongside the trade name. |
| 1960s | Aluminium blister packs arrive and the carton flattens to suit them. In Basel, Geigy puts the company brand above the product brand — revolutionary at the time. |
| 1968 | UK Medicines Act: GSL / P / POM, and §85’s required set — name, actives and quantities, net quantity, supplier, batch, expiry. |
| 1972 / 1982 | NDC number on US packs; after the Tylenol tamperings the carton must describe its own tamper-evident feature. |
| 1992 | EU Directive 92/27/EEC makes the package leaflet mandatory. The carton must physically accommodate it. |
| 1999 → 2002 | US Drug Facts panel standardises the OTC back; the same Feb 2002 rule replaces the Caution legend with “Rx only” and deletes the habit-forming requirement. |
| Oct 2005 | EU Directive 2004/27/EC: the product name in Braille on outer packaging. |
| 9 Feb 2019 | Falsified Medicines Directive: 2D Data Matrix and an anti-tampering device. Great Britain drops both after Brexit. |
| 9 Feb 2025 | Greece and Italy’s six-year derogation ends — the ταινία γνησιότητας and the bollino are abolished. |
The dimensional envelope is roughly 40–80 mm wide and 60–150 mm high, driven by the container inside. Depth is the free variable and is set by blister count.
| Format | W × H × D | Holds |
|---|---|---|
| Blister carton — small | 55 × 90 × 12 | 1 strip, 10–20 tablets. The everyday European pack. |
| Blister carton — standard | 60 × 90 × 20 | 1–2 blisters plus the leaflet. |
| Blister carton — tall | 70 × 120 × 25 | 2–3 blisters, 30–60 tablets. |
| Bottle carton — syrup | 55 × 120 × 55 | 100–200 ml bottle. |
| Bottle carton — tablets | 45 × 85 × 45 | 50–100 count. US retail norm. |
| Ointment / tube | 40 × 130 × 35 | 30–100 g tube. |
| Ampoule / vial | 45 × 60 × 30 | 5–10 ampoules in a moulded tray. |
| Suppository | 55 × 75 × 30 | 6–12 in a strip. |
| Physician’s sample | 55 × 35 × 10 | The smallest legal pack — withdrawn in the app from the 2000s, because the panel cannot hold the modern required text. |
Period gating. A 12 mm blister carton is impossible before aluminium blisters arrive in the 1960s. Before that the carton holds a bottle, tin or tube.
The vocabulary is the ECMA code, first issued 1967. Reverse tuck end (closures tuck opposite ways, glue seam on the rear right panel) is the pharma default; straight tuck end gives a cleaner front and less tamper evidence. Dust flaps belong on the two side panels only. Board is SBS or FBB at 0.40–0.60 mm — and adjacent flaps must stand apart across a real slit, or the die cannot cut them and the card tears when folded.
A carton is a flat surface you print and fold. A bottle is a curved surface you print separately and apply, and almost everything follows from that.
There is no standard bottle. An 8 oz Boston round from one manufacturer differs from another’s. Two suppliers give completely different label sizes for the same 4 oz bottle — because they describe different label types on the same glass.
| Rule | Why |
|---|---|
| Wrap width = circumference − ⅛–¼ in | Stops the ends overlapping, which is hard to align by hand. |
| Stay ⅛ in clear of shoulder and base | Only the straight-sided section is usable. A label creased over a shoulder never lies flat. |
| PDP = 40% of height × circumference | 21 CFR 201.60 — a 144° arc, excluding shoulders and necks. |
| Small containers are exempt | 21 CFR 201.10(i): if the container is too small, the carton or leaflet carries the content. That is why ampoules say almost nothing. |
Full wrap · front panel · front + back · neck band (where duty banderoles and POISON strips went) · cap disc (how a dispensary shelf is actually read, from above) · label under glass.
The pharmacy’s label is a different artefact from the manufacturer’s carton, with its own law. A dispensed bottle carries both.
Federal minimum (FD&C Act; 21 CFR 1306.24 for controlled substances): dispenser name and address, prescription serial number, fill date, prescriber, patient, directions, and any cautionary statements. Schedules II–IV add the transfer warning.
| State | Adds |
|---|---|
| California | Quantity, discard date, purpose, plain-language directions — the patient-centred label, B&P §4076. The directions carry the largest type. |
| Washington | Quantity and expiration date (RCW 18.64.246). |
| New York | Quantity and refills remaining. |
| Texas | Quantity, refills, dispensing pharmacist’s initials. |
| Pennsylvania | Quantity, pharmacist identified; cautions by auxiliary label (49 Pa. Code §27.18). |
Like tobacco tax stamps, these are separately manufactured and glued on afterwards, usually across the closure so opening destroys them.
| Region | Piece |
|---|---|
| Italy, to Feb 2025 | Bollino farmaceutico — three-layer state security label. Upper layer 35 × 25 mm on UV-dull watermarked stock with blue and yellow UV fibres; lower layer 40 × 25 mm semi-transparent silicone printed red flexo with a caduceus. The upper layer peels off onto the prescription. |
| Greece, to Feb 2025 | Ταινία γνησιότητας — EOF authenticity strip. EAN-13, 12-digit serial beginning with the print year; the medicine’s GS1 code is 13-digit on prefix 280. |
| Spain, from 1964 | Cupón precinto — detachable reimbursement coupon. |
| EU, 2019+ | Anti-tampering device, plus the 2D Data Matrix printed on the carton itself. |
| USA, 1982+ | Tamper-evident seal, with a statement on the carton describing it. |
| UK | None. No authenticity sticker has ever been used. |
The leaflet. Mandatory in the EU since 1992, cross- or roll-folded, set at a legal minimum of 7 points Didot (≈2.6 mm) on paper no lighter than 40 g/m². On camera it is the thing that falls out of the box.
Compulsory on EU outer packaging from October 2005. Most pharmaceutical Braille follows Marburg Medium, standardised as ISO 17351:2013.
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Dot diameter | 1.3 – 1.6 mm |
| Dot height above surface | 0.20 – 0.50 mm |
| Dot spacing within a cell | 2.5 mm |
| Cell to cell | 6.0 mm |
| Line to line | 10.0 mm |
It cannot be scaled to fit. On a narrow panel it wraps to a second line at the 10 mm line pitch, which is what real cartons do.
The single most useful idea in this studio, and the one that makes a continental pack read right: the region decides which obligations apply; the language decides how they are worded, and the two are set separately. Belgian packs are Dutch and French, Swiss ones German, French and Italian, and a production may perfectly well want a Greek-looking carton set in English because the scene needs the audience to read it. Nine markets — the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Greece and Spain — and six languages across them.
The wordings follow the EMA QRD templates, which is why a real European carton reads the way it does: these are not translations of an English sentence, they are the sentence each language was given.
| What it says | Français / Deutsch / Italiano / Español / Ελληνικά |
|---|---|
| Out of reach of children Art. 54, from 2001 |
Tenir hors de la vue et de la portée des enfants. · Arzneimittel für Kinder unzugänglich aufbewahren. · Tenere fuori dalla vista e dalla portata dei bambini. · Mantener fuera de la vista y del alcance de los niños. · Να φυλάσσεται σε θέση, την οποία δεν βλέπουν και δεν προσεγγίζουν τα παιδιά. |
| Read the leaflet 92/27/EEC, from 1994 |
Lire la notice avant utilisation. · Packungsbeilage beachten. · Leggere il foglio illustrativo prima dell’uso. · Leer el prospecto antes de utilizar este medicamento. · Διαβάστε προσεκτικά το φύλλο οδηγιών χρήσης. |
| Storage Art. 54, from 2001 |
À conserver à une température ne dépassant pas 25 °C · Nicht über 25 °C lagern · Non conservare a temperatura superiore a 25 °C · No conservar a temperatura superior a 25 °C · Φυλάσσετε σε θερμοκρασία μικρότερη των 25 °C |
| Prescription only | Liste I — sur ordonnance · Verschreibungspflichtig · Da vendersi dietro presentazione di ricetta medica · Con receta médica · ΜΟΝΟ ΜΕ ΙΑΤΡΙΚΗ ΣΥΝΤΑΓΗ |
| Over the counter | Médicament non soumis à prescription · Apothekenpflichtig · Medicinale senza obbligo di ricetta · Sin receta médica · ΜΗ.ΣΥ.ΦΑ. |
| Batch / expiry | Lot · EXP | Ch.-B. · verwendbar bis | Lotto · Scad. | Lote · CAD | ΠΑΡΤΙΔΑ · ΛΗΞΗ |
The two German forms are the ones that catch people out: Ch.-B. for Chargenbezeichnung where every other language shortens the word for “lot”, and verwendbar bis spelled out where the others abbreviate. A German carton with EXP on it is wearing somebody else’s convention.
Continental Europe is one rulebook with three exceptions, and each of them puts something on the carton that no other market has.
| Market | From | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Greece | 1970s | The price printed on the pack — Λιανική Τιμή, in drachmas to the end of 2001 and in euro from 1 January 2002. A peculiarity of the Greek market and on the front of the carton, not the back. |
| Greece | 1990 | The ταινία γνησιότητας of the ΕΟΦ — an authenticity strip carrying an EAN-13 and a twelve-figure serial beginning with the year of printing, occupying the lower front panel. The pharmacist peels it off and sticks it to the prescription, which is why a used Greek box has a rectangle missing. |
| Italy | 1980 | The bollino farmaceutico — the same idea, a 35 × 25 mm two-layer security label. |
| Spain | 1970 | The cupón precinto, which serves the reimbursement system the same way. |
| France | 1975 | The CIP — Code Identifiant de Présentation, seven digits, on every French presentation since the mid-1970s, and a thirteen-digit CIP13 inside an EAN-13 bar from 2007. The vignette, the reimbursement sticker of 1955–2014, sat beside it; it is a fiscal-style mark and is not drawn here. |
| Germany | 1961 | The supply status in the words of the Arzneimittelgesetz — apothekenpflichtig and verschreibungspflichtig — on the front of the pack. From 2001 the EU supply-status line carries it instead. |
| Germany | 1977 | The PZN, the Pharmazentralnummer issued by the IfA: seven digits behind a leading dash, eight from 2013, printed in Code 39 on the flap. No German pack after 1977 is without one. |
Both the bollino and the ταινία were abolished on 9 February 2025 — the same day the Data Matrix unique identifier replaced them — so a contemporary Italian or Greek box no longer carries one, and a box from 2024 does.
Two things that follow from the dates rather than from the countries. Between 2001 and 2005 a European pack carries the Article 54 obligations and no Braille, which arrives with Directive 2004/27/EC and is compulsory from October 2005; and from 2021 a Great Britain pack (PLGB) needs neither the Data Matrix nor the anti-tampering device, which is the sharpest Brexit tell on any object in this collection.
Four markets added in September 2026. Two limits hold in every studio: Turkey starts in 1928, the year the Latin alphabet replaced the Arabic script (an earlier Turkish sheet would be Ottoman, which no studio sets), and Russian before 1918 is spelled by rule — the hard sign on every word ending in a consonant and і before a vowel are placed automatically; the yat (ѣ) cannot be derived from modern spelling and is left as е. Turkish capitals keep their dots: i goes to İ and ı to I, so İSTANBUL, never ISTANBUL.
| Country | What the studio changes, and when |
|---|---|
| Portugal | Follows the European regime from 1986: the leaflet, the braille name, the 2D matrix and the safety features where the EU rules put them. |
| Netherlands | The same European regime, from 1958. |
| Turkey | The licence (ruhsat) line from 1928, the prescription status, batch numbering from 1985 and the 2005 set of packaging rules; the kupür price sticker the pharmacist peeled off. |
| Russia | The Imperial medical council line to 1917; the State Pharmacopoeia line 1946–1991 and the printed state price 1935–1991; the ministry of health registration; the prescription line 1960–1997; the 1998 set and the 2010 leaflet and route rules. Makers and cities by era: a Petrograd pharmacy is not a Leningrad one. |
Everything above is traceable. These are the primary references.
EU · Directive 92/27/EEC (package leaflets) · Directive 2001/83/EC Art. 54 · Directive 2004/27/EC Art. 56a (Braille) · Regulation 2016/161 (safety features) · EMA Guideline on the readability of the labelling and package leaflet · ISO 17351:2013
Greece · ΥΑ on επισήμανση φαρμάκων, Articles 77–94 · EMA Greek QRD template · GS1 Greece, EOF coding
Italy · AIFA, The Italian drug traceability system
UK · Pharmacy Act 1868 · Medicines Act 1968 §§85–86 · Human Medicines Regulations 2012 · MHRA label warnings guidance
USA · Pure Food and Drugs Act 1906 · Durham–Humphrey 1951 · 21 CFR 201.60, 201.66, 201.10(i), 328.50 · 21 CFR 1306.24 · Federal Register, “Rx only” final rule 1 Feb 2002 · FDA, A History of the FDA and Drug Regulation
Structure & print · ECMA Code of Folding Carton Design Styles · Packaura, bleed and safe zone · label sizing from Consolidated Label, Sttark and The Label Link
Design history · Museum für Gestaltung, Corporate Diversity (Geigy) · Eye Magazine, The romance of chemicals · Griffenhagen & Bogard, History of Drug Containers
Everything on this page is built into the studio — pick a year and a country and it applies the right rules for you.
Open Pharmacy Prop Studio →