Gift Box Printing

Gift / Candle Boxes

Gift Box & Lid Printing

Boxes with Lids

Mailer Box Printing Template

Mailer Boxes

Match Box Sleeve Printing

Boxes with Sleeves

So you’re making a box!  This blog post is a quick guide on how produce a professionally printed box.

Box Size

E Flute Box Printing

Boxes have a 3D size when the box is assembled, and 2D size before it’s folded laying flat.  For example, the Mailer Box below is sized at:

The 3D size is usually measured on the inside of the box.  The external size of the box will always be a little bigger.  The 2D flat size is very important in working out the cost and suitability of the box.

Calculating the 2D flat size

Starting with the 3D folded size of a box, there are plenty of online tools to calculate the 2D flat size. A free online tool like pack.ly will take your 3D box size, and generate a flat 2D dieline suitable for printing with.

Simply choose your box style, enter the length, width & height of your box, and download the PDF dieline.  With the dieline in hand, you can now measure the full width and length of the flat box including all the flaps and tabs.

Quote for box printing

Where The Trade Buys lets you customise and calculate your box printing with it’s online quote tool.  You will need the 2D flat size of your box which we calculated in the previous step.

Once you register your free online account, navigate to:

  • Start > New Order > Boxes > Mailer Boxes > Custom Size

There you can enter the flat 2D size of your box, and get an instant quote to print any number of boxes.

Preparing artwork for printing boxes

Preparing artwork for printing boxes is much like other digital printing products, particular folded products such as Presentation Folders.

The basic artwork specs required are:

  • A single PDF with 1 page for the front, and 1 page for the back if applicable.  The front refers to the flat 2D sheet, or the outside of the 3D box.
  • The document size should be the same as the flat 2D size, plus a 3mm bleed on each side.
  • CMYK colour.
  • 300dpi images.
  • Cut & crease lines to remain on top layer, set to overprint.
  • Cut & crease lines to use a custom spot colour named respectively.

Here are some examples of box templates you can download & edit: