Custom Die Cut Boxes Built From Your Own Dieline

How do you draw a die cut box dieline?

Type your three dimensions into the generator above and pick your board and the flat redraws itself as you type. It exports to AI or PDF or SVG in seconds and there is no watermark on the file.

You pay to ship air inside the carton whenever a stock box does not fit the product exactly. The alternative is worse because you then pack a fragile item into a shape that was drawn for a different product.

We run our own production in Neptune, New Jersey rather than passing your job to a broker. No order carries a setup fee or a tooling charge.

Which die cut box style do you need?

Every card opens that dieline in the studio above with the structure already selected. All nineteen are cut in production here so the flat you download is the flat we run. Red is the cut and dashed blue is the crease just as the legend above shows.

What is a die cut box, and when is one worth it?

A die cut box is cut with a steel rule die built for one outline. Strips of sharpened steel sit in a plywood die board and every carton comes off the press at the same shape to within a fraction of a millimeter. A stock box is cut from a die that already exists so the shape is whatever the supplier happened to tool.

The die is worth it as soon as fit starts costing you money. A carton with 15 mm of empty space on each side needs void fill. That void fill costs more per order than the difference in board. Odd shapes are the other trigger because a curved panel or a window or a tear strip only exists if a die cuts it.

What board and caliper should a die cut box use?

Caliper follows the weight and the panel size rather than preference. A 50 g cosmetic carton holds its shape on 14pt board while a 500 g supplement jar needs 18pt or 24pt before the panels stop bowing. Anything over about 1.5 kg belongs on corrugated instead of folding carton board.

What do we need in your die cut box file?

Send vector artwork as PDF or AI on our dieline with 3 mm of bleed running outward from the cut line rather than from the nearest fold. Name your Pantone colors instead of leaving them as unnamed swatches because a converted build picks its own and the result shifts on press.

Keep the dieline on a layer of its own and set that layer not to print. A dieline left as ordinary artwork comes back as a carton with cut and crease marks printed across the panels. Our design team fixes all of this for free at both levels. Level one is a small correction to your own file and level two is a full design built from scratch. Neither appears on the invoice because the team is in house rather than outsourced.

What does the die for a die cut box cost?

The die costs you nothing at all, because we do not charge a setup fee or a tooling fee on any order. The die and the printing plates sit inside the unit price on the first order and on every reorder. That is not a cost you avoid on the second order because you never paid it on the first.

What does change your unit price is color count and quantity. Every additional offset color adds a plate and a pass, so four colors cost more than one until the gap narrows on digital runs under 1,000 units. Price steps down at 500 units and again at 1,000 on the same artwork.

How long does a die cut box order take?

• Minimum order: 100 boxes per size and per design, and the minimum comes down on rigid work and on corrugated work and on larger sizes. Send us your dimensions and we will tell you where your own job lands.
• Production: 8 to 10 business days counted from the day you approve the dieline and not from the day you place the order.
• Plain structural sample: 3 to 5 business days and unprinted so you can check the fit of the real product before anything is printed.
• Printed pre production sample: 7 to 10 business days on your own board with your own artwork on it.
• 3D mockup: produced for you before print so you see your own box on screen.
• Shipping: free across the US, with export orders quoted separately.

The clock starts at dieline approval and that is what makes the free generator above worth ten minutes of your time. Approving a flat you have already drawn and already looked at removes the longest delay in the whole process.

Which packaging product do you need next?