Packaging Design Guides
Plain-language references for designers, brand owners and print buyers: how dielines work, how to size a box, which board to choose, and how to prepare artwork that prints right the first time.
- Fundamentals
What Is a Dieline? Packaging Dieline Basics
What a packaging dieline is, how it differs from a cutline and a die, what each line type means (cut, crease, perforation, bleed, safe zone), and how to hand a dieline to a printer.
Read guide - Fundamentals
How to Measure Box Dimensions (L × W × D)
The packaging industry convention for writing box sizes as Length × Width × Depth, the difference between inside and outside dimensions, and how much clearance to add around your product.
Read guide - Prepress
Packaging Bleed, Trim & Safe Zone Explained
How much bleed packaging artwork needs, where to keep text and barcodes, why glue flaps need an ink-free area, and the most common artwork mistakes that delay print jobs.
Read guide - Materials
Corrugated Flute Sizes: A, B, C, E & F Flute Chart
Typical thickness and flutes per foot for A, B, C, E and F flute corrugated board, double-wall combinations, and which flute to choose for mailers, retail boxes and shipping cartons.
Read guide - Box Styles
FEFCO Box Codes Explained (0201, 0427 & More)
How the FEFCO code system numbers corrugated box styles, what each series covers, and the codes you will meet most often: 0201 RSC, 0202, 0203, 0204 and the 0427 mailer.
Read guide - Box Styles
Reverse Tuck End vs Straight Tuck End
The structural difference between reverse tuck end (RTE) and straight tuck end (STE) cartons, how each affects board usage and cost, and when the cleaner STE front panel is worth it.
Read guide - Materials
Paperboard Caliper & Folding Allowance Guide
Paperboard caliper units, point-to-mm conversions, corrugated flute thicknesses, and the 1.5×t folding clearance compensation formula.
Read guide