Custom packaging FAQ

Custom product packaging is packaging manufactured to your own dimensions and printed with your own artwork, rather than bought as a stock size. That means a dieline built around your specific product, your brand colours and logo printed on the material, and finish options such as lamination, foil or embossing chosen by you.

50 units for mailer boxes, rigid boxes, folding cartons, shipping boxes and kraft packaging. Pouches and poly mailers start at 100 units because flexible film printing needs a longer press setup. Most manufacturers will not quote below 500 units, which makes testing packaging expensive before you know it sells.

14 business days from artwork approval for most formats, plus transit. Rigid boxes run 14 to 18 business days because of the wrapping and assembly stages, and pouches run 14 to 16. The clock starts when you approve the final print proof, not when you place the order, so fast artwork approval is the main thing under your control.

It depends on format, size, quantity and finish. Folding cartons start at $0.45 per unit, mailer boxes at $0.85, and rigid boxes at $2.20. Per-unit cost falls sharply with volume because tooling and press setup are fixed costs spread across the run: moving from 250 to 5,000 units typically cuts the unit price by more than half. Our pricing calculator gives an instant estimate.

No. If you have print-ready artwork we will run a preflight check and flag anything that will not reproduce. If you have a logo and a rough idea, our design team will build the dieline and lay out the artwork for you. There is no separate design fee on production orders.

Before anything is printed, we render your artwork on a 3D model of the actual box structure so you can see every panel, fold and finish as it will be manufactured. You approve it, or you change it, at no cost. It is how print errors get caught before they become 2,000 boxes.

Vector files are best: AI, EPS or layered PDF, with fonts outlined and images embedded at 300 DPI or higher. Set the document to CMYK, not RGB, and include 0.125 in. of bleed on every edge. If you only have a raster logo, send the largest version you have and we will advise whether it will hold up at print size.

Yes. We produce plain unprinted structural samples so you can confirm fit and size with your actual product, and printed prototypes when the finish needs to be verified in hand. Structural samples are the faster and cheaper of the two, and they catch the most expensive category of error: a box that is the wrong size.

Our standard production and freight programme covers the United States, with free shipping on orders over $500. We do quote international delivery case by case, though transit times and duties vary enough by destination that we price it per order rather than publishing a rate.

Recycled-content and FSC-certified board, soy and water-based inks, uncoated or water-based finishes instead of plastic lamination, and recyclable mono-material films for pouches. The most important thing to understand is that the finish usually decides recyclability, not the substrate: a recycled kraft box with a plastic laminate is not kerbside recyclable. We will tell you when a finish you have asked for breaks that.

Yes, and reorders are faster and cheaper. The dieline, print plates and colour profile are already on file, so we skip setup and go straight to press. Reorders typically ship in 10 business days rather than 14.

Tell us within 14 days of delivery with photographs. If the fault is on our side, whether that is a print defect, a wrong dimension or freight damage, we reprint or refund. What we cannot rework is an error that was present in an approved proof, which is exactly why the 3D mockup approval step exists.