Custom Cardboard Boxes with Handles
Custom cardboard boxes with handles from 100 — corrugated carry boxes with die-cut hand holes, gable-top carriers and fitted handles, for anything a customer carries away rather than has delivered. Handles placed where the hand is and where the stack is not.
Where the hand goes, and what it costs the box
- Board
- Corrugated: B or C flute single wall, BC double wall; E flute for gable carriers
- Handles
- Die-cut hand hole, flapped hand hole, gable top, inserted handle
- Placement
- High on the end panels, centered, clear of corners
Get a price for Cardboard Boxes with Handles
Send the size and quantity — we reply the same working day with a price, a dieline and a date. Artwork optional at this stage.
- Free dielineThe flat drawing comes with the quote, before you commit.
- Proof before pressNothing is printed until you have seen it laid on the dieline.
- Die kept for reordersTooling is paid once. Every reorder skips straight to press.
- Quoted in four marketsUS, UK, Canada and Australia, in the delivery currency.
Four ways to put a handle on a box
| Die-cut hand hole | A slot in each end wall; cheapest; for moving and storage |
|---|---|
| Hand hole with a flap | The cut-out folds inward as a pad; kinder to the hand, keeps dust out |
| Gable-top carrier | Top panels meet in a double-thick handle; the gift and takeaway build |
| Inserted handle | Plastic, rope or paper handle fitted through the top; for heavy retail boxes |
A hole in the wall that holds the stack
Stacking strength comes from the vertical walls, and a hand hole removes some of that wall. We place hand holes high on the end panels, centered and away from the corners, where they cost the least. For a box that is both carried and stacked high, a step up in board grade usually covers the loss.
Tell us the loaded weight and how high the boxes stack. It decides the board and whether a flapped hole is needed.
Weight in the hand
- Up to about 15 lb, a single-wall box with die-cut hand holes carries comfortably.
- Up to about 30 lb, use double wall around the holes, or reinforce the end panel.
- Above that, two people or a different box; a hand hole tears before the box fails.
- For gable carriers, the handle is two plies of board; keep the load light and compact.
Produce, moving, retail and events
Farm and produce boxes use vented walls and hand holes so a full case can be lifted off a truck. Moving and storage boxes use flapped holes and a printed contents panel. Retail carry-outs and event kits use a gable-top or an inserted handle with full-color print, because the box is carried through a store or a street. When the same product also ships, the regular slotted container for shipping is the plain version without the hole.
Print and assembly
Hand-hole boxes are usually printed one or two colors in flexo, with the logo on the long sides and a contents or handling panel on the ends. Gable-top carriers are often printed litho-laminated in full color. Most styles ship flat and fold up by hand; gable carriers can be supplied with a glued auto-lock base so they open in one movement.
Cardboard Boxes with Handles — specification
The rows that are specific to this build first, then what applies to every job we run. Anything not listed is a question, not a limit — send the brief.
This build
- Board
- Corrugated: B or C flute single wall, BC double wall; E flute for gable carriers
- Handles
- Die-cut hand hole, flapped hand hole, gable top, inserted handle
- Placement
- High on the end panels, centered, clear of corners
- 1–2 color flexo; full-color litho-laminated for retail
- Options
- Vents, contents panel, auto-lock base on carriers
- Delivery
- Flat, bundled
- Minimum
- 100 boxes
On every job
- Print process
- Flexo in one to four colors straight onto the liner; litho-lamination where the box needs full color or a photograph.
- Color
- Flat colors on kraft. Full color needs a white top liner or a laminated sheet, because brown shifts every color warm.
- Tolerance
- Cutting plus or minus 1.5 mm. The flute compresses, so corrugated runs wider than folding board.
- Tooling
- No die on a regular slotted box, which is cut on a slotter. Die-cut mailers and trays need one, made once and kept.
- Food contact
- Food-grade liners and a vented build where the box carries hot food.
- Sustainability
- High recycled content through liners and flute as standard, and the box recycles whole if it is sealed with paper tape.
- Artwork
- Vector PDF or AI, 3 mm bleed, 4 mm safe area, fonts outlined. We check every file and send a proof before press.
- Dieline
- Supplied free with the quote, before you commit. Yours whether or not you order.
- Sample
- A plain unprinted sample at the finished size on request, for fit and construction.
- Reorders
- Skip the tooling and go straight to press at a lower unit price.
- Lead time
- Quoted with the price against your fill date rather than promised before we have seen the spec.
- Markets
- United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia — priced in the delivery currency, freight included.
Boards and films we build cardboard boxes with handles on
Corrugated is a fluted sheet glued between two liners, and the flute decides nearly everything: how it prints, how it dents, how high it stacks. These are the grades we run.
E flute
About 1.5 mm. Prints well and folds crisply; dents under a stack. Retail boxes, mailers and light shippers.
1.5 mm, single wallB flute
About 3 mm. The working default for parcels — takes print reasonably and stacks reasonably. Most shipping boxes are B.
3 mm, single wallC flute
About 4 mm. More cushioning than B, slightly less stacking strength per weight. Common on grocery and produce cases.
4 mm, single wallBC double wall
B and C glued together, about 7 mm. Heavy or fragile goods, pallet stacking, anything over roughly 15 kg.
7 mm, double wallKraft liner
Brown, strong, absorbent. One or two flat colors flexo print well on it; photographs drink into the brown and go muddy.
Outer and inner linerWhite top liner
A bleached outer liner for full-color print on corrugated. Costs more and marks more easily than kraft.
Outer liner onlyRecycled-content corrugated
High post-consumer fiber through liners and flute. The default for shippers; a slightly grayer brown and no loss of strength at grade.
All flutesCoated and water-resistant
A coating or a wax-free barrier liner for damp stores and cold chains. Check the recycling stream before printing a claim on it.
B and C fluteNot sure which? Say what goes in it and where it is sold — the material follows from that. Our notes on recycled, recyclable and compostable cover which claims each stock can honestly carry.
- 01
Send what you have
A dimension, a photograph beside a ruler, or the product itself. No technical drawing needed — that part is ours.
- 02
We quote and draw
A price, a dieline and a date come back together. If a different build would suit the product better, that is in the reply too.
- 03
Approve the dieline
The flat drawing is yours to check: which panel is the front, where the folds fall, how deep the cavity really is.
- 04
Artwork on the dieline
You place your design on the flat we sent, or we place it for you, and you see a proof before anything goes to press.
- 05
A sample if you want one
A plain unprinted sample at the finished size shows fit and construction — the things a drawing cannot.
- 06
Cut, printed, shipped
The die is cut once and kept, so every reorder skips the tooling and goes straight to press at a lower unit price.
Format
Vector PDF or AI where possible. Raster artwork at 300dpi at final size, in CMYK.
Bleed
3 mm past every trim line, so a fraction of drift on the cutter never leaves a white edge.
Safe area
Keep type and anything important 4 mm inside the cut and away from every fold.
Color
Convert to CMYK before sending. Uncoated stock prints lighter; a spot color is the only exact match.
Fonts
Outline them or supply the files. A missing font substitutes silently and the proof will not match.
Barcodes
On a light, matte, unvarnished patch with the quiet zone clear — a code on gloss fails the scanner.
Not set up that way? Send it anyway — fixing a file is a short conversation, and we check every one before press. Our guide to preparing print files covers each point.
Corrugated takes fewer finishes than folding board, and the ones it takes it takes well.
Flexo on kraft
One or two flat colors straight onto brown. Cheap, fast, honest.
Litho-lamination
An offset sheet glued to the flute: full color and photographs on a shipper.
Aqueous varnish
Scuff resistance with no film, so the box still recycles whole.
White top print
Full color flexo on a bleached liner; brighter, and it marks more easily.
Inside print
A second pass on the inner liner — the panel a customer sees first.
Printed tape seal
The brand applied at the last moment, on paper tape that recycles with the box.
Not sure which suits the shelf it sells from? Say where the product is sold and we suggest one — our notes on specialty finishes show them on real boxes.
Sizing a corrugated box against the carrier, not the catalog: cardboard boxes with handles
Corrugated is cut to your internal size, so the box goes round the product rather than the product going into a stock size. That is where the money is: a box 20 mm smaller each way is often a whole postage band cheaper.
- Internal dimensions
- Length, width and depth of the space you need. Board thickness is added outside that, and the flute is thicker than people expect.
- Clearance and void fill
- 5–10 mm a side for a rigid product. Size it properly and you need no void fill at all, which is cheaper and better received.
- Stacking
- Tell us how high the boxes stack on a pallet or a shelf. Edge crush grade is specified from that, not guessed.
- Weight
- The contents weight sets the flute and the liner grade. Over about 15 kg we move to double wall.
- Score allowance
- Corrugated needs more room at the folds than boxboard. The dieline accounts for it; a box drawn from flat dimensions comes out tight.
- Cutting tolerance
- Plus or minus 1.5 mm on corrugated, wider than folding board because the flute compresses.
Not sure your numbers are right? Send the product dimensions rather than the box dimensions and we work the box out — the full method is in our guide to measuring for a box.
Interactive · five steps · no sign-up
Build your Cardboard Boxes with Handles in 3D
Pick a shape, type a size, choose a board and a finish. The preview on the left redraws as you go, and the spec lands with us exactly as you set it.
Frequently asked questions
Got a question about cardboard boxes with handles? The answers below cover what we get asked most. If yours is not here, send it with a brief, message us on WhatsApp, or call +1 503-461-4788 — we reply the same working day.
How much weight can a box with handles carry?
Around 15 lb in single wall and around 30 lb in double wall, depending on the box size. Tell us the load and we set the board.
Does a hand hole weaken the box?
It removes some wall, so stacking strength drops a little. Placing the holes high and centered keeps the loss small.
What is a flapped hand hole?
The cut-out stays attached at the top and folds inward, padding the hand and closing the hole against dust.
Can the handle be on top instead of the ends?
Yes, as a gable-top carrier or with an inserted handle through the lid.
Do you make produce boxes with handles?
Yes, with vents in the walls and hand holes in the ends, sized to the crate you use.
Are moving boxes with handles available?
Yes, in standard moving sizes with flapped hand holes and a printed contents panel.
Can the box be printed in full color?
Yes. Retail carriers are often litho-laminated in full color; shipping styles use one or two colors.
What kind of inserted handles are there?
Plastic clip-in handles, rope and twisted paper handles. Paper keeps the box in one material.
Do handle boxes arrive assembled?
No, flat and bundled. Gable carriers can come with a pre-glued base that opens in one movement.
Can you add vents as well as handles?
Yes, placed so the vents and the hand holes do not weaken the same area of the wall.
What is the minimum order for boxes with handles?
100 boxes per size, whether with die-cut hand holes, flapped holes or a gable top.
What affects the lead time for handle boxes?
Inserted handles and litho-laminated print add steps; plain hand-hole boxes are the quickest. We give a date with the quote.
Same range
More corrugated boxes we make
20x20x20 Cardboard Boxes
100 boxes
Cardboard Boxes
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Cardboard Boxes with Lid
100 boxes
Corrugated Box Dividers
100 sets
Corrugated Cardboard Inserts
100 inserts
Corrugated Carriers Boxes
100 carriers
Double Wall Corrugated Boxes
100 boxes