Custom Catalog Boxes
Custom catalog boxes from 100 — rigid slipcases and lidded boxes that hold a printed catalog, a look book, a binder or a set of sample books, wrapped in printed paper or book cloth with a foil title.
The case that keeps a catalog on a buyer’s shelf
- Board
- Wrapped grayboard rigid slipcases and boxes; E flute corrugated for mailers
- Wraps
- Printed art paper, textured paper or book cloth
- Formats
- Open-end slipcase, two-piece lid and base, drawer box, printed mailer
Order online
Order catalog boxes
Starting from $0.75 per unit
Printed to your artwork or plain, sold in runs of 100 up to 5,000 units per product online. Freight to the US, UK, Canada and Australia is inside the price.
How an online order runs
- Add the units you needThen check out with your delivery address. Add other products to the same order on the way.
- A digital proof comes backLaid on the dieline, before anything prints. Change it as often as you need.
- Pay once you approve itPay by PayPal invoice or bank transfer after you approve your digital proof, or cash on delivery in the US and Canada.
- We make it and ship it deliveredYour delivery date is confirmed with the proof, against the spec and your fill date. Freight and customs are handled on the way to you.
Another size, board or finish, or more than 5,000 units? Send the spec for a price instead. Freight by market and our terms cover delivery and remakes.
Get a price for Catalog Boxes
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.
Slipcase, lidded box or mailer
| Open-end slipcase | One catalog or a set slides in from the side; spine shows on the shelf |
|---|---|
| Two-piece box | Lid and base for a catalog with swatches, price lists and loose sheets |
| Drawer box | Pulls out for a set of sample books or a catalog with product cards |
| Printed mailer | A corrugated mailer that ships the catalog and a few cards to a prospect |
Measuring for a catalog that changes
A slipcase is cut to the catalog with a few millimeters of clearance on each side, so the book slides out without a finger notch but does not fall out when the case is tipped. Catalogs change thickness from season to season; if the page count moves, a little extra depth avoids a new case each year. A thumb cut on the open edge makes the book easier to grip. If the catalog itself still needs printing, our catalog printing for product ranges covers binding and stock.
Who uses catalog boxes
- Furniture, tile and flooring brands with sample books for showrooms and designers.
- Fashion and textile houses sending look books with fabric swatches.
- Industrial suppliers whose reps carry a binder of product sheets to every visit.
- Publishers and archives housing a multi-volume set.
Wraps and the shelf-facing spine
Rigid catalog boxes are grayboard wrapped in printed paper, a textured paper or book cloth. The spine is the part that faces out, so it carries the brand name and the season or year, often in foil or a blind deboss. The faces can repeat the catalog cover or stay plain and let the title do the work.
Send the catalog, or its trimmed size and spine thickness, and how many books go in each case.
Sending it, not just shelving it
A rigid case travels inside a corrugated shipper, which also protects the corners of the catalog. When the catalog goes to many addresses, a printed corrugated mailer does both jobs in one. For other printed pieces sent alongside, browse our custom printing range.
Catalog Boxes — 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
- Wrapped grayboard rigid slipcases and boxes; E flute corrugated for mailers
- Wraps
- Printed art paper, textured paper or book cloth
- Formats
- Open-end slipcase, two-piece lid and base, drawer box, printed mailer
- Finish
- Foil or blind deboss on spine and lid; thumb cut on the open edge
- Fit
- Sized to the catalog trim and spine with a few millimeters of clearance
- Minimum
- 100 boxes
On every job
- Print process
- Digital below about a thousand, offset above it. Both sides as standard on cards, tags and leaflets.
- Color
- CMYK with spot colors for a brand match. Uncoated and cotton stocks print noticeably lighter than coated ones.
- Tolerance
- Trim plus or minus 1 mm guillotined, plus or minus 0.5 mm die-cut. Anything over about 170gsm is creased before folding.
- Tooling
- A die only where the piece is shaped, perforated or drilled, made once and kept. A plain rectangle needs none.
- Food contact
- Food-safe inks on menus and counter print that will be handled where food is served.
- Sustainability
- Uncoated and unlaminated stocks recycle without separation, and FSC papers are available across the range.
- 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 catalog boxes on
Sheet print is judged in the hand more than a box is: the weight, the surface and whether a pen works on it. These are the stocks we run for cards, folders, leaflets and stationery.
Coated card 300–400gsm
The workhorse. Sharp full-color print, matte or gloss, laminated where it is handled. Does not take a pen unless the finish is matte.
300–400gsmUncoated card
No clay coat. Colors read softer and warmer, a deboss goes deeper, and it writes on with anything. Photographs lose punch.
300–400gsmCotton and textured card
Soft, thick and fibrous. Takes a deep blind deboss and reads as an invitation. Foil sits beautifully; four-color does not.
400–700gsmDuplexed card
Two sheets bonded, often with a colored core, for a very thick card with a visible colored edge. The heaviest thing we print.
600–900gsmText paper 100–170gsm
Leaflets, folder inners and booklet pages. Folds without cracking and takes a full-color print on both faces.
100–170gsmManila and kraft paper
Unbleached, tan, and cheap. One or two colors read well; white ink gives a light mark. Envelopes, folders and tags.
90–300gsmSynthetic stock
Polypropylene sheet for tags and cards that get wet, torn or handled outdoors. Prints like paper and does not soften.
200–400 micronBoard-backed
A printed face laminated to grayboard, for a rigid card, a folder back or a display that has to stand up on its own.
1–2 mm boardNot 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.
Sheet print takes the widest range of finishes of anything we make.
Matte lamination
Soft, fingerprint-resistant, and it still takes a pen. The default on anything handled.
Gloss lamination
Maximum color depth. Shows every fingerprint and refuses a ballpoint.
Hot foil
Gold, rose gold, silver, holographic or a color. The block is small so the die is cheap.
Emboss and deboss
Deepest on uncoated and cotton stocks; shallow and prone to cracking on gloss coated.
Spot UV
A gloss shape on a matte laminate. Best on a dark ground where the contrast reads.
Edge paint and colored core
Color on the cut edge of a thick or duplexed card. Only seen when the card is picked up, which is the point.
Soft-touch
A velvet laminate on a cover or a folder. Marks on white; excellent on dark.
Uncoated and textured
No film at all. Writes on, debosses deeply, and reads as considered rather than cheap.
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 printed sheets, folds and the grain: catalog boxes
A printed piece is specified flat and finished folded, and the difference between the two is where mistakes live. Send the finished size you want and we work back to the flat.
- Finished size
- The size after folding and trimming. A6, A5, A4, DL, US letter and legal are standard; anything else is cut on its own die.
- Bleed and safe area
- 3 mm of artwork past every trim edge, and nothing important within 4 mm inside it. The guillotine drifts by a fraction on every stack.
- Grain direction
- Paper folds cleanly along the grain and cracks across it. We set the grain to the fold, which is why a sheet is not simply cut from the biggest sheet available.
- Fold allowance
- On a roll fold or a gate fold, the inner panels are cut a millimeter or two shorter so the piece closes flat.
- Creasing
- Anything over about 170gsm is creased before folding. Without it the fold cracks and the coating flakes along the line.
- Trim tolerance
- Plus or minus 1 mm guillotined, plus or minus 0.5 mm die-cut.
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
Spec your Catalog Boxes
Pick a shape, type a size, choose a stock 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 catalog boxes? 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.
What is a catalog box?
A slipcase or box made to hold a printed catalog, look book, binder or sample book so it can be stored upright and sent as a set.
Should a catalog box be a slipcase or a lidded box?
A slipcase when the catalog is a single bound book; a lidded or drawer box when it travels with swatches, price lists or loose cards.
How is a catalog box sized?
To the trimmed size and spine thickness of the catalog, with a few millimeters of clearance so it slides out easily.
Can a catalog box hold several catalogs?
Yes. A slipcase or box can be sized for a set of volumes or several seasonal catalogs side by side.
What is a catalog box wrapped in?
Printed art paper, textured paper or book cloth over grayboard, with foil or deboss on the spine.
Can a catalog box ship by mail?
A rigid catalog box should travel inside a corrugated shipper. A printed corrugated mailer version can ship on its own.
What if my catalog gets thicker next season?
Allow extra depth in the catalog box when you order, so a few more pages still fit without a new case.
Can a catalog box hold fabric swatches with the look book?
Yes. A two-piece or drawer box can have a recess for the book and a tray or pocket for swatches.
Does a catalog box need a thumb cut?
It helps on an open-end slipcase: a half-round notch on the open edge lets the reader grip the catalog.
Can the spine of a catalog box be printed?
Yes. The spine usually carries the brand and the year in print, foil or deboss, because it is what faces out on a shelf.
Are catalog boxes used for sample books?
Yes. Tile, flooring, fabric and furniture brands use them to send sample books to designers and showrooms.
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