Custom Cube Boxes
Every other carton has a face you design for and five you fill in. A cube has six identical squares, which sounds like a simplification and is in fact the hardest brief in folding cartons — because whichever way it lands, that is your front.
- Build
- Cube carton with tuck, auto-lock, or lid and base closure
- Board
- 14–24pt folding boxboard, kraft or white-lined
- All six faces, inside and out
Get a price for Cube 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.
Design for the face you did not choose
A cube on a shelf will be turned by customers, stacked by staff and photographed from whatever angle is convenient. There is no reliable front, so a design that puts everything on one face works one time in four.
The approaches that work are a pattern that continues around all four sides, a logo repeated on every face, or a deliberate sequence where each face carries one part of the message. What does not work is treating a cube like a rectangle.
Decide early which face carries the barcode and the required text. That face is then effectively the back, and everything else follows.
Grain runs both ways, and something has to give
Board has a grain, and creases across it can crack the coating along the fold. On a tall rectangular carton you can lay the sheet out so every important crease runs with the grain. On a cube, the folds run in both directions by definition.
That means one set of creases will be cross-grain whatever we do. On light colors it is invisible; on a dark all-over print it can show as a fine white line. We plan the sheet around whichever faces matter most, so tell us if the design is dark.
Closures, and how a cube gets opened
A cube is a satisfying thing to open from the top, and the lid-and-base build makes the most of that. A tuck cube is opened by pushing a flap in, which is much less of a moment.
| Tuck top and bottom | Cheapest; fine for light contents |
|---|---|
| Auto-lock bottom | Pops open square with the base locked; needed for weight |
| Lid and base | Two shallow trays; the gift build, opens from above |
| Full lid over the whole cube | Slides off to reveal the contents standing; premium |
Volume goes up faster than you think
- A 100 mm cube holds a liter. A 150 mm cube holds three and a half.
- A 50 mm increase in every dimension roughly triples the internal volume.
- That also triples what the base has to carry — step the board grade with it.
- Shipping cost follows volume, so an oversized cube is expensive in a way a flat box is not.
Printing the inside, which a cube makes worth it
When a cube is opened from the top, all four inner walls are visible at once and at close range. It is a much larger and more visible inner surface than a shallow carton offers, and printing it is a second pass and no extra board.
The general case for inside print and the full set of folding-carton constraints are in our folding carton notes.
Cube 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
- Build
- Cube carton with tuck, auto-lock, or lid and base closure
- Board
- 14–24pt folding boxboard, kraft or white-lined
- All six faces, inside and out
- Sheet layout
- Planned around which faces carry the critical artwork
- Assembly
- Ships flat; auto-lock builds square up in one movement
- Minimum
- 100 cartons
On every job
- Print process
- Digital below about a thousand, offset above it. One side or both, with spot colors where a match has to hold.
- Color
- CMYK as standard. Uncoated and kraft stocks print lighter and warmer; a spot color is the only exact match.
- Tolerance
- Cutting plus or minus 1 mm, creasing plus or minus 0.5 mm, confirmed on a plain sample before the run.
- Tooling
- A cutting die per size, made once and kept. Foil and emboss dies per artwork, also kept.
- Food contact
- Food-grade board and inks where the carton touches food, with the interior left plain.
- Sustainability
- Mono-material board wherever the product allows; recycled-content and FSC stocks; no claim printed the pack does not earn.
- 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 cube boxes on
A folding carton is one sheet of board, so the board is the product. These are the stocks we run for cartons, what each is good at, and where it lets you down.
Natural kraft
Unbleached folding board. Warm, hides marks, costs least. Mutes color — one or two flat colors print well, photographs do not.
250–350gsm sleeves; 14–24pt cartonsWhite SBS
Solid bleached sulfate: bright, coated, the retail carton standard. Takes accurate color and every finish. Shows scuffs sooner than kraft.
14–24ptWhite lined chipboard
A recycled gray core under a white printing face. Cheaper than SBS and slightly duller; the back of the sheet stays gray.
16–24ptKraft-look coated
A kraft face over a coated inner. The natural look with a barrier behind it — the answer where oil, grease or moisture would mark plain kraft.
14–20ptRecycled-content board
Post-consumer fiber with a gray-brown cast. Right for outers and inner components; poor for bright whites and photography.
16–22ptMicro-flute E and F
A fine corrugated layer where a carton needs structure it cannot get from board — a large panel, a heavy product, a box that ships alone.
E 1.5 mm; F 0.8 mmUncoated and textured
No clay coat, or a linen or laid grain. Print reads softer and warmer; a deboss goes deeper. Photographs do not sit well on it.
280–350gsmMetallised and pearlescent
A metallic or pearl face for a shelf that needs to catch light. Costly, and it fights a photograph — a mark or a pattern suits it better.
16–20ptNot 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.
Every finish here is a decision about light on a shelf, not about luxury.
Matte lamination
Reads considered, hides marks, takes a ballpoint.
Gloss lamination
Lifts color; glares under shop lighting.
Soft-touch
Velvet in the hand; shows fingerprints in a bag.
Hot foil
Real metal leaf — the most reliable premium signal.
Emboss / deboss
Shape with no ink; works in the dark.
Spot UV
Gloss shapes on a matte field.
Uncoated kraft
Warm, natural, mutes color.
Textured stock
Texture in the paper; cannot scuff off.
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 folding carton so the die comes out right: cube boxes
Measure the product, not the box it is in now. A carton is built around what has to fit inside it, assembled — cap on, lid fitted, folded if it folds — at its widest point in each direction. Send those three numbers and say which is which.
- Length x width x height
- Internal, always. External dimensions include the board and are what the carrier measures, not what the product needs.
- Clearance
- 2–3 mm a side for a snug fit; more where an insert or void fill goes in. A carton cut exactly to the product is slow to pack and transmits every knock.
- Board thickness
- Heavier board takes internal space from the product. It matters most on small boxes, where four walls of 24pt is a real share of the cavity.
- Varies between batches?
- Glass, textiles, molded parts and cured soap all do. Measure several and build to the largest.
- Cutting tolerance
- Plus or minus 1 mm on folding board. Confirmed on a plain sample before the run.
- Units
- Metric or imperial, as long as you say which. Mixing them in one spec is where mistakes happen.
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 Cube Boxes 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 cube 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 the minimum order?
100 cartons, printed on all six faces if you want.
Which face should the design go on?
All of them, in some form. A cube has no reliable front — whichever way it lands is what the customer sees.
Will the folds crack on a dark design?
One set of creases is cross-grain on any cube. We plan the sheet around the faces that matter most.
Do I need an auto-lock bottom?
Above about 200 g, yes. Cube volume grows quickly and a tuck base gives out sooner than people expect.
Is inside print worth it on a cube?
More than on any other shape — opened from the top, all four inner walls are in view at once.
How much does volume grow with size?
Fast. A 50 mm increase in every dimension roughly triples the internal volume, and the base has to carry that.
Which face should the design go on?
All of them, in some form. A cube has no reliable front — whichever way it lands is what the customer sees.
Will the folds crack on a dark design?
One set of creases is cross-grain on any cube. On dark solids that can show, so we plan the sheet around the faces that matter most.
Do I need an auto-lock bottom?
Above about 200 g, yes. Cube volume grows quickly and a tuck base gives out sooner than people expect.
Is inside print worth it on a cube?
More than on any other shape. Opened from the top, all four inner walls are in view at once.
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