Custom Donut Boxes
Custom donut boxes from 100 — kraft gable carriers with a window for two, flat dozen and half-dozen boxes that stack, and single-donut gift boxes, built for sticky glaze and loose sprinkles.
Glaze is sugar, sprinkles are loose, and the box gets carried flat
- Board
- Kraft folding board or white SBS, 18–24 pt; E flute for dozen boxes
- Formats
- Gable carrier with window, half dozen, dozen, single, donut hole cup
- Interior
- Coated floor or glassine liner so glaze releases; lid clears a ring by 10 mm
Get a price for Donut 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.
Sugar sticks where fat does not
Most bakery boxes are designed around butter and oil soaking into board. A glazed donut is a different problem: the glaze is sugar, it dries tacky, and it glues the donut to the box floor and the lid to the top of the donut. The floor of our donut boxes is a coated board or carries a glassine liner so the glaze releases, and the box height is set so the lid clears a raised ring by at least 10 mm. Filled donuts and cake donuts stand taller than a ring; we size to the tallest item on the menu, not the average.
Cake donuts and old-fashioneds are the exception that proves the point. They are fried heavier and do leave oil on the board, so a shop that sells both a glazed ring and a cake donut from the same box needs a floor that handles sugar and fat at once. A coated board does; plain kraft does not, and the liner sheet becomes a requirement rather than a nicety.
Three boxes, three ways to buy donuts
| Gable carrier, window | Two or four donuts, a handle on top, a window on the side; the coffee-shop take-out box |
|---|---|
| Half dozen and dozen | A low lidded box, 2 x 3 or 3 x 4, with a front-opening lid that stays flat on a counter |
| Single donut box | A small lidded square or a window box for a gourmet donut sold as a gift |
| Donut hole cup | A tall cup or a small gable for a dozen holes, sold alongside |
Flat, wide and carried in one hand
- A dozen box is shallow and wide, so the board is a stiff folding board or an E flute to stop the floor sagging.
- The gable carrier handle is doubled and locked so a two-pound box does not tear open.
- Corner locks at all four corners keep the box square when it is carried on its side in a bag.
- A dozen box stacks: the lid is flush and the base has a slight recess so three boxes carry as one.
- Sprinkles land in the corners; a liner sheet makes the box tidy to open and easy to clear.
Kraft, white and the print on top
Donut shops split between a brown kraft box with a one-color stamp and a white box with a bold full-color lid. Kraft hides a glaze smear and reads artisan; white shows the shop colors and photographs well. On a dozen box the lid is the whole canvas, and on the gable it is the two gable ends and the window frame. Day-of-week or flavor tick boxes printed on the lid save a sticker. Shops that also sell cupcakes keep one system across both lines with our kraft cupcake boxes with cut wells.
Windows, and what a donut window needs
A window on a donut box is for the carrier and the single gift box, not the dozen. The film is set back from the gable edge so the handle does not crease it, and it sits on the side where the donuts face out, not on the lid where glaze would touch it. Because a donut goes out at room temperature and sets within the hour, fogging is rarely the problem it is with warm pastry; the issue is sprinkles collecting on the film, which is why the floor of a window box is lined.
For shops that deliver, the window carrier doubles as the delivery box: it stands upright in a courier bag, the handle keeps it level, and the window lets the customer confirm the order without opening the box. A small tamper tab across the gable lock is available for third-party delivery.
Donut boxes are food-contact packaging. The board, coating and inks we use for them are rated for direct contact with baked goods.
Donut 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
- Kraft folding board or white SBS, 18–24 pt; E flute for dozen boxes
- Formats
- Gable carrier with window, half dozen, dozen, single, donut hole cup
- Interior
- Coated floor or glassine liner so glaze releases; lid clears a ring by 10 mm
- Closure
- Locking gable handle; front-tuck lid with corner locks on flat boxes
- Window
- Clear film on the carrier side and the single box, set back from the edges
- One-color on kraft or full color on white; food-safe inks
- Minimum
- 100 donut boxes per size
On every job
- Print process
- Flexo in one to six colors, printed on the outer face only and before any lining goes on.
- Color
- Food-safe inks throughout. Kraft mutes color; a white board or liner is needed for anything photographic.
- Tolerance
- Cutting plus or minus 1 mm, and fit confirmed by filling a plain sample from your own kitchen or line.
- Tooling
- A cutting die per size, kept. Molded pulp needs a tool per shape, which is a longer lead and a larger one-off.
- Food contact
- Every board food-contact grade, with grease resistance built into the sheet and never a PFAS treatment.
- Sustainability
- Aqueous linings and unlined boards repulp with ordinary paper. PE-lined cups need cup collection, and we say which you have.
- 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 donut boxes on
Food packaging is chosen for what the food does to it: grease, steam, heat and time. Every board here is food-contact grade, and none of them uses a PFAS treatment for grease resistance.
Food-grade virgin board
Bleached board made for direct food contact. Clean, bright, no recycled fiber and no mineral-oil risk from recovered paper.
14–24ptGrease-resistant board
Resistance built into the sheet rather than sprayed on. Holds fries, pastry and butter without darkening. PFAS-free.
16–24ptPE-lined cupstock
Board with a polyethylene film for hot and cold liquid. Microwave-safe for reheating; recycled only where cup collection exists.
260–350gsmAqueous-lined cupstock
A water-based lining instead of PE. Repulpable in ordinary paper recycling in more places, and compostable; a slightly shorter hold time.
260–320gsmGreaseproof and glassine
Dense, calendered paper that resists fat through the fiber. Wraps, liners and interleaves; breathable, so pastry stays crisp.
30–55gsmFood-grade corrugated
E and B flute with a food-contact liner, vented where steam has to leave. Pizza, catering and anything hot and heavy.
E and B fluteMolded pulp and bagasse
Fiber pressed into a shape. Holds heat, resists grease with no lining, composts, and takes only an embossed or one-color mark.
Molded to shapeRecycled board
Post-consumer fiber. Used for outers, sleeves and anything that does not touch food directly — not for direct contact.
Non-contact onlyNot 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.
Food finishes are limited by what may touch food, and that is the point.
Food-safe inks
Printed on the outer face only. Every food pack we make uses them, laminated or not.
Uncoated kraft
No coating at all. Breathable, so pastry stays crisp, and it takes one or two colors.
Aqueous varnish
Scuff resistance without a plastic film, so the pack still repulps.
Molded emboss
A logo pressed into pulp or bagasse. No ink, nothing to rub off, and it survives grease.
Grease-resistant face
Not a finish you can see. It is in the sheet, it is PFAS-free, and it is why the print stays clean.
Matte lamination
Available on outers and sleeves that never touch food — a cake box lid, a carrier, a gift sleeve.
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 food packaging around a portion, hot: donut boxes
Food is sized by serving, not by dimensions, and it is served hot, heaped and in a hurry. Send us the portion — or better, the box you use now with the food in it — and we size to how it is actually filled.
- Portion, heaped
- Fries, popcorn and salad are served above the rim. A box sized to a level fill looks mean and spills in a bag.
- Lid clearance
- Enough that a loaded burger or a topped cake does not touch the lid. This is the single most common complaint about a food box.
- Venting
- Hot food steams. Vents in the lid keep pastry and fries crisp; a sealed box is right only for cold food.
- Grease path
- Where the fat sits decides the board. Say if the food is fried, buttered or sauced, and whether it is held for minutes or an hour.
- Stacking in a bag
- Delivery boxes are stacked five high on a bike. The lid has to hold the box above it off the food below.
- Sample fill
- A plain box filled from your kitchen settles the size in one try, and we send one before the run.
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 Donut 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 donut 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.
Why do donuts stick to the bottom of a donut box?
Because the glaze is sugar and dries tacky. Our donut boxes have a coated floor or a glassine liner so the glaze lets go.
How tall should a donut box be?
At least 10 mm above the tallest donut you sell. A filled or cake donut stands higher than a ring, so size to that one.
How many donuts does a gable donut box hold?
Two side by side in the standard carrier, four in the wide version, with the window on the side the donuts face.
Will a dozen donut box sag in the middle?
Not in stiff folding board or E flute, which is what we use for the wide shallow dozen format.
Can donut boxes be stacked for a large order?
Yes. The dozen box has a flush lid and a recessed base so three carry as one stack.
Does a donut box need a window?
The carrier and the single gift box benefit from one. A dozen box is usually opened at the counter, so the lid is printed instead.
What stops sprinkles making a mess inside a donut box?
A liner sheet on the floor. Sprinkles fall onto it and lift out with it rather than collecting in the corners.
Are donut boxes food safe?
Yes. Board, coating and inks are rated for direct contact with baked goods.
Can a donut box be kraft with our logo?
Yes. Kraft with a one-color stamp is the common choice; it also hides a glaze smear better than white.
Is there a donut box for donut holes?
Yes. A tall cup or a small gable carrier holds a dozen holes and sells next to the ring boxes.
How many donut boxes can we order?
From 100 per size. Most shops start with the two-donut carrier and the dozen box.
Same range
