Custom School Boxes
Custom school boxes for supply kits, classroom storage and back-to-school packs, from 100 units. Sized to a desk or a cubby, stackable when empty, with compartments where the kit needs them — built for a year of being opened by a seven-year-old.
A box that gets opened forty times a week by small hands
- Board
- 20–24 pt kraft or coated white; E-flute corrugated for storage boxes
- Sizes
- Desk box 8 x 5 x 2.5 in; cubby box to 11 in square; kit under 10 in long
- Lids
- Hinged with front tab, lift-off with finger notches, tuck end, tear strip
Get a price for School 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.
Three jobs, three boxes
A supply kit is retail packaging and is opened once; a storage box is opened every day and has to last. They are usually the same box in a catalog and should not be the same box in practice — the storage version needs a heavier board and a lid that tolerates being taken off a thousand times.
| Supply kit | A packed box of pencils, crayons, glue and a ruler, sold as one item |
|---|---|
| Desk or cubby storage | An open or lidded tray the child keeps supplies in all year |
| Classroom bulk | A large lidded box the teacher stores a class set in |
Lids that small hands can work
A tight friction lid that an adult opens easily is a lid a six-year-old cannot get off, and a loose one falls off in a bag. The answer for a storage box is a hinged lid with a front tab — the child lifts a tab rather than pulling a lid — or a lift-off lid with a finger notch cut into two sides. For a supply kit that is opened once, a tuck end or a tear strip is fine and cheaper. The hinged construction is the one on our hinged lid boxes with an attached lid page, in a heavier board.
Round every external corner on a storage box. A square corner on stiff board is sharp enough to scratch, and it is the first thing a school buyer checks.
Sizing to a desk, a cubby and a bag
- A standard school desk tray is about 12 x 9 in; a storage box that fits inside it is about 8 x 5 x 2.5 in.
- A cubby is typically 12 x 12 in, so a box up to 11 in square stacks two or three high inside one.
- A supply kit that goes home in a backpack should be under 10 in on the long side and flat rather than deep.
- A classroom bulk box holds thirty of something and wants a hand hole in each end, like the carry boxes on our handle boxes with reinforced die-cut handles page.
Board, print and the price point
School supply is a price-driven category with a single annual buying window, so the board is usually a 20–24 pt kraft or a coated white, and the print is one or two colors. That constraint is not a problem: a kraft box with a single bright color and a strong die-cut shape reads better on a school shelf than a full-color box that costs twice as much. For a storage box that has to last the year, spend the extra on an E-flute corrugated rather than on the print — it survives, and paperboard at this thickness does not.
School 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
- 20–24 pt kraft or coated white; E-flute corrugated for storage boxes
- Sizes
- Desk box 8 x 5 x 2.5 in; cubby box to 11 in square; kit under 10 in long
- Lids
- Hinged with front tab, lift-off with finger notches, tuck end, tear strip
- Extras
- Compartment tray, hand holes, rounded external corners, name panel
- One or two colors on kraft; full color on white
- 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 school 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: school 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 School 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 school 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.
Can young children open it?
With a hinged lid and a front tab, or a lift-off lid with finger notches on two sides. A tight friction lid that an adult opens easily is one a six-year-old cannot.
Will it last a school year?
An E-flute corrugated storage box will. Paperboard at 20–24 pt is right for a supply kit opened once, not for a box opened every day.
What size fits a school desk?
About 8 x 5 x 2.5 in fits inside a standard 12 x 9 in desk tray. A cubby takes a box up to 11 in square.
Do the boxes stack?
Yes, if the lid is flat or recessed. Tell us how many high and we set the board to the stack.
Can it have compartments?
Yes, a die-cut tray with a cell per item — pencils, an eraser, a glue stick. It is what makes a kit look like a kit.
Can we print a name panel?
Yes, a plain white or matte panel a child can write a name on with a marker. It is worth the space on any storage box.
Are the corners safe?
We round every external corner on storage boxes. A square corner on stiff board scratches, and school buyers check it.
Can it have a handle?
Yes, reinforced hand holes in the end walls of a classroom bulk box, sized for an adult hand.
Kraft or white?
Kraft with one or two bright colors is the value option and looks good on a shelf. White takes full color and costs more.
Is it recyclable?
Yes, plain paperboard or corrugated with no lamination. A matte varnish keeps it in the paper stream and resists handling.
What is the minimum order?
100 boxes per size. School supply usually runs in much larger quantities, and the price falls steeply with volume.
When should we order for back to school?
Well before the buying window — the whole category ships in a few weeks. We give a date with the quote and it is worth planning around.
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