Custom Square Envelopes
Custom square envelopes from 100 — 5½, 6 and 6½ inch envelopes for greeting cards, birth announcements, save-the-dates and product launches, printed in color with a matching flap or liner.
A shape that is noticed in the post, and priced for it
- Paper
- Kraft, white, ivory and colored envelope papers; heavier stock to stop show-through
- Sizes
- 5½, 6, 6½ and 7½ in. square; custom squares to your card
- Flap
- Point or square flap; gummed or peel-and-seal
Order online
Order square envelopes
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 Square Envelopes
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.
Common square sizes and what goes in them
We add about a quarter inch to the card in each direction. Less than that and the card binds as it goes in; more and it slides around and the envelope looks loose.
| 5½ × 5½ in. | Small square greeting cards, gift tags, enclosure cards |
|---|---|
| 6 × 6 in. | The most common square card; birth announcements and holiday cards |
| 6½ × 6½ in. | A 6 × 6 card with inserts or a thicker folded card |
| 7½ × 7½ in. | Large square invitations and brand mailers with a booklet |
| Custom square | Drawn to your card size plus a quarter inch of clearance |
The postage surcharge, plainly
In the US a square envelope is classed as non-machinable, because sorting machines read rectangles. That adds a fixed surcharge to every envelope on top of the letter rate. For a hundred holiday cards the difference is small; for a promotional mailing to thousands of addresses it becomes a real budget line. Postal services in the UK, Canada and Australia handle square mail differently, so check the local rates for an international mailing.
If the surcharge is a problem but the shape matters, one option is a square card in a rectangular envelope with a square printed panel. It keeps the visual idea and the letter rate.
Hand-delivered or boxed square envelopes, such as cards packed with an order, carry no postage at all, which is why many brands use them inside a shipment.
Flap shapes and seals on a square
- Point flap. A deep triangular flap that reaches toward the center; the most decorative.
- Square flap. Straight across, modern and easy to print on.
- Peel-and-seal. For brands packing cards into orders, where speed matters.
- Printed sticker seal. A round logo sticker at the tip of a point flap, in place of a wax seal.
Color, kraft and what shows through
Square envelopes are usually chosen for the feeling, so the paper matters. Kraft looks handmade and warm; white and ivory are formal; colored stocks such as blush, sage, mustard or navy make the envelope part of the design. A printed liner inside the flap is the detail people remember. Thin papers can show the card through them, so for a dark card in a light envelope we recommend a heavier stock or a liner.
The cards themselves can be made with us as well, on our printed flat greeting cards page, sized to these envelopes.
Who orders square envelopes from us
- Small brands sending a thank-you card inside every order.
- Families posting birth announcements and holiday photo cards.
- Event planners sending save-the-dates ahead of the invitation.
- Studios and shops launching a product with a printed square mailer.
Square envelopes packed inside a shipment
The fastest-growing use for square envelopes is not the post at all. Brands pack a card in its envelope into every order: a thank-you, a care guide, a discount for the next purchase. Here the shape is an advantage with no surcharge attached, because nothing is mailed on its own. A 5½ in. envelope sits flat on top of most products in a mailer box, and a printed front with the customer’s first name turns a standard insert into something people keep.
For this use we recommend a peel-and-seal flap, a paper heavy enough not to crease in the box, and a printed liner rather than a printed card back, since the liner is the first thing seen when the envelope is opened.
Square Envelopes — 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
- Paper
- Kraft, white, ivory and colored envelope papers; heavier stock to stop show-through
- Sizes
- 5½, 6, 6½ and 7½ in. square; custom squares to your card
- Flap
- Point or square flap; gummed or peel-and-seal
- Extras
- Printed liners and logo sticker seals
- Return address on the flap, logo or pattern on the front, white ink on dark papers
- Minimum
- 100 square envelopes per size
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 square envelopes 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: square envelopes
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 Square Envelopes
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 square envelopes? 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 size square envelope fits a 6 x 6 card?
A 6½ × 6½ in. square envelope. It leaves about a quarter inch around the card so it slides in without binding.
Do square envelopes cost more to mail?
In the US, yes. Square envelopes are non-machinable and carry a surcharge on every envelope on top of the letter rate.
Do square envelopes need extra postage in the UK, Canada or Australia?
Each postal service treats square mail differently, so check the local rate before a large international mailing.
Can square envelopes go inside an order without postage?
Yes. Many brands pack a square thank-you card in its envelope inside each shipment, where no postage is involved.
Can you print a liner inside a square envelope?
Yes. A printed liner is glued inside the envelope and its flap, and shows a pattern or logo as soon as it is opened.
Which flap is best on a square envelope?
A point flap looks the most decorative and suits a sticker seal at the tip. A square flap is cleaner and easier to print.
Will a dark card show through a light square envelope?
It can with thin paper. For a dark card in a light envelope we use a heavier stock or add a liner.
Do you make square envelopes in kraft?
Yes. Kraft square envelopes are popular for handmade and eco-minded brands, and print well in one or two dark colors.
Can square envelopes be self-sealing?
Yes. Peel-and-seal flaps suit brands that pack cards into orders and want to close them quickly.
Can you match square envelopes to our greeting cards?
Yes. We print the cards and envelopes together so the colors and the artwork line up.
What is the minimum order for square envelopes?
One hundred per size. A card range in two sizes would be two sizes of envelope in one order.
What size square envelope fits on top of a product in a mailer box?
A 5½ in. square envelope sits flat on most products in a standard mailer box, without bending at the edges.
Same range
