A plain box with your logo printed on it looks like packaging. A plain box with a sticker on it looks like a plain box. Here is how to place artwork so it comes out where you meant, the right way up and without white slivers at the edges.
Add the artwork in the maker
In the box maker, add a picture and drag it onto the drawing. You can add several, one for each panel, and each is trimmed to the cut outline so nothing prints past the edge of the card. The picture is read and placed in your browser; it is not uploaded anywhere. The PDF then carries it as a properly embedded image. The guide to printing your own design on a box goes through it step by step, and if you prefer to design in Canva, the Canva guide shows how to bring the template in and design on top.
Know which panel is which
Each panel of the template is labelled: FRONT, BACK, LID, SIDE, and so on. Before placing anything, fold a paper test and write "front" on the face you want customers to see first. It is often not the panel you would guess.
- Lids and tuck flaps are often upside down on the flat sheet. They fold over, so artwork on them must be rotated half a turn to read correctly on the closed box. On your paper test, draw a small arrow on each panel pointing to the top of the closed box, then turn your artwork to match the arrows.
- Glue flaps end up inside. Leave them plain: nobody sees them, and glue holds better on bare card than on ink or toner.
- Keep important things off folds. Text and logos should sit a few millimetres inside a panel, not across a fold line, where they bend out of sight.
Bleed: why colour should run past the line
Hand cutting is never exact. If a coloured background stops exactly on the cut line, a cut a millimetre outside it leaves a white sliver along the edge. Run backgrounds about 3 mm past every cut line. The extra is cut away, and the edge stays coloured even when the cut wanders.
Picture quality
Print needs more detail than a screen. A picture should have about 300 pixels for every inch it covers on the box (about 12 pixels per millimetre). A logo that will be 50 mm wide wants to be roughly 600 pixels wide or more. Smaller pictures print soft or blocky.
- Use the original logo file, not a screenshot or a picture saved from social media, which are shrunk.
- A PNG with a transparent background sits best on kraft or coloured card, because there is no white rectangle around it.
Colour on different cards
- White card shows colours close to the screen.
- Kraft darkens everything, and light colours almost vanish. Dark logos in one or two colours work best. Print a small test patch first.
- Commercial printing uses a different colour system (CMYK) from your screen (RGB), so very bright screen colours print duller. A print shop can advise on converting; for home printing you can leave the file as it is.
Print, check, then print the batch
Print one sheet, fold it, and check that every panel reads the right way up and nothing important sits on a fold. Then print the rest. The printing guide covers getting the size exactly right, and the card guide which card shows your colours best.
Questions
Can I print a different picture on every side?
Yes. Add each picture separately in the maker and place it on its own panel. A box with a logo on the front, a pattern on the sides and a short message inside the lid is made the same way.
Will my picture be uploaded or shared?
No. Pictures are read and drawn into the download by your browser; the site has no server that receives them. Only use pictures you have the right to print.
How do I print a repeating pattern across the whole box?
Make the pattern larger than the whole template and place it over everything: it is trimmed to the outline. Keep the pattern simple where panels meet at a corner, because two halves of a busy pattern rarely line up after folding.
Can I sell boxes with my logo on?
The free licence covers personal use. Packaging for products you sell needs the commercial licence; the licence page sets out what each covers.